Most field service engineers travel onsite to work. How can you keep the focus on staying fit and healthy as a field engineer? What can you do to balance travelling and working making your days long? This article focuses on tips and advice for staying fit and healthy.

Maintaining health and fitness for success as a field engineer

Hydration

Stay hydrated from the moment you leave home until the moment you return as it will help your overall health.

Things to do to aid this:

Take your own water bottle.
Add fruit to your water bottle, for example, slices of orange, apple, berries.
Take a few herbal tea bags as hot water is always available and it will limit your coffee intake.

Exercise

If you’re travelling on a train or bus, stand for part of the journey and stretch.

If you’re driving, stop every two hours and move.

Once you have checked in, walk the airport, you can usually clock up a good distance. If you are lucky enough to be in Baltimore Washington International Airport, then try Roam Fitness.

On a plane, stand up every hour or two and walk up and down the aisle.

Exercise first thing or plan when you will exercise just as you plan the rest of your day.

Exercise outside even if it’s only around the car park. If not, walk up and down stairs multiple times.

Ideally in terms of exercising focus on:

Body weight workouts
HIIT workouts
TRX training (easy to travel with a suspension training kit).

If you normally use a gym or play a certain sport, see if you can research ahead of time and find:

Taster sessions
Group events
Pay as you go events
Day passes.

If you don’t have much room in your luggage, then just a skipping rope and/or basic resistance bands will help.

Download one or two fitness apps to use before you leave. Take time to find the ones which most appeal to you.

Healthy eating

In terms of nutrition, it’s very difficult to eat well on the road but
focus on higher protein options which help keep you feeling full and less likely to go for high calorie snacks. Good examples are nuts, seeds, protein bars and shakes.

Try this exercise for aiding digestion:

Suck in your stomach as far as you can, then stick it out as far as you can. Meanwhile, breathe in when sucking in, and breathe out when pushing your stomach out. This small exercise helps blood flow to the stomach, aids in digestion, and exercises your abdominal muscles.

Wellbeing to enhance focus on staying fit and healthy

If you can stay in an Airbnb type place rather than hotel room as you’ll have more control over your food and more room to move around.

Elevate your legs (up the wall or on a chair) at least once a day for 15 minutes – helps with blood pressure and boosts energy and well being.

Stay in contact with friends and family; just a few messages sent each morning will give you response when you look in the evening.

Keep to a routine of exercising and regular meal times as much as possible.

Do you have any of your own tips?

Thank you to Claire Greenhouse, Personal Trainer, for her advice.

Further reading

Field Engineer Mental Health Challenges

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