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It is a bitter irony: it can take years to get into shape, and all of a long vacation to get out of it. Ask any dedicated gym-goer and they will always tell you they can physically feel “down” after being off the weights for even just a week-long getaway. And they wouldn’t be alone; things like diets and health regimens often take a backseat on a trip, and not just for muscle-heads.
Keeping fit while on the go can be a real exercise in logistics. Depending on where you are, you may not have access to a gym, and even if you do, the equipment may be different. You won’t know the lay of the land, so taking a jog may take you to the wrong part of town. Business travelers are particularly at risk, especially those intrepid types who live either on the road or in the air. The diet isn’t particularly great, if you aren’t sitting immobile in a meeting you are sitting immobile in a car or plane, and constant red-eye flights and jet-lag wreck havoc with your circadian cycle. Constant travel can sound very glamorous, until you start doing it.
The good news is that one does not need to live in a gym to keep the muscles tones or the body fat to a manageable minimum. A good workout can take as little as an hour. New York’s Tony Cortopassi, AKA Tony the Trainer, says it doesn’t take much to stay fit on the go, you can even take your gym with you, or make one on the fly.
“I tell clients to pack work-out bands for resistance training, or plastic dumbells you can fill with water,” he says. “You can to push-ups, or dips on chairs in your hotel room or office. So long as you keep yourself active, it really doesn’t matter. So long as you do something.”
The one thing Cortopassi does not recommend is stopping working out altogether. The effects can hit faster than you think.
“You don’t want to decondition,” he warns. “You lose strength before you lose muscle, even if you stop for 7, 10 days, you’ll notice the difference.”
Miracle that the human body is, there is no one way to stay fit. Hotel TVs will almost always have a few fitness channels specializing in in-room workouts like yoga, aerobics, even belly dancing. Getting a die-hard weightlifter to do anything other than lift weights may be like pulling teeth, but you can can lift, run, swim, bike, or any number fitness regimens and still keep your figure.
Some locations in and of themselves burn the calories; Old World cities not bombed flat in the World Wars have medieval centers that by and large ban cars because the streets were made for horse-carts, not Chevy pick-ups, and for fitness buffs, this is a good thing: Antwerp, Dubrovnik, and Venice are made for walking. With a good pair of shoes, even Manhattan in New York or Nashville can provide a good, healthy hoof. Indeed, you’ll miss many of their sights by taking the subway or mass transit. Many cities across the globe now stress how “walkable” they are.
And when it comes to hotels, those of any note will have some sort of gym facility; I was personally impressed with the surprisingly well-equipped fitness centers at the Loews Philadelphia and the Omni Ft. Worth. But caveat emptor, because this isn’t necessarily the rule; how many of us have gone to the “fully stocked” hotel rec room and been met with nothing else other than a long line treadmills? Not all of us are marathoners or even joggers. And this is if you even opt for a hotel; for all their plusses, Airbnb locations in no way guarantee a fitness center.
One hotel chain taking the fitness of its guests serious is Swissôtel, which in June rolled out its “Vitality On-The-Go” package. These customized experiences include a $25 food-and-beverage credit that can be used towards the program’s offerings to stay fuelled while spending time outside the hotel. Guests can also gain access to complimentary in-room fitness equipment and exercise cards. Swissôtel even throws in a backpack filled with maps of the local urban environment’s optimal walking/running paths and thermos with the deal.
“We know that our guests lead busy and productive lives, which is why our hotels are purposefully designed and efficient without compromising on the special touches and genuine comforts that make a stay inspiring,” says Lilian Roten, vice president of Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts.
“Vitality,” she continues,” is about caring and enhancing that experience; it’s about prompting our guests to have some fun, take a walk to the park, enjoy a moment in the outdoors and reflect on living life well while enjoying a healthy snack.”
Ah, yes — the food. Hotel chefs rightly revel in how “decadent” or “sumptuous” their menus are, which is fine for the epicurean but hell on earth for people trying to keep to a diet or work-out plan. Tony Cortopassi is very quick to observe that traveling almost always includes eating and drink more than your usual fare, or at the very least prepared in ways that your carefully-constructed health regimen (provided you have one) does not take into account.
“Healthful food and beverage options aren’t always convenient for guests when they are traveling,” executive chef Dan McGee at the Swissôtel Chicago tells me. “Our Vitality Cuisine was created to ensure that travelers have healthy, nutritious options that don’t compromise taste and flavour. Our guests can take a selection of this delicious food with them as they venture outside the hotel.”
Swissôtel may be one of the more aggressive hotels when it comes to fitness, but they are far from alone. The ThINK Fit Package from Ink48 and Whistler Fitness Vacations follow similar lines; Royal Caribbean threw a “Zumba Cruise” in January. Some hotels, like Movara, are only about fitness. The entire genre of “adventure travel” revolves around getting guests out of the lush rooms and into lush landscapes — no offense to the lush rooms.
In summary, it is now actually fairly easy to stay fit and healthy even on extended trips and vacations, even if you never leave the hotel and especially if you do. In the end, however, it all comes down a condition that even the most ardent of trainers or empathic of hotels cannot surmount: you wanting to do it.
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