The Ultimate Traveler’s Gym Bag: Five Fitness Essentials
As a travel service physiotherapist and personal trainer for some of the world’s busiest executives and business owners, I often find myself packing a gym bag for the road while traveling to work with my clients. If I’m going to be stationary, sometimes I have the flexibility to pack more equipment. Other times, I restrict it to the essentials if I’m going to be high mobility.
My clients often ask what equipment I pack when I’m traveling so this article highlights five essential items for the ultimate traveler’s gym bag, including tips and how to use it. I’ve also ranked each item based on three key factors:
- Space / Weight Ratio: minimizes extra packing and keeps your luggage light
- Convenience: Simple to transport (room to gym) and easy to use alongside items already available in your environment.
- Exercise “Bang for your Buck”: more exercise variety = big wins for training multiple muscle groups
Jump Rope
| Space/Weight Ratio | Awesome |
| Convenience | Good. Does need some headroom! |
| Versatility | Great |
Jump ropes are an absolute non-negotiable in my world. The ability to wrap your rope up to fit inside one of your athletic sneakers means it effectively takes up no space inside a well packed bag. Beyond its obvious use as a case for a jumping rope, the coordination requirements are a life skill whether you are six, 36 or 66 years old. The additional athletic benefits of agility, footwork, cardiovascular health and grip strength can benefit everyone throughout their life, athlete or not.
Bonus Tips:
- Emphasize strength training with a heavy jump rope or combine it with homemade “fat grips” by cutting pool noodles for an awesome grip challenge.
- Lay your rope straight on the floor for agility and footwork drills or circuit training.
Ab Wheel
| Space/Weight Ratio | Very Good |
| Convenience | Very Good |
| Versatility | Good |
Ab wheels have come a long way from clunky heavy duty specialty items to highly portable items you can get for $20. Most ab wheels are collapsible, making them ideal for luggage. When used on a smooth surface, ab wheels can challenge even a well-trained athlete. Ab rollouts will work your abs (of course), but also your triceps, lower back and even your lower body if you dare to go out on your toes.
Bonus Tip:
- Take your collapsible wheel apart and hold onto a wheel with both hands while in a plank. The smaller surface area vs your forearms on the floor = an increase in difficulty.
Resistance Bands
| Space/Weight Ratio | THE BEST |
| Convenience | Good |
| Versatility | THE BEST |
Resistance bands are the king of low luggage space and high utility. Your resistance band can be rolled up and put inside the other athletic sneaker that you’re not using for your jump rope. There are countless variations for bands (handles, closed / open loop, etc). I would worry less about which variant you have and more about the fact that you have one in your travel bag. You can train your entire body with a resistance band, so consider this another non-negotiable for its ultra high portability and exercise variety potential.
Bonus Tips:
- Grab yourself a door anchor. These roughly nine-inch (21cm) straps have a foam blocker on one end and an open loop to thread your band through the other. When placed through one side of a hotel room door, you can easily replicate a low, middle or high cable setup to complete most of the exercises you could perform with a cable machine
- If you really want to go all out, grab one open loop and one closed loop band. Thick, closed loop bands can be great for powerful movements and your lower body when wrapped around your thighs for squats, wall sits, burpees, etc.
- Just like your jump rope, lay your band on the floor as an obstacle to step / hop over for a great conditioning effect.
Protein powder
| Space/Weight Ratio | Ok / good; better on your way home |
| Convenience | Great! |
| Versatility | High. Can be added to shakes, smoothies, coffee, yogurt, etc. |
My travel gym bag is not complete without a bag of protein powder. There are tons of good options that taste great, so do your own research and make sure you’ve always got a bag in your travel gym bag. Most good powders will last more than 12 months before expiring, so it’s easy to leave it in a dedicated travel gym bag (more on this below) and change it out based on your usage, or if the expiry date comes up. A quick scoop in a water bottle or saving it in a ziploc bag for later makes for an easy and high mobility snack.
The best part about packing protein powder is that I’m incentivizing myself to have my post workout protein shake because I know the more powder I use on my trip, the less I have to drag home in my luggage.
Bonus Tip:
- Add a scoop of protein powder in your AM coffee. Most vanilla or unflavored options provide a powerful nutritional punch and mix deliciously, all without the added sugars or syrups found at the coffee shop.
High Protein, High Portability Snacks
| Space/Weight Ratio | Good; better on your way home |
| Convenience | THE BEST! Eat a protein bar anywhere from waiting for a train, to hotel lobby. |
| Versatility | Ok; pretty much a standalone item |
When traveling, my eating situation isn’t always predictable. Sometimes I might not be able to eat breakfast because I have to head out early, or I miss planned dinners because the ride back to my hotel was longer than expected. Having a high protein option in my backpack—such as a protein bar, homemade trail mix or snack sized canned tuna—makes me less worried about going hours without eating. It gives me peace of mind knowing that I’m less likely to make a poor nutritional decision in the moment because I know I’ve always got a high protein option handy. Just like the protein powder in the last tip, the added benefit here is that if I take a box of protein bars with me—and the more often I have these as snacks—the lighter my checked baggage is going home.
Bonus Tip:
- Keep wet wipes for your hands and ziploc bags with you too. Protein bars are notorious for melting and making a mess. In the worst case, if you keep it in a ziploc bag, you may have an ugly protein bar but a clean backpack!
Conclusion
If you find the tips in this article helpful, you can build yourself a travel fitness bag for about $100. That investment pays for itself tenfold by delivering hassle-free travel and unmatched utility for your money. I recommend all my clients have a dedicated travel gym bag, to ensure you’ve always got the essentials packed. If you’re looking for a travel service personal trainer who comes to you, wherever the world finds you, look no further than Summit Performance. We have extensive experience helping our clients build high impact travel gym bags & dream home gyms alike.Have something specific you’d like to ask Mike?
See him in Japan in November, or email him anytime here: info@summitperformance.fit