Gym on the Road - Asia

Crossfit and travel are two things which perhaps don’t naturally blend well together. Imagine your typical crossfitter. Quite particular about their routine, enjoys regular structured workouts, nutritionally aware of what they’re putting in their mouths… you get the picture. Combine these traits with a schedule including no routine, no kitchen and no gym and you may end up with a couple of grumpy travellers. For the reasons stated above, we are definitely not your ‘spending six months on the road exploring’ kind of travellers. We like habits. We like routine. But we also want to see a bit of the world. And the world hasn’t quite all caught the exercise bug just yet, so we had to come to some kind of middle ground.

What was most interesting though, was the number of people we saw and met were a bit confused by our holiday working out. ‘But it’s a holiday – we exercise when we are home’ was one. ‘What are they doing in this heat?’ aptly described the looks on faces of others.

So I was thinking, why are we doing it? Charlie summed it up a little better than me in saying that working out makes us feel good, so why should we stop doing what makes us feel good, just because we aren’t at home? And I couldn’t agree more. Further, if holidays/travel are supposed to relax you and make you feel refreshed – why remove the only thing from your usual life that makes you feel this way.

Charlie + Humidity

So we decided we would do some working out. Now don’t get me wrong, there were days when I did not want to even though we had planned to. There were days when humidity and temperatures of 32 Celsius made the realfeel of 42 Celcius just too much. So on those days, we / I didn’t work out. Generally we listened to what the body wanted and if it said no, we either happily obliged or did something small in the knowledge it'll make us feel better. If you want to read into what we did, it is important to note that the aim of this wasn’t to improve fitness or make any reasonable gains. It was something to make us feel good – it is what our bodies are used to after all, and to prevent major loss of gains / reversal of adaptations from the training phases which were more structured before we left the UK. Specifically, we don’t want to lose some of the strength we have been working on, namely deadlifts and back squats, so we had planned to integrate these once per week. For me, some shoulder rehab / maintenance was also important, and similarly for Charlie, calf rehab and maintenance.

So what did we do. If you really want to know, read below (apologies for Crossfit terminology). If not, being back in Singapore and having now done the first Crossfit WOD of the last month, it's safe to say that despite not doing anything with great intensity or technical movement, we are still able to move well and have not lost all conditioning! Job done. Now to the camper van - New Zealand here we come!

Thanks to the accommodating places and people where we used gyms and had tours!

The Strength Yard, Singapore

Crossfit Mobilus, Singapore

Mr Big Muscle Gym, Luang Prabang, Laos

Tuan Toan Fitness Centre, Hoi An, Vietnam

Asia Outdoors, Cat Ba Island, Vietnam

Parkrun Singapore

What we did.....

Singapore has more heat and humidity than I've ever experienced before but good gym and Crossfit facilities are available and running is very popular here. As a result Singapore was always going to be a place where we did some working out. We were unsure of accessibility to gyms in Vietnam so figured we would make the most of Singapore.

Th 20/09

Our 6am arrival and overnight flight did nothing to help the jetlag so we proceeded to explore East Coast Park and ended up walking a very sweaty 12-15km or so before trying to resist napping!

Fr 21/09

After sleeping for 13 hours (yes, 13, we had managed to avoid napping!) it was another hazy day. I swam in the pool (20 lengths) where we are staying and did around 15 minutes of stretching/mobility to try and feel a bit more normal. Though in general, we let our bodies dictate the level of activity.

Sa 22/09

Parkrun Singapore happens at 730am because naturally 9am is far too hot! So was 730am in my opinion but I ran 2 miles steady with Charlie and the last mile harder whilst Charlie went at calf rehab pace. Me: 24:28. Charlie: 25:15 and the calf is still in one piece.

Su 23/09

I swam the 20 lengths and did the stretching whilst Charlie did an EMOM 10 of 10 push ups.

24/09

The friends we are staying with took us on a nice run around Marina Bay Sands – 25minutes at 10:00min/mile pace.

25/09

It had been too long without a gym so we ventured to The Strength Yard in Katong which is a great little strength training gym. We each planned what we wanted to do here to keep ticking over.

Charlie - Deadlift programme + E3M x 5 of 1 strict press, 5 back squats, 6 C2B pullups

Sophie – Back Squat Pyramid 6,4,2,4,6 + E4M x 4 of 3 strict pullups + 3 strict T2B + Scap control exercise + KB row

Hoi An

Vietnam is another Asian country but not one where organised sport is so readily available to the traveller. So here we had to get a bit creative!

26/09

I stretched in the morning for around 15-20 minutes and in the evening we did a ‘Room workout’. This is where creativity and air con come in handy!

EMOM 32

Charlie – 40 sec hollow hold, 30s left plank, 30s right plank, 15 pushups

Sophie – 40 sec hollow hold, 10 down ups, 10 plank knee to elbow, 10 air squats

This was all pretty sweaty but gave us some energy back that the flight and heat had taken from us!

27/09

I stretched again in the morning – this was becoming a nice relaxing start to the day.

28/09

Charlie was having gym withdrawal, so we sought a gym in Hoi An. The first place we checked out was an incredibly old school iron gym, which was sadly closed. We then found Tuan Toan Fitness Centre which served its purpose nicely. Lots of machines but also a good sort of rig area with open space for a Sophie EMOM.

Charlie - Back Squat Programme + E3M 1 bench + 8 DB Row

Sophie – Leg press (there was only one rickety squat rack) + EMOM24 - 5 strict pullups, 16

DB OH Lunge (8+8), 12 face pulls, 10 downups

It’s very interesting how the body reacts to heat. This EMOM was not too taxing on the muscles but the sweat made it all seem so much harder. Gym had fans but no aircon ☹

Phong Nha

Phong Nha is much quieter than Hoi An. The village is very small but has grown due to tourism in the last 5 years. Despite this, there remains no gym. Charlie was not too disappointed though as running was more feasible here, though did involve being waved at by all children and some trying to run along side you. Having no gym wasn’t too problematic so the activities went a little like this

29/9

I did the nice usual morning stretch and Charlie went on a 30min run 8:19/mi whilst I slept in the afternoon – I seemed to have caught a cold, seemingly from the air con / outside heat contrast.

30/9

Again a morning stretch for me and an EMOM 20 for both of us in the evening.

Charlie EMOM20 – 10 push ups

Sophie EMOM20 – 10 down ups

Followed by 300 air squats for time. I never knew before how much DOMS this can cause – heat is not my friend.

1/10

45 minute run 8:38/mi 5.2mi together. Very sweaty.

Hanoi / Cat Ba Island

A new place and a new challenge. Hanoi is crazy and there is very little opportunity to do much exercise, nor does the density and pace of life make you want to. We stayed one night before and after our visit to Cat Ba and did some walking during this time but otherwise nothing more than a bit of stretching. Cat Ba also had no gym and we were quite short on time spent here so fitted in very little as well.

2/10

Just exploring.

3/10

The only Crossfit in Hanoi seems a bit restrictive on open gym times so we decided not to explore this and just enjoy the time we had there.

4/10

We went Stand Up Paddle Boarding with Asia Outdoors as a way to explore Ha Long / Lan Ha Bay and it was excellent. I am really glad we made the choice to see the bay this way. So if the overhead squat we did on the paddle board counts as exercise then I suppose we did a bit!

5/10

1 hour up and back to reach the peak of Cat Ba National Park. Warm and a reasonable quad workout.

Luang Prabang

My naivety led me to believe that Laos would be similar to Vietnam, but in fact we were pleasantly surprised with the immediate difference here. Laotians were a lot calmer, in less of a hurry, and a lot more into their exercise from what we could see. Even compared to similar sized places in Vietnam, Luang Prabang had a much slower feel to it, which we really liked. They even had gyms!

6/10

Travel Day

7/10

3-4 hour hike through on the other side of the Mekong River, past some temples, through the jungle and up some hills. A good way to stretch the legs. Charlie found the aptly named Mr Big Muscle Gym and disappeared there that evening – Back Squat Programme + E3M x5 5 strict press + 8 DB Row. I wasn’t feeling it, so instead did a 60minute stretch on the communal balcony – room sadly too small to stretch here!!

8/10

30min run 9:42/mi 3.2 mi together then I did a little EMOM 10 – 10 air squats + 10 alternating lunges.

9/10

EMOM 30 for both of us – 40sec hollow hold, 20 pistols, 10 burpees.

Singapore

The round trip of Asia then brought us back to Singapore. It was nice to come back to somewhere you know, which doesn’t happen too often on travels. As a result we have slotted back into routine quite nicely.

10/10

Travel Day and little evening stretch

11/10

I did the 20 lengths and morning stretch before we both hit the gym in the afternoon. Back to The Strength Yard it was.

Charlie – E3M x5 – 5 bench + 8 ring pull ups + E4M x5 – 8 DB press + 25 banded pull aparts + 4K row.

Sophie – Back Squat Pyramid 6,4,2,4,6 with upturned KB shoulder press superset + EMOM 20 - 30sec scap hold, 5+5 upturned KB split squat, 15 banded pull aparts, 5 scap control exercise, rest.

12/10

For the first time in the whole trip, we are entering a Crossfit Gym! Our good friends Paloma and Gus who we know from Crossfit in London now live in Singapore, so we have organised to do a WOD with Paloma (unfortunately Gus is injured).

WOD – A - Dead Stop Deadlifts every 2:30 5 reps x5sets.

B – AMRAP 10 Run 200m, 15 T2B, 10 DB Snatch.

Crossfit Mobilus were super accomodating and really friendly. A great session, great coaching and we haven't lost all gains! Yipee.