For the month of August, I will prepare one Knowledge Post per week to help you prepare for a trip, to set yourself up for success upon arrival, and to re-enter successfully upon returning home. This first post is what you should do to set yourself up for success during the trip.
Of course, the answer is neither black nor white. The answer is: it depends. Specifically, it depends upon on how long the trip is, what type of gym access you will have on your trip, how long the flight (or car ride) is, and what your goals are.
Generally, the athletes I work with will only have access to bodyweight movements while on vacation. Therefore, I like to design an upper body grind workout with weights prior to the trip. Having a sore upper body will not make traveling bothersome, as compared to having a really sore lower body which can be uncomfortble. Sitting on a plane with a tight lower body is setting you up for failure. You will get tight IT bands, hips, glutes, quads and hamstrings. I also like giving a traveling athlete a hard-breathing machine workout to jack up the metabolism. I love using the SkiErg pre-travel because they are hard to find on a trip.
Here is a great workout to do pre-travel:
