Staying in Shape in South Korea

Shadie writing - as my first post into the blog it is only fitting that it focus on fitness (say that several times quickly for added fun). We walk all the time while traveling, but both Dana and I, crave and enjoy more intense exercise. A higher level of activity can be challenging while traveling in that we don’t have access to a lot of the workout spaces, classes or equipment we use back home. As we wrap up our first month of travel, transitioning from Korea to Japan, here is a recap of how we've tackled this during our time here.

• Hiking - Korea has had incredible access to open space along rivers and in their many low-slung mountains. Most of these trails seem to involve steep climbs and lots of steps that cause lots of huffing and quad-burning. So, these hikes provide incredible outdoor exercise and have been a great go-to. Dana has shared details on several of these in other posts, but they included Bukhansan, Hallasan, both full day excursions for us. In Busan we did also several day hikes, including two coastal treks and a temple hike.

Dana has been exceptionally good at doing video workouts in our room, something she does regularly back home and given they are over YouTube, they've proved to be extremely portable. Overall, a good month, although I miss my gyms at home and Dana wishes she had room to carry a yoga mat along. We hope to continue and add on to this fitness routine as we continue on our journey to new countries!

• Biking - From our first days in Seoul, we thought we'd be able to bike all the time given the number of bike trails and prevalence of City Bikes (both at stations and free-standing like the Lime Bikes in the US) but accessing these proved more challenging than we had hoped. That said, we were able to find places to rent bike on Jeju Island along the coast (~40 miles) on eBikes and in Gyeongju out to Bomun lake, where we stopped at the botanic gardens and at a lovely traditional tea house.

• Running - this by far has been our best form of exercise. Having loved the easy access to Namsan park in Seoul, which allowed for multiple jogs there, we began deliberately seeking out lodging near running paths, rivers, or greenspace everywhere we go. In Gangneung, we got to run through ancient burial mounds, over moats, and across traditional covered bridges. In Gangneung, we jogged through red pine forest, along a beach and next to a lake in a single run.

• Gyms - while in Busan, I sleuthed out a CrossFit gym to go to. I've often had success doing walk-in classes at CrossFit gyms when traveling in the past and looked forward to doing the same here. After one or two false starts, where bus delays or protests got in the way of making it to class, I spent several enjoyable sessions at a local CrossFit gym and got on great with my Korean workout partners and the coach despite language barriers. I've searched a few other CrossFit gyms in other cities and will continue to do so. However, I’d say these have been the most challenging to find or coordinate, particularly as the gyms tend not to have websites or hours listed and share information on the web solely via Facebook or Instagram. We also had some accommodations with gyms (hotels or Airbnbs in nice condominiums). I should mention that many Korean parks (even small pocket parks) have some workout equipment installed with everything from lat-pull bar using body weight, to ellipticals, to inversion tables. These are quite popular, but sometimes less appealing since it's often been quite hot and humid.

This was actually the "flat" part of the Hallasan hike

Check out the gorgeous, covered bridge we ran over in the background!

Above, I tried a press at one of the outdoor free gyms in Namsan. Below, residents enjoy cityscape views while using the ellipticals in a park in Busan