Keeping Moving When You're Moving

by Marisol Swords

Moving is an event that should take place a handful of times for the average person, unless of course it’s your job to move around the planet. Of all the positions I’ve held in life, mother and wife have always been primary and those roles have required I move. A lot. When presented with the opportunity to move to the Pacific Northwest, somewhere our family had never been, we jumped. Part of this move required us to drive a vehicle from one coast to the other while one of us flew. Can you guess who drew the short straw? (Actually, it was my husband, but I like driving and I’m better at it, so we decided I should do it instead.)

I had the best of intentions. Powerlifting, yoga, meditation, and martial arts all fall under my movement umbrella. All I needed was enough space to not break anything or knock anyone out and I’d be good; I had this.

Honestly speaking, every home gym athlete only needs body weight and imagination for absolutely any space to become a gym. But as a strength athlete looking to keep those squat booty gains, there had to be weights in my programming. My bare necessities came down to:

• Two pairs of kettlebells: medium and heavy-ish

• One Adex™ adjustable mace with 15 lbs. of weights (very compact)

• One pair of five-pound steel Persian clubs.

• One yoga mat

These items took up minimal space and provided maximum impact.

To prepare me for the challenge of minimalistic training (and living for that matter), our employer was kind enough to remove all my training gear (as well as everything else we owned) and ship it a ridiculous amount of time in advance of our drive to avoid any temptation on my part. You know, to make sure I was good and ready to survive the shock of not having a full garage gym on the road. (So hard to type a sarcastic eye roll so you’ll just have to use your imagination here.)

During the numerous weeks of living in my stripped bare home before we departed, I enjoyed playing with my smaller implements and the freedom of minimalist strength training. It was easy to maintain both my strength and my mobility practices— this was going to be easy-peasy on the road!

Nomad Gym: Intention vs. Reality

Truly I intended to strength train much more during my two-week cross-country drive but the only implement to see use was the yoga mat. Now, the drive time was a solid forty hours broken up over two weeks so that we could visit specific locations along the way. The planned route was:

1. Gulf Coast Mississippi to visit family 2. Little Rock, Arkansas to visit family 3. Salinas, Kansas to visit tumbleweeds

4. Estes Park, Colorado to visit mountains 5. Salt Lake City, Utah to visit sleep 6. Boise, Idaho to visit potatoes 7. Kennewick, Washington to visit ridiculous mountain pass roads 8. Arrive at new home in Kitsap County, Washington state

First stop

My fit fam in Mississippi: everything according to plan; this is awesome.

Next stop

My aunt in Arkansas: still training; still completing my programming; still on track.

Salinas, KS

It was at this hotel that even my daughter’s attempts to find a treadmill in their so-called “gym” resulted in a machine that behaved more like a trampoline you had to chase.

After nine hours of driving this was the first night my body said NOPE. I opted to break out the yoga mat and hit the stretches to try to save the shattered and road weary remains of my lower back and hips.

Tired, hungry and white-line blind, I passed out during svasana. Nine hours of sleep later, I wake up grateful I had decided to do corpse pose in the hotel bed instead of 5 mm of neoprene above its questionable carpet.

For the record, no, I was NOT willing to give up sleep to rise with the sun and train.

Estes Park, Colorado A ton of miles and hours of driving later, any guess who only wants to do yoga and sleep when they arrive to their next location? If you guessed me, you’re right.

The thought of attempting to unpack a single item, much less a weight training implement, made my face twist in agonizing avoidance. Road Yogi

There truly is not much to report after Colorado. For one reason or another, I did not hit any of my planned cities and had to choose pinch hitters on the fly.

Each day’s drive was more exhausting than the last as all I desired to do at the end of each drive was copious amounts of yoga and sleep. My motivations morphed from a compulsion to train that came from within me to simply a desire to sleep without seeing white lines when I closed my eyes.

My road warrior training became more road yogi as I stopped, dropped, and yoga’d at every rest stop and gas station as necessary. Each night became about simply unwinding the tension in my body and easing the hypnosis the road had done to my mind. My training had become about maintaining my sanity, forget the gains.

Humbled, well stretched, and hanging on for dear life, I arrived at my destination on the Kitsap Peninsula of Washington State. As a person who has worked hard to keep their New York sized ego in check, this trip knocked it down even further while at the same time reinforcing an important lesson of which I continually remind myself: Everything I can do is all I can do.

Reflecting: Here’s How it Could Have Happened

Each athlete’s needs and limitations vary widely, as do the manageable variables when taking training into less than ideal conditions. I believe in learning from lifters so I reached out to Theresa England who recently completed a long distance move while training consistently.

Theresa’s Story

Our move happened quickly. My husband was asked to fly in for an interview July 11, and we arrived in St Pete on August 20. Since we were going to be new to the area, we decided to do a short-term vacation rental and stored our household stuff for the first few months. This is one reason I knew that gym equipment had to go with me.

For me, training was not optional. If I give myself the option of “not training” then it is more likely to slip off the daily to-do list. That is the way I approach training from a day to day basis. I enjoy it, but I also don’t view it as optional. I knew that with some planning, there was a way to make it work.

Everything on the road went as planned, because I was able to control it and make it work. I feel like having a mindset that can think outside the box and find the good in any situation is so important in fitness.

I did heavy squats on an uneven gravel driveway. I performed WODs in a hilly field. These are all things outside my normal way of training that added to the level of difficulty of training. I really enjoyed that aspect of it.

I didn’t confine myself to the mindset of “this is how I train, this is what I do”. I ventured out, found new goals that would work with my situation, and in turn found a passion for powerlifting.

The Bottom Line

While planning goes a very long way toward a strong finish, knowing when to be fluid and flow will save your sanity and having a multitude of backup plans doesn’t hurt either.

“When pursuing this type of adventure, keep an open mind. Things don’t have to be perfect to get something accomplished or even improve your fitness” Theresa says. “People, even home gym owners, sometimes tend to think they need a garage and perfect set up to train or start a program.

I am on my second month of moving plates in and out of the house to my patio for my training sessions. Not ideal, but honestly it works.

It doesn’t always have to be ideal conditions, but there’s always a way to train”.