How I Stay Fit and Healthy Despite Constant Travel
A guide to peak performance on the road.
In my life, I make a lot of mistakes.
I overwork, I break down, I say the wrong things, I mess up, I hurt people, I hurt myself, and I make errors — all the time. My girlfriend lovingly calls these things my “blunders”.
I am a man of many blunders.
However, one thing that I don’t blunder about is my health.
Each week, pretty much without fail, for the last 3 years, I’ve read and written daily, trained BJJ 5–7 times per week, and lifted weights 2–3 times per week. This isn’t a set of habits that I’ve adopted, this is a routine that I follow that makes me the person that I am.
This routine has changed my life, but it has only done this for me because I’ve stuck with the habits that make up this routine for years on end.
Here are the main principles that help me maintain my fitness and health — wherever I am in the world.
Don’t skip workouts — under any circumstances.
The physical component of my life is imperative for all of my growth.
If I skip workouts, my mind feels sluggish and I feel tired. I’m more likely to procrastinate on the important tasks I have to do when I skip the gym or am injured. Spending time to train my body creates a scarcity of time, which prompts action on my part.
When there is less time and lots of work to be done, a rational mind picks something and gets started.
Luckily for me, there aren’t a whole lot of actual activities to do, just a lot of time that must be spent perfecting my crafts and putting in work on my endeavors.
This is why it’s imperative to not skip practice sessions, even if you’re traveling, breaking your routine, or overwhelmed.
Setting clear goals for each day.
I love working out as a basis for productivity, but as an athlete, one of the hard lessons I’ve learned is that growth in physical ability and intellectual ability is not correlated.
Too much training makes me too tired to remember the stuff I read and I don’t have the energy to write well.
This means balance is important between the activities.
Some days are more focused on training, while other days (lighter training days that you must inevitably have to avoid injury) are more focused on writing. I still write and train every day, but my training intensity and my intellectual intensity vary each day.
If I have big writing deadlines coming or am resting before a BJJ match, I will spend a lot of time writing. On these days, I can write up to 5K articles per day (roughly 5 articles like this one).
On other days, perhaps when I’m preparing for a big BJJ match, I’ll only write a short post or part of an article, and then I’ll train 2, maybe 3 times. I’m able to maintain this routine wherever I am in the world because all it requires is an awareness of the day in front of me.
Varying intensity also helps me avoid burnout, and stay focused, and it keeps my work fresh in my mind. This freshness is incredibly valuable for my improvement.
Prioritize sleep and recovery.
I’m obnoxious about making sure I get my sleep in.
For me, sleep is the cornerstone of my good mental health. When I don’t sleep, I experience increased anxiety, bouts of depression, burnout, exhaustion, and even anger. Not sleeping makes me very unhappy, and being unhappy makes me very unproductive.
When I’m disciplined about rest, mobility, and sleep, the rest of my life comes together a lot better. I’m happier and more fun to be around when I’m not exhausted.
When I’m traveling, the sleep, rest, and recovery thing is extra important. I know after a long day of travel, I need either a good night’s sleep, a day off, or sometimes, both.
I know my body and I know what I need in terms of rest and recovery.
If you can dial in and understand what you need in terms of rest and sleep, you can create the illusion that constant travel doesn’t phase you.
Yes — travel makes me exhausted. However, by simply resting, I’m able to easily counteract that exhaustion and get back to full speed faster than if I just tried to “embrace the grind”.
Have a strong source of motivation.
My heart is very full these days.
I have a supportive family, incredible friends, a loving girlfriend, crafts that light me on fire, and somehow, my life is “working”. I’m getting by doing what I love and spending time with people I love.
I do not know if this will last forever. There is a sense of impermanence in everything I do.
But what I've realized is that no achievement will make this impermanence go away. There will always be another fish to fry, a problem to solve, or an obstacle to overcome.
The fact that I’ve made it as far as I have is a great source of motivation for me to keep working on my goals, no matter what's happening in my life, how I’m feeling, or where I am in the world.
When you’re fulfilled, you see things you have to do as necessary steps for fulfilling a purpose, not mere habits for self-development. You see improvement as an obligation, not an option.
Aim to construct your life in a way that you must sink or swim. Be bold.
Closing Thoughts
Over the last few months, I’ve been traveling constantly.
I’ve been on 16 trips this year, and I have a trip booked pretty much every weekend between now and the late fall. I’ll be settling into a new apartment in Austin this weekend, but I won’t be slowing down my travel between now and the next few months.
The nature of what I do requires constant travel for teaching, competing, seeing the people who are most important to me, and putting myself in new environments. Until I stop living this way, I must rise to the occasion of this lifestyle.
If you want to be the best you can be, you will likely need to travel. It’s important that you learn how to travel without experiencing significant performance decreases.
If you can do something well, learn to do it well under any circumstance.
That, to me, is the truest signifier of mastery.
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