Pilates While Travelling

The reformer is not coming on holiday with you, and that is fine. Keeping up Pilates while travelling does not need a machine, a studio or an hour a day. It needs a towel, a bit of floor and about 15 minutes, and it is the difference between coming home feeling like you never left and starting again from scratch.

This is how I keep my Pilates going on work trips and holidays, what I pack, a hotel room routine you can do anywhere, and how to come back to the reformer without wrecking yourself in the first week home.

Will you lose progress while you are away

A week or 2 away from the reformer costs you very little. Technique and body awareness hang around for a long time, and a short break often leaves people feeling fresher rather than weaker when they come back.

It is longer trips, and trips where you do nothing at all, that start to cost you. Endurance in the deep core and strength in the glutes and inner thighs fade first, and those are the things that make reformer work feel controlled.

The good news is that you do not need a reformer to hold on to them. Mat Pilates works the same muscles with your body weight, and 2 or 3 short sessions a week is enough to keep most of what you have built. If you want to understand how the 2 compare, we cover it in mat vs reformer Pilates.

What to pack

You can do everything in this guide with nothing at all. But a few small things make it noticeably better, and none of them take up real space.

Grip socks. Hotel carpet and tiles are either slippery or grim. A pair of grip socks weighs nothing and makes standing and plank work much safer. Our guide to grip socks for Pilates explains what to look for.

A light resistance band. A light loop or long band replaces the springs surprisingly well for clams, bridges, side lying leg work and arm exercises. Choose a light one. You want control, not maximum load.

A travel mat, or a towel. A folding travel mat is nice but not essential. A hotel bath towel folded in half lengthways cushions your spine for most of a mat class.

Your phone or tablet. The most useful piece of travel kit is a class you can follow, because it removes the need to remember exercises or make up a routine in a strange room.

A 15 minute hotel room routine

This is a full body mat routine that needs a space about the size of a single bed. Do each exercise for the reps listed, move slowly, and breathe out on the effort.

1. Breathing and pelvic tilts, 1 minute. Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat. Breathe into the sides of your ribs, then gently tilt the pelvis back and forth to wake up your lower back and deep abdominals.
2. Bridge, 10 reps. Peel your spine up one segment at a time until your hips are lifted, hold for a breath, then roll back down. Add a band around your thighs and press out gently if you packed one.
3. The hundred, 1 set. Head and shoulders lifted, legs in tabletop or extended, arms pumping by your sides. Breathe in for 5 pumps, out for 5, for 10 rounds. Keep your eyes on your knees, not the ceiling.
4. Single leg stretch, 10 each side. Head lifted, draw one knee in while the other leg extends, then switch. Keep your lower back heavy on the floor.
5. Side lying leg series, 10 of each move per side. Lie on your side with your hips stacked. Lift and lower the top leg, then small circles in each direction, then clams with knees bent. This is your inner and outer thigh work while the reformer is away.
6. Swimming, 30 seconds. Lie face down and lift your arms, chest and legs slightly, then flutter opposite arm and leg. Keep it small and long rather than high.
7. Plank, 3 holds of 20 seconds. On your forearms or hands, one long line from head to heels. Drop to your knees if your lower back starts to sag.
8. Spine stretch and rest, 1 minute. Sit tall with legs apart and reach forward to stretch the back, then finish lying down with your knees hugged in.

If you want more mat ideas, our list of the top 10 mat Pilates core moves all work in a hotel room.

How to actually fit it in

Good intentions do not survive holidays. Breakfast runs long, the day fills up and by the evening nobody wants to lie on a hotel floor. These are the things that work for me.

Go first thing. Before breakfast, before you check your phone, before anyone else in the room is up. Once the day starts, it is gone.

Lower the bar. On a trip I aim for 15 minutes, 3 times a week. Not my usual home routine. A target you cannot fail is the only one that survives a holiday.

Pick the class the night before. Choosing what to do is the moment most travel workouts die. Decide it before bed and the morning only needs you to press play.

Use the extra movement you are already doing. Holidays usually mean more walking than normal. Count it. Pair it with short Pilates sessions and you are covering far more than you think.

Long flights and travel days

Travel days are not training days. Do not try to fit a full class around a 6am flight. Instead, focus on keeping your body moving while you sit for hours.

On the plane, get up and walk the aisle when you can, and do small movements in your seat. Ankle circles, heel raises, gentle pelvic tilts, shoulder rolls and slow seated twists all help you arrive feeling less stiff.

When you land, a short stretch or a gentle 10 minute mat session does far more for jet lag stiffness than collapsing straight into bed. Save the harder sessions for the next morning.

Coming home to the reformer

The first session back after a trip is where people get caught out. You feel rested, you are keen to get back on the machine, and you jump straight into your usual class at your usual springs.

If you kept up some mat work while you were away, you can usually go back to normal within a session or 2. If you did nothing for a fortnight or more, take one spring off the heavy exercises for your first few sessions and pick a shorter class to start. Spending a few minutes on reformer footwork before anything harder is a good way to reconnect with the machine.

If your trip turned into a much longer break than planned, our guide to how many times a week to do reformer Pilates will help you set a realistic routine to build back into.

Frequently Asked Questions