Traveling with Timmy
By Mark O’Shea


Jim and Dave have previously written about going nuts with different machines/exercises when they are traveling and encountering a new gym. Those of us who travel very regularly as part of our jobs need to maintain something resembling a schedule. You need to make sure you get the right work done when you can. Here are the things I’ve done to help keep my training on track while on the road. You need to stick to the basics the majority of the time, and hopefully this guide will help.

I had to make some small adjustments to my training schedule from the standard WSB template, so I follow this

Saturday - ME Bench
Monday - ME Squat
Wednesday - DE/Rep Bench
Friday - DE Squat
The reason for the weekend ME Bench workout instead of mid week is the availability of a decent gym and reliable spotters. I’ve always got training partners on weekends, but would you rely on the average gym rat to spot you while doing ME bench? Getting them to keep their $&*&#*@ hands off the bar while you bench seems to be an impossible task for some lifters. Even worse they might have those little runners shorts on, and each time you look up you might get to see Runner’s Breakfast. Some gyms don’t even have decent benches, they may be okay for speed work, but awkward setups, weird heights etc, and are going to play havoc with ME weights and invite injury..

I also moved the weekend bench to Saturday instead of Sunday due to my training crew. The only problem I found at first with ME bench work on Saturdays, the day following squatting and sometimes deadlifting, was that initially my ME bench work suffered. I quickly adapted, and got over it. Alternatively you can still ME bench on Sunday, but I like a day’s rest between ME days. The other benefit of benching on the Saturday means that I can do my midweek bench on a Tuesday instead if I have to, so as a competition draws nearer, and I’m being less flexible with changes to my training schedule, I have a better chance of being able to hit a better gym. This approach, with most of my travel not encompassing weekends, lets me get 3 workouts a week in at my usual gym, with some speed/rep bench work.

Traveling with training gear pretty much guarantees that you can’t rely on carry on luggage only, I’ve had airport security not allow me to take my belt because the prong was deemed dangerous to humanity, and blast straps not allowed, god knows why. Maybe they thought I was going drag the plane along the airport runway, or hold two planes at arms length like in a strongman competition. By the time I get all of my training gear packed for an extended trip, it blows out from carry on to checked luggage anyway, so this shouldn’t be a major problem.

Bands are an essential addition to your travel kit, and they are a hell of a lot easier to carry around than chains. Be careful of attaching bands in new locations, unless you are visiting a powerlifting gym, where they’ve probably got bands set up for use anyway. Bands also come in handy for assisted stretching, and other recovery activities you never find the time to do at home. Before hitting the in-room porno movies, do some stretching. Last night I watched some Dr. Phil, because I saw a clip as I was channel surfing and thought they were going to show a hot woman. Instead it was a woman who had lost lots of weight and had saggy skin everywhere. I started wondering if that’s what Jim looks like now with his shirt off, and reminded me that I had better not lose too much weight. Getting back on track, bands can be used if you just can’t access a gym. They are better than bodyweight exercises alone, and should be enough to hold you over.

Do some research, check the EFS archives, and the chances are you can find a PL friendly gym somewhere close to where you travel. It pisses me off to pay good money for a workout only to be treated to bars with no knurling and shitty equipment designed by someone who has never lifted a weight in their life. Contact the owner of nearby PL gyms you find, most are very welcoming, and a lot of the time for out-of-towners they won’t charge you an arm and a leg for a workout, unlike the major chains. Find out in advance what their training days are, and if there is a crew you can work in with. If you have to juggle your training days around a little, do it, it’s worth it, you will always experience something new.

If you take supplements like creatine etc, traveling domestically with them isn’t a problem, but don’t take powdered substances with you when you travel overseas. Do you really want to get interrogated by customs people over something harmless? I prefer to get in and out of airports as quickly as possible, and carrying around powdered substances or other suspicious looking items isn’t going to help the process. There are supplement stores anywhere you travel, so if you really need your supplements, you can buy them locally. The same applies to your protein bars. I tend to rely on these quite heavily when I travel, sometimes you just don’t know when you will be able to get your next meal, so a protein bar or two kept with you will keep hunger at bay. Even though carrying protein bars into a foreign country should be okay, all you need is a customs officer having a bad day to put you through grief, and it’s not what you need at the end of a long flight.

You also need to start planning your workouts better when you are traveling. I usually map out my schedules, working backwards from the competition to the start of the preparation period. This way you can schedule in the movements you know you need to do when you have access to them, and you can plan for exercises you can do in your traveling gyms. I’m not talking about planning to intricate details, just the big exercises that need to be done.

You should also pack plastic bags to pack your training gear in. My Metal shirts, briefs and suits get bags of their own, there’s no way I want their stink polluting the rest of my luggage, and there’s always a chance you will have sweaty gym gear in your bag somewhere – pack it separately, and if it’s really drenched, double bag it just in case. This is also a great rule of thumb when traveling to Thailand, but on a whole other level.

A non-training travel tip, purely aimed at your comfort, is to join all of the hotel and airline membership reward programs that are appropriate, and try to be as loyal as possible to a particular airline or hotel chain. For airlines, this means more than just earning points and getting free trips, it also means a higher chance of an upgrade, or more likely, an empty seat next to you. If your bodyweight is usually 275+, that extra bit of room is going to be a godsend. If you are big, there is no winning seat on a plane, window seats suck because they usually lose a few inches of shoulder room, centre seats suck because you never end up with attractive women as book ends, and aisle seats mean people bumping your shoulders and elbows continuously. I view aisle seats as the lesser of three evils, but you may enjoy being jammed in between two random individuals or being pressed up against the window. Hotel reward programs get you invites to club lounges where you can get free food and drinks. Enough said.

And finally, if the place you end up doesn’t have a decent gym close by, don’t fret. The occasional workout in a crappy gym isn’t going to kill you, and may be enough of a mental break from your routine to reinvigorate you. The EFS article archive has a bunch of exercises you can do with dumbbells, bands and other equipment that may not be viewed as powerlifting essentials, but where there is a will there is a way.