How to plan workouts as a pilot or cabin crew

I often get the question “when or how do we workout while traveling”. I even hear that we just don’t have time to workout. That our jobs as long haul crew just don’t allow us to. I’m here to show you that we have all the time in the world if planned correctly. Especially for long haul crew, because we have gyms in the hotels we stay at.

Flight and workout schedule example

Let me show an example week of 7 days where I’m flying 4 long distance flights and need to workout 5 times.

Planning ahead is key. So i will take the time to Schedule the workouts, based on the flights each day.

Questions i ask myself:

• Is it a night flight?
• What time will I wake up at the destination?
• When is our check in time?
• etc.

We have the facilities, because we have gyms in every hotel. Let’s go through every day.

Monday. Long flight to LA ahead of us
08:45-09:30 : Wake up and go for breakfast.
10:45-11:45 : Go to the gym
12:00-13:20 : Shower, get dressed and prepare for the flight of that day
13:30 : Pick up

Tuesday: It’s an off day in Los Angeles. Due to the 9 hour time difference with Europe, I’ll usually wake up at 04:00-05:00 in the morning.

04:30 : Wake up
05:00-06:00 : Go to the gym
06:30 : Head for breakfast and the rest of the day is mine

Wednesday: Rest day.

Thursday: After a nightflight, I’ll always plan a nap for a couple of hours (no longer than 2:30 hrs)
02:00-04:00 : arrive at the hotel and take a 2 hour nap
04:15-05:15 : Head for the gym
05:15: Rest of the evening is mine

Friday:
08:45-09:30 :Wake up and go to breakfast.
10:45-11:45 : Go to the gym
12:00- We have a late pick up for JFK so there’s plenty of free time now

Saturday: Rest day

Sunday:
12:00-14:00: arrive at the hotel and take a 2 hour nap
14:15-15:15: Head for the gym

This is an example of my training schedule where I’ll workout 5 times a week. It’ll of course be easier for an individual to plan who’ll just train 3 times a week.

Planning workouts in your daily routine is key

Once you give it a place in your weekly schedule, it’ll be there for you to do at that given time. Treat your workouts like it’s an important meeting. How you feel at that moment won’t matter.

Brandon Dudley

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