Benefits of Pilates Travel Workout
So you got a road trip coming up and you want to keep your wellness routines in check. Pilates travel workout is one of the best things you can take with you on your road trip.
Hi, I’m Lesley Logan, co-founder of OnlinePilatesClasses.com™. And I actually love road tripping, my husband I do it multiple times a year. But when you go on a road trip, life is a little different. You wake up at different times you normally would, you sleep at different times and you sit a whole lot longer. And so having a workout and wellness routine that you can take with you on the road is essential for reducing back pain, keeping your energy up and also making the road trip even more fun.
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Pilates for Road Trips: Stay Strong and Balanced
So if you’re watching this, because you’ve got a road trip coming up or you’re planning one, let’s first talk about the benefits of Pilates because you already know how exciting your road trip is going to be. Pilates is a strength-based workout that is designed to balance your imbalances. So what’s tight is going to become loose and what is loose is going to become strong. And the more you have a balance of your imbalances, the less likely you are to have injury, which means if you’re on a hike on your road trip, or there’s some cool adventure you want to pull off of the side of the road, you can trust that your body is going to be able to handle a lot of adventures because you will have a nice strong center, it’s going to keep you from being in your lower back. It’s also going to make sure that when you’re on a hike or on uneven surfaces, you actually have the ability to recover from a misstep. In fact, I love to say that Pilates helps us fall better because the truth is we are going to trip from now and then and also on a road trip, it’s just not your normal routine. And so when you’re doing a Pilates practice that’s consistent, it actually will allow you to recover from a fall. So when you do Pilates, you will have options of equipment. But the Mat practice specifically is something you can take with you wherever you go, especially on a road trip.
Alright, so road trips are magical, the pictures that you’ll post are going to be amazing memories that you’ll have for a lifetime. But there’s also a lot of places in between all those beautiful adventures that are just not as exciting. The amount of times you have to get in and out of your car, depending on the size of your car, if it’s a normal car, it’s a lot of twisting, the amount of hours on the actual road in that seat. Not always ideal, especially for me. When we go on our road trips, I have to make sure I have something behind my back to help support my lower back. Because it can be five hours behind the driver’s seat of the car, really focused on where I’m going to go. And then you get out of the car, you’re supposed to be active and ready to go. And so there’s having a body that can keep up with all the activities you want to do on a road trip and also being able to sit for long hours, without your legs falling asleep, without your back aching is really, really key.
Pilates Mat Work: Your Portable Road Trip Workout
So most people are familiar with Pilates on a Reformer, or even on the other piece of equipment, they may have heard about Pilates on the Mat. And the thing is about the Mat work itself is you don’t have to do all of the exercises to have that practice come with you. There are many exercises you could do staying up, lying down and a Mat you can take with you just roll it up and throw it into the car. So it’s really, really simple having that Mat practice on the road, making it perfect for a road trip workout. What’s amazing about a Mat practice is that you can actually use it to pick yourself up in the morning, you can pull your Mat out, and you can actually do the Hundred, and the Abs series and your Side Leg Kicks, and your Push Ups and really get this full body strength and stretch, which is amazing. After you’ve like camped out for a night, sometimes you got eggs in new places. Or you can actually do at the end of a hike so that you don’t just get into a car and let all of that lactic acid from that amazing hike settle in your body, you can do a Mat practice really quick, move all that around, support your core, strengthen your back and then get into the car and take your travels with you.
Pilates Travel Equipments: Mat, Theraband, and Lightweights
So equipment that you want to take with you while you travel. You want ideally a Mat that’s about 8 to 10 millimeters thick, that is going to be effective for doing Pilates on the road. It’ll also help you if the ground is a little harder if you have to be on more of a sidewalk or concrete, 8 to 10 millimeters is perfect for that. If you can, I would also bring a Theraband. Therabands are really great, they don’t take up a lot of space so that you can just like even roll it up inside of the travel workout mat. And Lightweights, one or two pounds is going to be really helpful because then you can use those to help ground your upper back and strengthen your shoulder girdle while you’re doing some of the Pilates Mat exercises. Now, if you don’t have room for that, because I know what it’s like to have to pack everything into a car at once, then what you can use would be an old pair of leggings or a towel in place of a Theraband, you also can do a standing workout. So here on this channel, we actually have a free 15 minute Standing Workout that requires no equipment whatsoever, or you can use water bottles for the Lightweights, which is really a lot of fun. Incorporating these elements can make your workouts while traveling much more effective and enjoyable.
So this is what a 10 millimeter Mat looks like. You can see it’s two colors, so it’s 5 millimeters and 5 millimeters. But this type of Mat is actually really effective for doing Mat Pilates on the road. So this Mat is a yoga Mat that’s really easy to travel, you can actually fold it up. It doesn’t take a lot of space up, but you can see how thin that is. It’s not going to be ideal for doing Pilates because when you have to lie on your back, you’re gonna feel every rock ever pebble. It’s basically like you’re on the ground, so I don’t recommend this. If you can’t have that 8 to 10 milimiter Mat in your road trip packing with you then do a Standing Pilates Workout like the one we have on our YouTube channel.
Thick Theraband: Essential Pilates Tools
Personally, I like a thick Theraband. I like a heavy duty one because they’re really helpful for grounding your shoulders, you can actually pull it underneath your body so that you can actually pull your shoulders wide on your back. My Mat at home has handles, it makes it really easy to do overhead exercises. Having a Theraband gives you something to pull apart, or like I mentioned a light pair of weights, that’s going to help you out a lot. If you don’t have access to one of these, an old pair of leggings is going to work or a yoga belt, it won’t have the same give as this but it will give you something. You also, especially if you have some tight hips from traveling, having the Theraband to do Single Leg Circles with or Corkscrew with really does help open up those hips when you’ve been on the road sitting for a long period of time.
Pilates Travel Workout Routine
Alright, so one of the reasons I love Pilates for on the road and really just in life in general is, in Pilates a Mat routine it already includes a warmup, it already has a core strengthening exercise, it works your back, it stretches in each exercise while also strengthening other parts of the body. So you have your full workout, even if you only do five exercises. So some of the things you can look at are our standing workout that I’ve already talked about, you could just be literally at a picnic table, and you can do this. We also have a wall workout that you could do if you’re at a rest stop, that would be really amazing to do. It’s gonna really help make your back nice and tall, you’ll be able to stretch out some things that are tight after a long day on the road.
If you want to nerd out and actually understand how these exercises work, my fullbodyin15.com series is where you want to go. So check out fullbodyin15.com. It’s a three part series, each workout is only 15 minutes, it’s a full body workout with the warm up, the stretch and the strength. But I also go over how to do each exercise. So you can watch that before you go on the road. And really enjoy that three parts class wherever you are on your road trip.
Tips for Incorporating Pilates into Road Trips
Alright, so some more tips for taking Pilates with you on your road trip. First of all, you want to be flexible. Road trips have schedules, and it gets a little crazy. So you may not be able to do your Pilates exactly when you said you want to, but make sure you get it in each day. I promise you will make every single day of your road trip so much better. Also drink lots of water. I know, that doesn’t really have anything to do with Pilates, but I promise you, you will feel better in your body if you’re drinking plenty of water and staying nice and hydrated. And lastly, take regular breaks. Even if you don’t do a full Pilates workout, maybe you just do one exercise where you’re pumping the gas, I’m notorious for doing some standing Pilates exercises, while the gas is pumping. But take breaks not just for your eyes, but also for you to actually be present with where you are, feel the air around you and also be able to feel what’s going on in your body and it will let you know which exercises to make sure you omit and which ones to make sure you incorporate on your next Pilates practice.
And finally, I’m just I’m so excited for you. Road trips are amazing, and as long as you are prioritizing your self care, not just on the road trip, but also when you get back from the road trip, you are going to have an epic time. You’re going to come back from your trip feeling rested, relaxed and also stronger than when you left. So please enjoy doing your Pilates practice on your road trip. And you know what I would love? I would love for you to tell me how you use your Pilates. In fact, if you take a picture on your road trip, you can tag me and I would love to celebrate you doing Pilates on your road trip.
Road Trip Pilates: Q&A and Weekly Workout Updates
I’d love to answer any of your questions. So if you’ve got any questions that came up from this or you went on your road trip and tried to incorporate Pilates, and you struggled with anything, please let me know in the comments below. I go live every single Sunday at 9am Pacific time you can join me there while I answer your questions. I would love to get to know you more. And if you’d like to have new Pilates travel workouts to take with you on every road trip, check out onlinepilatesclasses.com/free we drop a new Mat Workout every single week that you can take with you wherever you go. Thank you so much and I’ll see you next time.