If you’re a gym bunny who loves to eat healthily and exercise regularly, being on site at an event can really upset your regime.
The travelling, heavier than normal workload and irregular hours all conspire to prevent you from keeping up your usual activity. However, just because you can’t make it to the gym or find time to go for a 10k run, doesn’t mean you have to let exercise fall by the wayside.
You can incorporate toning, stretching, muscle building and fat burning into your day while still staying completely focused on your event. Read on to find out how to make exercise effortless!
Related: How to get a better night’s sleep before your next big event
On the plane or train
While you can’t conduct a full body workout in a cramped seat you can keep limbered up, reducing your risk of developing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and helping you beat travel fatigue.
One of the simplest exercises – and least likely to annoy your fellow passengers – are heel lifts. Keeping the balls of your feet flat on the floor, lift your heels up and down in a stepping motion. Do this at regular intervals to keep blood pumping round your body.
You can also circle your ankles, squeeze a tennis ball in your hands and tense your thighs against a pillow or rolled up jumper. It might not seem like much, but through this type of ‘fidgeting’ on a journey you can burn up to 350 calories.
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At the hotel
If you’re staying at a hotel with no gym, don’t have time to use it or just didn’t pack any gym gear, try a quick workout in your room using your suitcase as a multigym!
Stephen Handisides, founder of beauty guide MyFaceMyBody, shared how he stays fit while travelling for work by doing just that. The video posted on YouTube demonstrates ‘Seven different and unconventional ways to get a full-body workout and really strengthen your core.’
Stephen does five sets of 15 repetitions for each of the exercises, with a 30-second break in between each. You can tailor the exercise to your fitness level and strength by removing heavier items from the suitcase.
In a meeting
If you’re the one calling the meeting, suggest that it’s held standing up (or if it’s a one-to-one, why not take a walk, which is famously favoured by business leaders like Mark Zuckerburg and the late Steve Jobs).
Standing requires increased muscle activity compared with sitting and burns more calories.
Researchers at the University of Chester found heart rate to be around 10 beats per minute higher in people standing up, which adds up to an extra 50 calories burned per hour.
What’s more, meeting standing up can also help boost productivity. One study carried out in the US found that call centre workers who worked standing up were a whopping 46% more productive. It’s a win-win.
Related: 7 Steps to more productive meetings
During a presentation
Even when you can’t be seen to be moving you can still be secretly exercising! How? Simply by tensing and holding different sets of muscles in your body.
Start with the abdominals by taking a deep breath as you relax your abdomen. Then breathe out as you suck your abdominal muscles into your spine. Feel each abdominal muscle tightening in your stomach. Hold for five seconds, then release. Repeat eight times, then rest before doing a further two sets.
Next target the isometric glutes by clenching your buttocks. As above, hold for five seconds, release and repeat.
Finally, work on your biceps by clasping your hands together in a handshake (one thumb pointing up, the other pointing down). Now pull! Resist the motion to feel the burn in your biceps. Hold for five, release and repeat.
Related: How to deal with early starts when you’re not a morning person
In a coffee break
Got a spare seven minutes? While you might be tempted to take a breather, it’s the perfect opportunity to get moving. Try the 7 Minute Workout app (free to download on iOS), which features 12 high intensity bodyweight exercises. Spend 30 seconds on each exercise with 10 seconds rest between exercises.
The concept is simple – you can do it anywhere, any time, with full instructions given and no special equipment needed. You might just need to nip into an empty breakout room to avoid funny looks!
During show set-up
You can get extra brownie points from your team and keep fit by volunteering to help with any unloading and setting up. According to Calorie Lab, just 15 minutes of heavy lifting can burn around 119 calories (based on a bodyweight of 150 lbs) – but don’t forget to bend your knees and lift safely in order to protect your back.
Related: 6 Surprising facts about what coffee does to you
On the event floor
Make the most of walking from one place to another by power walking. Just by upping the pace and walking faster you can burn more than twice the calories and improve cardiovascular fitness (prancercise style arms are optional!).
Another sure-fire way to raise your heart rate is to take the stairs. Stair climbing burns more calories per minute than jogging, while toning thighs and tightening the buttocks.
Related: 8 Must-have travel apps for event planners
Getting to and from the venue
Your commute represents the perfect chance to grab some cardio – even if you’re in a rush. With peak time traffic a nightmare in most cities, you might even get to the venue in less time than taking a taxi (and it benefits the environment).
Consider cycling there; many hotels now offer bikes as an amenity for guests or see if the city operates a bike-sharing system (like London’s ‘Boris Bikes’). According to Wikipedia more than 600 cities worldwide now have bike-sharing programmes and many of them offer the service for free for the first 30-60 minutes.
Alternatively get your running shoes on and jog to the venue. Use an app like RunGo (iOS and Android) to create a route from your hotel to the venue and then find your way with turn-by-turn voice directions. The app will record your pace, calories burned, time and distance and it works offline.
Conclusion
With a little bit of imagination, your entire day can be a workout! Incorporate whichever exercises work for you and you’ll no longer need to feel bad about missing Body Pump or tucking into any naughty event tucker.
