The Top 20 CrossFit Travel WODs To Train Anywhere

Keeping up with your CrossFit training while you travel can be challenging since it can be tough to find the time, equipment, or space to get your workouts in.

If you are lucky, your hotel or rental apartment/home has a gym, but the chances that they have a gym and all of the functional training equipment you need to hit your workout of the day are slim. 

I know because I often deal with the same frustrations as myself as a CrossFit athlete, remote coach, and physical therapist for more than a decade, working with clients who travel frequently.

If you are anything like myself or my athletes, you want legitimate training while you travel that extends beyond a few sets of sit-ups or a max set of push-ups. 

If so, you are in the right corner of the internet since this article will reveal the top 20 CrossFit travel WODs that I have used for my clients and my own training to avoid gaps in training and maintain fitness while traveling. 

They’ll blend bodyweight strength training, calisthenics, and gymnastics executed at high intensity to give you a jolt of fitness no matter where your travels take you. 

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What Are The Best CrossFit Travel WODs?

Regardless of where you find yourself traveling, whether on vacation, a business trip, or simply training in your home gym instead of your CrossFit gym, these workouts will get the job done. 

They may not jump off the page like workouts with standard equipment will, but the workouts that don’t jump off the page tend to be the most demanding. 

Workout 1

For Time:

• 1-mile run
• 50 Sit Ups
• 40 Walking Lunges
• 30 Vertical Jumps
• 20 Push-Ups
• 10 Pull Ups

Workout 2

AMRAP 15 Minutes:

• 10 Handstand Push-Ups
• 20 Double Unders
• 30 Air Squats

Workout 3

8 Rounds Each (20s Work / 10s Rest):

• Tabata Squats
• Tabata Sit-Ups
• Tabata Push-Ups
• Tabata Hollow Rocks

Workout 4

4 Rounds for Time:

• 400m Run
• 30 Sit-Ups
• 20 Jumping Lunges
• 10 Pull-Ups

Workout 5

EMOM 12 Minutes:

• Minute 1: 15 Jump Squats
• Minute 2: 20 Walking Lunges
• Minute 3: 25 Russian Twists

Workout 6

For Time:

• 21-15-9 Reps of:
• Kettlebell Swings (using a backpack)
• Incline Push Ups

Workout 7

3 Rounds for Time:

• 800 Meter Run
• 25 Push-Ups
• 50 Air Squats

Workout 8

AMRAP 20 Minutes:

• 5 Handstand Push-Ups
• 10 Tuck Jumps
• 15 Sit-Ups

Workout 9

For Time:

• 100 Double Unders
• 50 Sit-Ups
• 25 Handstand Push-Ups

Workout 10

5 Rounds for Time:

• 200-meter Sprint
• 15 Squat Jumps
• 10 Pull-Ups

Workout 11

4 Rounds for Time:

• 400m Run
• 30 Russian Twists
• 20 Walking Lunges
• 10 Handstand Push-Ups

Workout 12

AMRAP 10 Minutes:

• 10 Air Squats
• 10 Sit-Ups
• 10 Push-Ups

Workout 13

For Time:

• 100 Double Unders
• 50 Walking Lunges
• 40 Sit-Ups
• 30 Pull-Ups
• 20 Handstand Push-Ups

Workout 14

3 Rounds for Time:

• 30-Second Handstand Hold
• 20 Push-Ups
• 10 Chair Dips

Workout 15

5 Rounds for Time:

• 100m Sprint
• 10 Tuck Jumps
• :30 second plank
• 10 Push-Ups
• 10 Sit-Ups

Workout 16

EMOM 10 Minutes:

• Odd Minutes: 15 Kettlebell Swings (using a backpack)
• Even Minutes: 10 Handstand Push-Ups

Workout 17

For Time:

• 800m Run
• 50 Air Squats
• 50 Sit-Ups
• 50 Push-Ups

Workout 18

4 Rounds for Time:

• 25 Jump Squats
• 25 Sit-Ups
• 25 Push-Ups
• : 30-second rest between rounds

Workout 19

AMRAP 12 Minutes:

• 10 Handstand Push-Ups
• 15 Sit-Ups
• 20 Air Squats

Workout 20

For Time:

• 200 Double Unders
• 50 Walking Lunges
• 25 Handstand Push-Ups

How To Modify The Travel Workouts

Now that you have the travel workouts, you may need to modify them based on your fitness level, space, or equipment. 

Follow the steps below to adjust the intensity or environment to suit your needs. 

Make Them Harder

To make the workouts harder, consider the following modifications:

Increase the pace: Increase the pace you move to intensify the workout, elevate your heart rate, and enhance the cardiovascular benefits of the session. For example, increase the cycle rate of your burpees or sprint during the running intervals.

Increase repetitions: Increasing volume is a great way to increase the challenge; add more repetitions to a movement. For example, if a workout calls for 10 push-ups, try doing 15 or 20 instead. 

Try a static hold: Adding static holds to any of the workouts below, you can create lactic retention, trapping lactate in the muscle to increase the metabolic demands of the movement. 

Since time under tension will increase, you will also increase the workout’s strength and endurance effect. For example, hold a plank position or a hollow rock hold or add a squat hold to facilitate longer periods at the bottom of a squat. 

Use weighted objects: You can add resistance by using heavy objects such as a filled water jog, backpack, or suitcase to perform thrusters, Russian twists. or any other exercises that can be loaded. 

Add explosiveness: To train explosiveness and build power, increase the dynamic nature of the workouts by adding plyometric moves such as a squat jump or broad jumps. 

Make Them Easier

If you need to dial back the difficulty of the workouts, then try these scaling options to make them more manageable: 

Reduce your pace: Just like increasing your pace can make the workouts harder, reducing it can make them easier. Try slowing things down, focusing on repeating each round at the same speed, and keeping things aerobic instead of anaerobic.

Decrease repetitions: By decreasing the repetitions of each exercise, you” reduce the muscle endurance you need to complete the workout. This can help keep things sustainable and lower the challenge. 

Reduce total working time: Shortening the overall workout by dropping the number of rounds or duration of each set will lower your total work, ultimately making the workout easier. 

Keep things simple: Drop the complexity of the movements to make it easier to sustain repetition and repetition round to round. For example, a push-up is less complex than a handstand push-up. 

Take Them Outside

If you don’t have the space in your hotel room or want to get outside, here are some ways to take these workouts outside: 

Park Workouts: Find the closest park to you and use their park benches and playground equipment or a flight of stairs to hit step-ups, tricep dips, or monkey bars for pull-ups. You’re only limited by your creativity. You could also use the open space for running or lunges or find objects to pick up, swing, or carry. 

Hill Workouts: As a former athlete, I love hill workouts, which are so good for your lower body. You can do hill sprints, lunges up the incline, or bear crawls up the hill, which can be a workout in and of themselves. Just set a timer and start climbing the hill. 

Water Workouts: Although none of the workouts mentioned incorporate water, you can utilize the pool or local lake if available. I have added a lap in the pool to the end of a round in workouts or performed a “cash in or out” at the beginning or end of a workout. This will either pre-fatigue you or act as a finisher to ensure you’ve emptied the tank for the day.

Benefits of CrossFit Travel WODs

Maintaining your training with these travel CrossFit workouts has several benefits for you as a CrossFit athlete. 

Maintain Fitness Levels

This is the most obvious one, especially if you are a current CrossFit athlete. Short-term drops in training can lead to a decrease in maximal oxygen uptake and blood volume, which can affect your endurance performance. (1) . Hitting these CrossFit travel WODs will help you avoid gaps in training to maintain your fitness levels. 

When training conditioning is not ideal from a time, space, or equipment standpoint, as is the case during travel, emphasizing high-intensity workouts can be the ticket to keeping you fit and avoiding the effects of deconditioning until you return to your CrossFit gym. 

Boost Energy and Mood

This will likely apply to you if you’re traveling for business rather than vacation since being on vacation will already boost your energy and mood. But if you have had issues while traveling, you may need a quick workout to get your spirits back up. 

Exercise increases endorphins, the “feel-good hormones” that can profoundly affect your mental state. (2) Doing these workouts while you travel can help you stay energized, maintain a positive attitude, and manage stress. 

Improve Sleep Quality

Sleep is one of the remaining factors for maintaining and improving fitness and performance. So, ensuring that your sleep is not disrupted while on the road is paramount to preserving your gains from training. 

Sleep disruptions can also lead to an almost 1.7x increase in injury risk during training, and the most shocking part is that a “disruption in sleep” is classified as getting less than seven hours per night. (3) 

Fortunately, maintaining your training and rhythm can assist you in maintaining a consistent sleep schedule and avoiding drops in performance or spikes in injury risk. 

Potential Gear For CrossFit Travel WODs

When my clients travel, they often bring a few pieces of light equipment to help augment their training variety while away. Below are some of the pieces of CrossFit equipment that can be easily stored in a backpack or suitcase for you to do the same.

Fitness Watch / Tracker

Having a watch or ring to track your training while you are away can help you gauge the intensity of your session. If you find your sessions while you travel aren’t challenging enough, then a quality fitness tracker can objectively tell you if you are correct.

It can also kee you on track with your daily activity unrelated to your workouts. I have found that my daily steps drop considerably when I am on vacation. This ultimately can lead to unnecessary fat gain and loss of endurance, but if you can track your activity with a watch, you can prevent it from happening.

Purchase a fitness tracker (LINK)

Jump Rope

The jump rope is an essential travel piece of equipment because it is so light and compact that you can virtually take it anywhere. It is also a powerful tool to help build cardiovascular endurance, coordination, and agility during high-intensity training sessions on the go, so there is no reason not to pack it in your bag.

Purchase a jump rope for CrossFit (LINK)

Durable Backpack

A durable CrossFit backpack can serve multiple purposes for CrossFit athletes on the road. 

For starters, it can help you carry all your essentials, from your clothes to your accessory training equipment. But, it can also supplement your workouts by allowing you to load objects into it for various exercises, such as rucks, backpack swings, carries presses, and more. 

Purchase a CrossFit backpack (LINK)

Timer

Most of us now have smartphones with timers built into their functionality and can time our workouts and rest periods just fine. But if you prefer a traditional digital timer’s look, feel, and size, plenty of portable CrossFit workout timers are on the market today. 

Pack one away while you travel, then plug it in for your workouts. 

Purchase a travel timer (LINK)

Light Dumbbells

Light dumbbells can be another excellent addition to your workouts while on the road since they increase the variety and challenge of your sessions over bodyweight movements. 

For example, you could easily turn a burpee into a devil’s press, or an air squat into a goblet squat or even dumbbell thrusters. So, if you have the correct travel situation to pack them, go for it. 

Purchase a set of dumbbells (LINK)

Final Thoughts on CrossFit Travel WODs

Maintaining your training schedule while you travel has numerous benefits, from keeping your hard-earned gains to improving your mental state. 

As a CrossFit athlete, nothing is worse than feeling sluggish and unmotivated, and like all of your hard-earned gains have been lost after several days of interrupted training.

By keeping these travel workouts in your back pocket, you can avoid this feeling entirely with efficient and challenging sessions that you can do anywhere. Simply warm-up and then get to work!

But the secret to achieving your fitness goals lies in working with a professional coach who can tailor your training to your specific needs, whether you’re traveling, training at your home gym, or training at home for the day.

Over the past decade, I have helped hundreds of CrossFit athletes reach their fitness goals without the aches and pains often caused by generic training programs. 

Many of my clients were frustrated with their progress during group fitness classes that weren’t designed for their unique needs. If you’re tired of workouts that just leave you exhausted without making gains over time and are ready to elevate your fitness, I invite you to book a free consultation.

Let’s discuss your goals and how I can help you reach them faster with a personalized approach.

Book your free consultation here! 

References:

1. Mujika, I., & Padilla, S. (2000). Detraining: loss of training-induced physiological and performance adaptations. Part I: short term insufficient training stimulus. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 30(2), 79–87. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200030020-00002   

​2. Mikkelsen, K., Stojanovska, L., Polenakovic, M., Bosevski, M., & Apostolopoulos, V. (2017). Exercise and mental health. Maturitas, 106, 48–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2017.09.003

3. Huang, K., & Ihm, J. (2021). Sleep and Injury Risk. Current sports medicine reports, 20(6), 286–290. https://doi.org/10.1249/JSR.0000000000000849