Staying in shape is hard enough when you’re not traveling all over the world but there are a lot of covert exercises you can do in an airport that are challenging enough to be worthwhile.
Get Your Tracking Software Ready
Before getting started you want to make sure you’re able to keep track of the mini-workout ahead of you. Walking is an important exercise anywhere and most airports are large enough for a good 5 kilometer warm up. iOS users, here’s how you can enable the Health app on your iPhone, which will show you the number of steps you’ve taken plus distance walked. Android users, the free app Runtastic is a good choice.
Now you’ll know exactly how much walking around you’ve actually done – since we’re all terrible at estimating important things like travel budgets. Be sure also to do little speed ‘boosts’ in your walking, accelerating for intervals. In an airport you’ll blend in as another late passenger rushing for flight.
Squeeze And Flex
Fitness expert Yasmin Al-Atrache recommends incorporating glute squeezes and core flexes into your airport walk at intervals you’re comfortable with. One variation of the glute squeeze is essentially flexing your butt cheeks as hard as you can for 15-30 seconds at a time. For every 2 minutes of your walk, stop and glute squeeze, for a total of 10 times.
To extend of mix up the muscles engaged during an airport workout, incorporate core flexes. Much like glute squeezes, a core flex is tightening the muscles in your smooshy belly region as hard as you can for 15-30 seconds.
Lunges
These aren’t the most covert motions to pull off admittedly but they are effective, burning about 90 calories every 10 minutes (without a backpack on). 5 sets of 30 seconds each while maintaining correct posture as shown below will make you feel a bit less guilty about that fancy flavored latte you drank before entering the security line.
Keep Up The Burn
More conspicuous are wall push ups, which look a lot like stretching, perhaps masking any anxiety you may feel about working out in an airport.
You can mix these in with the other exercises mentioned above at 2 minute intervals of your walk, 10-20 times each should push your heart rate higher. (Heart Rate, $1.99 on iOS and Instant Heart Rate, free for Android, use your mobile phone flash to establish a pre and post-workout pulse to make sure you are pushing yourself adequately.)
Know Your Limits
Obviously an airport workout like this is more about maintenance and health, since there’s only so much strength training you can do without heavy weights or significant sweating. Don’t count on eating whatever you want after sightseeing either – wandering around tourist sites burns far fewer calories than you think. In case you won’t be training Brazilian jiu-jitsu in Rio, you can maintain intense workouts with these backpack accessories, bicep curl a backpack full of gadgets, or burn 50 calories in 5 minutes with this hotel room workout.