“Rolling” away from home- stay fit whilst on holidays

Wondering how to stay fit whilst on holidays……especially on overseas trips and to developing countries?

I was recently very fortunate to accompany some dear friends touring Southern India for 3 weeks.

With my friends, Sikh Temple Bangalore

Guest at an Indian Wedding

Sari fitting, Chennai, India

Sure, we tended to do a lot of walking when we were visiting somewhere new – but there was a great deal of eating, accompanied by a lot of sitting on our bums whilst travelling to our next destination ( and we all now know how prolonged sitting can have serious implications for our health!)

If I wanted to get my heart rate up, burn some of those extra calories from many, many yummy curries and generally maintain my strength, I needed to do more exercise. I usually tried to hunt out a gym, as it was too hot outdoors ( 35+ degrees with over 90% humidity) and often too dangerous as a white, anglo-saxon woman exercising on my own in the Indian outdoors. We did actually stay in some excellent hotels and all our accommodation was rated at least 4*. But on our trip, I only came across 6 hotel gyms; 2 with equipment that was broken and/or dangerous and only 2 of the others that were worthwhile using but were limited to dated weight machines, treadmills and a bike. My air-conditioned hotel room, with a towel on the floor, was the next best option.

So I was extra happy that I had brought my foam roller with me from Australia. It gave some added complexity and variety to a workout that I could perform anywhere , anytime, in about 20- 30 minutes, every other day, to maintain my fitness.

**(NB. this short roller fitted easily into my checked luggage and weighed next to nothing. My plan was to leave it in India at the end of my trip as it was inexpensive to purchase and meant that I then had extra space left in my bag to carry home souvenirs. Win, win!!)