The Two Best Apps for Maintaining a Fitness Regime While Traveling
Sticking to a workout schedule is hard, even when everything is going swimmingly and you have a fairly standard routine. And when you add travel into the mix, it can seem impossible. Sure, hotels have fitness centers, but if you’ve ever visited one and found it was just a few dumbbells and an old treadmill, you know how hard it can be. There are two apps I use to help me stick to my schedule and focus on my health on the road, but I use them very differently.
ClassPass
After discovering last month that ClassPass offers a little-known but diverse selection of at-home workouts to stream, I was thrilled to download the app for the first time in years. If you’re unfamiliar, you buy monthly credits that can be used at gyms and fitness studios, redeeming them for things like yoga or high-intensity interval training. (They can also be used to pay for salon and spa visits—a welcome upgrade since I last used the app.)
I used it for a month in my New York City neighborhood, checking out all the boutique studios near me, and found some I loved and others I was glad I didn’t spend full price on a trial class. But last week, while visiting my mom in North Dakota, I checked ClassPass—and sure enough, there were yoga, ballet, spinning, and Pilates classes. I didn’t expect it to work; it’s one thing for a densely populated place like Manhattan to have tons of options, but Bismarck? Yes, Bismarck! I took a ballet class, and it was amazing, exactly what I needed to stay on track and de-stress after a disastrous night of plane crashes.
Over the next three months, I’ll be traveling to West Virginia, Nebraska, and Mississippi. This is what a vacation itinerary looks like when you’ve set a goal of visiting all 50 states (and I only have eight left to visit). With ClassPass, I can take yoga classes in Charleston, do HIIT in Omaha, and play pickleball in Biloxi. It’s all much better than the hotel gym. Even the smallest towns are well represented, so you can get a full workout experience no matter where you are.
Peloton
I’m a devoted Peloton user and use the app daily, even if it’s just to track my outdoor walks . If you don’t have the time or transportation to get to an in-person class, Peloton offers a variety of options, many of which can be done right in your hotel room, like yoga or stretching .
Guided walking tours are available so you can embark on a mindful exploration wherever you are. Additionally, many hotels have Peloton cardio machines . While exercise bikes and other equipment are typically found in fitness centers, I’ve seen hotels that even offer them in your room.
Even if you can only fit in 10 minutes of exercise, it’s better than nothing and helps you stay positive. That’s why I value the Peloton app so much. Of course, I used it to track my barre workouts in Bismarck, as well as the Les Mills Body Pump and Solidcore classes I attended there.