What would you recommend to take travelling?

Hi everyone!

Alot of my friends from University have taken a semester out to study abroad (not offered on my course unfortunately ). They are all over Europe: France, Italy, Germany, Slovakia, Croatia and Czech Republic to name a few!

I have been working hard, so I've got a little bit of money saved up and I plan on inter-railing for a month in late June to try and see them all!

So a friend and I will be travelling around Europe for about a month, on a fairly tight budget, with only one backpack that has to fit a months worth of supplys.

We have a very limited budget and limited space, but I've been working hard on F1 and plan on buying the rest of the packages after I get the next installment of my loan. My nutrition will no doubt suffer, but I'll easily have enough time to train and I'd like to at least maintain what I've gained the past few months.

So what would you take with you for a month on the road?

Chris.

Nothing!

Just take what you need for traveling, don't carry anything for training... You'll figure out something and somewhere to train, no worries.

Have a great time, and please drop by with stories and pictures if you can.

If I'm going somewhere for longer than three weeks I'll take rings with me. Otherwise I don't stress about it too much. It's not a big deal to figure out a substitute for a few weeks but much longer than that and I want my rings. When I study abroad next fall I will definitely be taking my rings with me!

Improvising equipment with what you can find in a park/playground is always fun. In general it's not too hard to find something suitable especially if you have access to a playground. Maybe bring a pair of rings if you're worried you may not have time to find one, but travel is generally the most fun when you're travelling light. 

The world will not end if you don't train for a month...

Go and have the time of your life... and worry about training later. :-)

Haha, I know I'm not too concerned at all! But there's no harm in trying to keep fit on the way too! Due to space I probably won't take rings, like you say, plenty of things to do pull ups off etc. Might take a few bungees if space permits too...

I was wandering about nutrition though, I eat pretty well at home (cooking a huge chicken casserole as we speak). Obviously this will be impossible on the road... So would you guys take any supplements? Whey? Multivits? Fish oils? I've never really experimented with these as I haven't really felt the need, but are any valuable when your basic nutrition is sub-optimal?

Cheers,

Chris.

When I go back-packing I give myself time off from training to recover. I will do some stretching work though.

The number of countries you want to visit in the time-frame you have means you will be spending alot of time on trains and buses at weird times. It also means you are going to be having an amazing time and training will probably drop off as a priority.

Just enjoy your trip and get back into it when you come back. 

A couple of tips: Berlin is a must if in Germany, and if you make it to Czech Republic spend some time in Český Krumlov

I brought my competition straps + rings from Rogue. More than enough. You can improvise mostly everything else.

This may be unpopular but I'd say you shouldn't worry about the supplements etc. Just enjoy eating and whenever possible eat real food. For myself eating is one of the true joys of traveling. I often pick my destinations in an effort to track down a single dish. 

If your travels are like mine your training may become spotty. It's OK... GST is a marathon and not a sprint. One month of spotty training ain't going to kill you and in the long run will fade into nothing. As your training is likely to be spotty, the benefits of any supplements are not worth the weight. The truth is that there are few supplements that offer significant benefits even when training consistently. There are other disadvantages to travel with supplements. For one they come in bulky packages that take up a lot of space. You can repack them in ziplock bags depending on whether you like to spend time in cold, concrete rooms having discussions with underpaid customs agents about the unlabeled powder or pills they found in your bag (more a concern when flying, but I've been there).

Use your smartphone to find out what fruit/veggies are in season in your destinations, find where the locals buy them and savor them. As they come pre-packaged (skin, peel etc...) they're great for the train/bus.

While I've misplaced the scientific study that backed my following suggestions I assure there is very strong double-blind, peer reviewed evidence for the following dietary recommendations for traveling athletes:

1) Cheese is good. Always. Seriously. 

2) There is no such thing as too much pork.

3) Bread that is fresh from the oven aids in muscle recovery. Add fresh salted butter to speed absorption by the cells.

4) Almost every culture has some sort of meat wrapped in dough (arepas, pirogi, pasty, gyoza etc...), almost every culture has champion athletes, therefore eating meat wrapped in dough makes champion athletes. Find them, consume them (the food, not the athletes which are full of annoying bones).

I just brought my rings with me to Japan, where I'll be for the next 5 months.

I prefer to continue training even while on vacation. I take rings, a slow cooker, and a griddle/grill thing that I can cook meat on. No reason that your nutrition or training has to slip.

One really easy thing you can take to do pulling elements is a couple of long nylon loops. 1m-1.5m would do I think.

You can buy the ready made type at a climbing store or buy some nylon webbing and sew it yourself. You can loop it over things or fit over doors. 

Cole Dano said:

One really easy thing you can take to do pulling elements is a couple of long nylon loops. 1m-1.5m would do I think.

 

You can buy the ready made type at a climbing store or buy some nylon webbing and sew it yourself. You can loop it over things or fit over doors. 

Or you can form the webbing into a loop using a knot called the water knot. It was created for this exact purpose, it's super easy and is rated for technical rescue so it's plenty strong enough.

That might be even better at least for putting in doorways the knot won't slip through. 

Thanks guys! The webbing sounds like a good idea... I wish I had enough room to take my slackline! Could have so much fun with it, shame it's so bulky. :/

I might take a kilo of whey and a bottle of multi-vits though. For the weight and space I think they could be worth it, just for when I'm not eating for extended periods of time.

I'm going to be travelling for long periods, so I think if there is room I'll be doing workouts on the train. At the very least lots of hollow and arch rocks, planche leans, squats, etc. Lots of mobility as well as I'm quite tall and inflexible and will get quite stiff sitting down for extended periods of time.

At the very least I need to keep the glory muscles pumped for the beach! Not sure how many of you are from/ have been to Europe, but not many people on the mainland workout at all. So if you've got a half decent body on the beach, you'll stand right out!

Chris