Fitness on the Fly
usiness trips can interfere with the best-laid plans--and routines such as going to the health club. Still, whether you're a fitness buff or a mere novice, traveling doesn't have to come between you and your workout.
Barry Ross gave that message to participants at a Federal Executive Institute Alumni Association weekend retreat in September. Ross and his wife, Joy Hilton, co-owners of J's Gym in Charlottesville, Va., taught government executives not to be "gym-dependent." Ross recognizes that many government jobs require much travel and says he doesn't want people to exercise only in a gym, or "they'll pretty much be lost elsewhere." The routines he teaches can be duplicated almost anywhere.
"We teach our students how to use all environments," says Ross. "A track, field, parking lot or hotel room. You take your equipment and adapt to the location."
Walk the Walk
Ross was preaching to the choir in the case of Larry Quinn, director of the video teleconference and radio center at the Agriculture Department's Office of Communications. Travel hasn't prevented Quinn from taking a 45-minute walk on all but five of the last 600-plus days. He began walking about two years ago when an attack of shingles hit him after a particularly stressful week, keeping him out of work for a month. Walking makes him feel better.
"As federal executives, we assume that we're too busy to walk," Quinn says. Walking, like any other fitness effort, demands a time commitment. But he makes the effort, working a little later to get his walk in during the middle of the day.
When he's in Washington, Quinn has regular routes outside and inside his office building. When he's getting ready to travel, he checks his itinerary to try to work in a walk while it's light outside. In Kansas City, where he travels regularly, he has picked out a walking path that includes a veterans memorial. Quinn also points out that many hotels have fitness facilities; walking in a mall is another alternative.
"You just have to put it in your schedule," Quinn says. "If you can schedule a meeting for 45 minutes, you can schedule fitness for 45 minutes."
Exercising Your Options
Ross agrees that planning when you'll exercise during travel is important. Don't plan your day and then fit exercise in, Ross says; instead, make exercise part of the schedule. To avoid injury, he also recommends avoiding an exercise that you don't normally do.
Many kinds of exercise equipment are portable, Ross says. Pack stretch cords, bands and a jump rope. Cords are good for both resistance and a cardiovascular workout. The jump rope also provides a cardiovascular workout. Even simpler, "do push-ups," he says. "They're one of the best exercises, and all you need is a floor."
Like push-ups, crunches and lunges require no equipment, notes Steve Andos, manager of the Hilton Chicago athletic club. Or walk the hotel stairs for 30 minutes, Andos suggests. He also points out another light, eminently packable piece of equipment: "beach ball" weights that can be filled with water and go up to 30 pounds. You just drain the water out to stow them away flat in your luggage.
Of course you'll remember to warm up before doing any push-ups, lunges or weights. Fifty jumping jacks or a few minutes of running in place (you can always turn on MTV to keep you going) are all you need to help avoid injuring muscles that have been sitting in meetings all day.
If nothing but a health club will do, ask your travel manager to book you into a hotel that has one. You can even work in a workout en route, if you happen to be going through Pittsburgh or Chicago's O'Hare airport. Both have fitness centers.
Travelers are scheduling trips to include time to come to the fitness center at the Pittsburgh airport, says Catherine McConnell, club manager. The year-old center features the latest workout equipment, locker room facilities and amenities such as towels and toiletries. You can rent an exercise outfit of shirt, shorts, socks and shoes from the center for $4. A visit costs $11.25; a 10-visit punch card with no expiration date runs $50. The center is open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day that the airport is open.
"What I'm trying to do is help all business travelers keep their fitness regimen going," says Mike Michno, president and CEO of the center. By the time business is done at 7 or 8 at night, you may be too tired to work out, Michno explains, but exercising en route may fit your schedule. Michno says 48 percent of the layover passengers at Pittsburgh have more than an hour and a half to wait, and 31 percent have more than two hours--plenty of time for a workout and a shower.
The center soon may expand to the airports serving Cincinnati and Philadelphia, and Michno plans to have at least half a dozen centers open in the next three years.
If Chicago is in your flight plans, the Hilton Chicago O'Hare Airport fitness center offers 9,000 square feet of workout equipment on the arcade level. It's no more than a 6 1/2-minute walk from any domestic terminal and offers a lap pool and sauna, an exercise video library and, for an extra charge, massage. The locker room provides towels, shampoo, lotion, hair dryers--and lockers big enough to hold carry-on luggage. The charge is $9 a day, and memberships run $30 a month or $110 for six months. Although the Hilton doesn't rent clothes, it will sell you a T-shirt for $10 and shorts for $20, plus lend you shower shoes. Hours are 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, and 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends.
The O'Hare Hilton also is one of nine test sites for the chain's Health-Fit guest rooms. The rooms include a total body workout machine, health magazines, resistance tubing, maps of walking and jogging trails, special menus for room service and mini-bars, yoga and workout videos, and instructions for a 20-minute in-room workout designed by the American Council on Exercise--all at no extra charge.
So next time you go on the road, think about making your fitness routine fit into your plans, no matter how full your day seems. Keep in mind Quinn's attitude toward his daily walk: It's not if he'll walk--it's where and when.
Diane Kittower, a Maryland journalist, often writes about government.
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