If you want to stay fit and healthy while on the road, the genius rule is that anything is better than nothing. Even when you’re traveling for long periods, there are a few best health practices you can commit to so that you can stay on track.

Exercise is even more important while you’re traveling. The calories that you consume while half-living in your car will pile up quicker than when you’re full-living in your home. You need to make sure that what you consume is going toward developing more muscle groups and not toward storing more fat.

Whether you’re trying to shed off some pounds or working on getting stronger, those months of hard work that you’ve clocked in before your scheduled travel plans should not go to waste. So you don’t lose your momentum, you need to stay on target with your best health practices and exercises even when you’re on the road.

Traveling should not be an excuse to be complacent about your goals. Get into your healthy-road-warrior mode by committing to these small steps.

Pencil In Your Daily Workouts

Nothing spells like commitment more than scheduling your workout does. And because anything is better than nothing, you can plan out your exercises and put them all in your calendar. You can set alarms for them to get your rhythm going. Doing this will create some order and flow to your day-to-day grind on the road.

Scheduling sees to it that you don’t go offtrack. Exercise and dieting tasks are completed in appropriate times. And when you pencil in responsibilities on your calendar, you’re more likely to treat them as an event. This is how you should view your health and fitness on the road—something that you need to attend to.

Set the Right Mind-Set

It’s a lot easier to lose your head on the road than you would at home. Staying healthy is doable for as long as you put it at the center of everything that you do while traveling. No excuses should surpass prioritizing and making best health practices a goal. Before setting foot on your car or a plane, you need to have a quick pep talk with yourself to usher in your strong mental game.

Make a mental commitment to yourself that you will not miss a workout. Remember that, if you go offtrack for too long, it willl be much harder to come back from it and turn things around. If you have a full schedule daily, you have to fulfill your promise and make time.

Most workouts don’t last for an hour, so consciously carving out the time to do them should be right up your alley. Not having the time is a lie most people tell themselves when trying to avoid doing an exercise.

Make workouts your constant companion on the road full of distractions. Even if it’s very early in the morning or very late in the evening, cram those exercises, and spread them apart daily.

Minute Sidecar Exercises

If time is your enemy, then little exercises should be your most trusted ally. No matter how busy or how crazy your trip gets, you can cram in these minute exercises throughout the day to suit your best health practices. If you’re traveling by car, pull over to scenic landscapes and do the following:

  • Walking lunges are designed to help strengthen your lower limbs and core. Don’t forget the cardiovascular benefits they pack. When you’ve been driving for hours, a right amount of up-and-down movement from lunges will get your blood running and put those tired and flattened tush muscles to work.

When you’re ready, stand on the side of your car, and rest your hands on your waist. Step forward with your right leg, as far as you can. Then bend your left knee and slowly lower your body until your knees are a few inches from the ground. Do the same with your right leg. Repeat the movement for at least a minute.

  • Planks work your arm muscles and core efficiently. And the best part is that you can do them anywhere. If you haven’t done this before, all you need to do is lie facing the ground, your toes pointed and your elbows bent forward. Maintain the same position for as long as you can.

In the beginning, you may find it hard to stay in plank mode for a minute. But the more often you do it, the more your strength builds up. If your arms get too sore, you can wrap them with a muscle tape. But after a few trials and misfires, you’ll start to see and feel the difference. Over time, you’ll be able to stay steady on the stationary position longer than what you started with.

  • Jumping jacks are always fun. If you don’t have one, you can make a quick stop at a shop along the road—or search the Google Play store if you happen to have good reception. When you secure one, do jumping jacks for a minute as fast as you can to work out the much-needed sweat after long hours of traveling.