Fitness On The Road
Whether you are a digital nomad, a traveling professional, or planning the trip of a lifetime, accessibility of training and healthy food will always be a consideration, for avid trainees. It is all too tempting to deny yourself that trip of a lifetime, due to the guilt associated with sacrificing progress. Conversely, it is also possible to throw caution to the wind and completely forget about your hard-earned gains whilst on the road.
As is the case in previous posts of mine, I believe that the basic principles of economics can provide much clarity when it comes to the philosophical battle of living life vs. maximizing potential.
The Law of Diminishing Returns
Simply put, the utility you derive from consumption, declines, the more you consume. One area to which most Irish people will be able to relate is in the realm of alcohol consumption. If I drink one drink on a night out, I feel relaxed, maybe three help me to loosen up on the dancefloor, but by the time I’ve had eight, I’m well on my way to becoming an incoherent slob that can no more socialize than stay conscious.
So let’s say you are getting great results from training and watching your nutrition. Everything is going very much to plan, but you can’t live within that bubble forever. You quickly begin to get bored of such a disciplined life. It is good to know when to park the discipline and let your hair down so that you get to enjoy the fruits of your labour as you rest your margarita atop your washboard abs at the beach.
With my recent move to Bulgaria, I experienced the complete opposite. I partook in far too much fun, to the detriment of my fitness regime, nutrition and sleep. Not only did my nights out begin to become less fun each time I went out, but I found myself getting depressed and unmotivated to train when I wasn’t partying. My consumption had outweighed the utility I derived from that consumption.
What I am ultimately advocating for here is balance. With this understanding, you can know when to put the head down, and put in the work so that you can enjoy your trips away guilt-free.
The Market Will Go Up, Down, Up, Down, but ultimately grow over time.
One of the most poignant examples of this has been the volatility of the crypto market in recent years, where $20,000 per Bitcoin (BTC) crashed in 2017, then went back up to $50,000, then back down to $28,000 this year. But ultimately, the value of BTC grew over the years.
Progress is not linear, and stop expecting it to be. Travel will always be one of the main reasons why your gains stall, but not permanently unless you let them. If you can accept that you will face setbacks, then you can make progress over time, even though you don’t continually make progress all the time.
Maintain Your Contributions
When saving and investing, one of the most important aspects is to continually maintain contributions as part of your weekly / monthly budget, so that you can maximize your potential for compound interest. When on the road, it may be worth investing in some power bands, or other portable equipment so that you can at least maintain your physique while away, with the focus being on progress when you return to your regular routine.
There is nothing more off-putting than when you return back from a trip and you feel like your strength has significantly declined because you haven’t trained in one to two weeks. Doing some bodyweight movements and/or using resistance bands, will keep your muscles engaged, limit atrophy and hopefully maintain conditioning, so that you can get back to progressing once home, with minimal ground lost in between.
Quite honestly, I still have not mastered implementing my own advice here, but as with all my posts, I write them as much for myself, as I do for the reader. Good luck!