Digital Nomad Stories

NomadStrong: Achieving Health and Fitness Anywhere as a Digital Nomad

• Anne Claessen • Season 2 • Episode 169

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How to stay healthy on the move? Remote personal trainer Marlon is back on the podcast to share his secrets for a sustainable, healthy nomad life. 

Tune in for strategies to remain 'adventure ready,' adapting workouts to any situation, and creating sustainable eating habits that travel with you. 

Connect with Marlon:


Connect with Anne:



Speaker 1:

Hey Nomads, welcome to Digital Nomad Stories, the podcast. My name is Anna Claessen and, together with my co-host, kendra Hasse, we interview digital nomads. Why? Because we want to share stories of how they did it. We talk about remote work, online business, location and dependency, freelancing, travel and, of course, the digital nomad lifestyle. Do you want to know more about us and access all previous episodes? Visit digitalnomadsdoriesco. Alright, let's go into today's episode. Hey, hey, nomads, welcome to a new episode of Digital Nomad Stories. Today, I'm here with a guest who was already on a podcast in a previous episode. His name is Marlon and he is now back to tell us a little bit more about how to stay healthy and fit on the road, so while traveling. It's a topic that a lot of nomads struggle with or have to find a balance in, and I just personally think it's so, so important. So I'm really happy that you're back, marlon. Welcome back to the podcast.

Speaker 2:

Hey Anna, hey everyone, glad to be back. Thanks you for inviting me again and I'm happy to share some more of my experience.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, sounds good. So to start things up, I'll give you a little bit of a kind of like a recap of what we discussed last time, and then just know that the previous episode that Marlon and I recorded is linked in the show notes, so if you want the full story, then you can listen to that episode first around this one after that. But last time we talked about Marlon's work as a health and fitness coach who works remotely with digital nomads, and he shared a few tips and tricks with us and also kind of like my own fitness journey as a nomad. So if you want to know more about that, then go to the previous episode. But today, I think to kick us off, marlon, do you want to tell a little bit like how, how are things like, did anything change since last time we spoke? Kind of like, where are you? Tell us a little bit about what life looks like.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, actually quite a few things changed. So, personally, I'm now not living in Guadalajara, mexico, anymore, but in Puerto Vallarta, which is right next to or more or less the closest place at the beach from Guadalajara. So, yeah, personally I moved. I moved to the beach. Now I have a view on the ocean from when I'm recording that podcast, so couldn't be much better.

Speaker 2:

And then, business wise also, things changed. I'm still a personal online fitness coach for digital nomads and remote workers. However, I now teamed up with Joe Müller, another colleague who was doing pretty much the same thing, and we opened a online gym, which is the Nomad Strong online gym, where we want to help as many people as possible, as many people on the road, many people who are working remotely from wherever in the world, to get fit, to not only get fit, but also stay fit and to make this a fun and rewarding experience, the experience of fitness, of health. And, yeah, we have that online gym right now where we're addressing remote workers, the digital nomads, but also remote teams. And yeah, so, to put that in a nutshell, quite a few things changed personally and business ways.

Speaker 1:

Perfect. So lots of questions, lots of changes. So living at the beach sounds not bad at all. Pretty exciting change. Why did you decide to make that change? Was it really the beach that you were missing, or is there another reason? Okay, talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 2:

It was really actually the reason that I always wanted to live at the beach. I always wanted to live close to the ocean. I always wanted to wake up in the morning, just go to the beach and do my workouts there, rather than in the gym or wherever else. So that has always been my dream or my goal to live there. And then it was so feasible because now I was so close to the beach already here in Mexico. So I was like, okay, if I work remotely, I can just move a few hundred kilometers further and I'm living close to the beach, I can do my workout there and enjoy life at the beach, which was definitely a good idea this year.

Speaker 1:

Cool, sounds awesome, and then in an online gym. Can you talk a little bit more about what that actually means? What life can we expect when we go to an online gym?

Speaker 2:

Yes, very good question, because I mean, most people know their local gyms or some gym chain. People know how gyms work and the online gym that we have is basically the same principle. So people are actually getting into the gym, people are having their onboarding call with us. We see, we check what is the situation, what is the need, the goal, the interest of that specific person and based on that, we are making a habit and a training plan for that person so that that person can reach their fitness goals wherever in the world. So, no matter where that person is, no matter what the situation of that person is, we give the right training plans, the right habits to get that person fit. And now the whole thing is not only a one-on-one coaching but we make it a whole immunity experience like a gym.

Speaker 2:

You walk in the gym, you see all these other heteronomids in that case training, reaching their goals, pushing each other. So we have a forum, we have a group chat, we have all that. We want to make all that like a community experience because obviously if you do it together, it is way easier to motivate yourself and it's just more fun to reach fitness goals wherever the goal is. People have different goals. People have individual goals, but we want to make this a community experience and this is why we created this online gym. So you have an app where you see all your training plans, you see all the habits that you have to do. You just open the app, you know exactly what you should do today, how you should eat and how you should train, and then we have weekly group coaching calls. We also have one-on-one coaching options and, yeah, like this we're trying to be a gym like you know it, as a gym in real life, but only online, so you can access it from everywhere.

Speaker 1:

Exactly. And why is it important for nomads to go to an online gym or at least be active and focus on their health? Because I think a lot of people, especially probably people who just start traveling I had that experience and I was like, oh, but I'm traveling, you know, like calories don't count and it's difficult, maybe, to make time to go to a gym online or not online. So why is it important and why should we prioritize this?

Speaker 2:

I mean, first of all, I think for everybody remote workers are not remote workers enough movement and a good enough nutrition is important to just feel good and get the most out of your body and your life.

Speaker 2:

But then, especially for remote workers, it's quite hard. It is harder to stay fit because imagine you're working in the office, on the way back from your work, you just go to the same gym all the time. That is easier, just do your quick session there, and that is why, for people who work remotely, this is a different or a more difficult thing. Because you are more flexible, your lifestyle is more flexible. You don't always have a gym there. You maybe don't always want to go to a gym, so it is very important to find a location, independent solution and find a solution that works wherever you are, even if you have like very varied schedules, if you're always in different places, different environments. That is why, for remote workers or for digital nomads, it is harder to get and stay fit and that is why you should focus, or we should focus more on that, especially in that field. I think.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I know, I absolutely agree, and it's insane how much it changes nomad life if you are relatively fit and you can just enjoy certain things so much more like just travel days actually just you know, you're dragging around a suitcase full of all your stuff. It's just like staying where you're fit.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. That's another point. When you experienced it yourself, I mean I was super happy when I received your message a few days ago that you're still training. I mean, it has been a few months that we haven't been chatting or talking. And then I hear from you that you're still sticking to your fitness habits and I mean you enjoy the results. Right, you feel better while traveling, and I mean, just set it yourself travel days are easier and all that right.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, yeah, 100%, yeah. It's insane like if I think, because at the time we're recording this, it's February 2024 and we started working together. I think it was February 2023, so exactly a year ago. So, I can really compare how I feel now versus how I felt a year ago. And yeah, it's just such a big difference? Absolutely yeah, and it's all in habits. So can you talk a little bit more about your approach at Nomad Gym or Nomad Strong? I mean the virtual gym.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm, it's quite sure. So our approach, I mean we're we teamed up to actually help people, as I said before, wherever they are, to get there, to get fit and to reach their fitness goals. And for that I mean you need the right tools. And here the main idea is that every person is different and every person has different goals, but there is certain principles that every person, every healthy, every fit person we need to take care of, which is, for example, a good and a solid strength level to prevent injury, but also to but also to feel better when you're carrying your backpack and not experience back pain and all these things. So that is, that is like a foundation that we, that we from Nomad Strong, have with our, with our clients and in our work.

Speaker 2:

Strength training, then I mean people get their strength training plans, which is very important is that it's location independent. So you need strength training plans for at home, for sure, or for outdoors, for sure. Then you will need some within little equipment for where, whenever you have your TRX with you, it's like a, like a sling trainer which is very nice to train with. But then maybe a person will also need a gym training plan, because maybe that person visits a gym sometimes. So very important to give the right tools so that, in whatever situation you are, you can actually take advantage of these different tools that you have and just use the tool For example, now that the training plan, the gym training plan that works the best for you at that moment, so that you are flexible in your training but also in your nutrition. So, regarding nutrition, we are not giving training, we're not giving nutrition plans like strict nutrition plans, because that doesn't work if you're always in different places and if you want to enjoy life in. Nutrition plan is the opposite, actually. So we are trying to create the right habits, the right nutrition habits to know exactly that, wherever in the world you are, you have the right knowledge to then actually choose the right food and have the right nutrition habits.

Speaker 2:

For example, the intermittent fasting to get you in shape. Maybe you want to lose weight, then you will need to know how to use intermittent fasting to get there. Maybe you have other specific plans, then you need the right nutrition habits to get there. So this is a very individual thing. Still, there are some principles that we can't neglect and, yeah, that is why we have some foundations, like the strength training, but also our cardio trainings. We are not all about gym and not all about strength training. For sure, we like to do different activities. I myself enjoy playing basketball, boxing, surfing, whatever activity and for these activities we want to be adventure ready. Or also for hikes, which was a thing with you, I think, we want to have the endurance and we want to have the power to just do that hike and to not feel limited by your body, and that is the whole idea. There are different tools to get there, which is always individual, but there are some things that we can neglect, like, for example, strength training and yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly no, I absolutely agree. And the coolest thing is a few weeks ago I went on a 16-kilometer hike and it was quite challenging. Like there was no shade and it was lost up and down. It was quite a challenging hike as in the path which is especially down, it was all rocks and I was fine. I mean, I was tired after that, but I was totally fine. And last year I could literally not have done this especially, I noticed what I didn't really expect, but I really noticed that when I was walking down on rock on a path that was not really good, my legs felt so strong walking down and I have never experienced that before. Even when I was relatively fit before nomadding, I never had this experience where I was like, oh wow, this is going so easy because of my legs trying. So yeah, I totally the living proof that strength training is super important. So then do all these other fun things too and enjoy that even more.

Speaker 2:

Exactly exactly. That is exactly what you just said. It's exactly where we want our clients to get, and feeling that your body is working for and not against you is a nice feeling, I think.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely yes. So what are some common mistakes that you see digital nomads make when it comes to their health and fitness?

Speaker 2:

What I see very often is that you have or people have, I mean happened to me before you have that motivation boost because of some I don't know some influencer you saw on Instagram who motivated you because he's super in shape or whatever you want to. You're super hyped because you just finished a hike or whatever, and then you try to do everything at once and you try to. You say, you go to the gym every day or you work out every day and you eat healthy, and all these things at once don't work and that is what I see. A lot People try to do like I have that motivation boost, try to do too many things at once and then can't be consistent with that. So consistency is the hardest thing about fitness. Everybody can do a few workouts in a row and everybody can eat healthy or quite healthy for a while. But then doing that not only for a while but, like you also did right now, for a year and even more, is the hard part to not fall back. And that's unfortunately, the thing that I see the most, because in the end I think like then it's all for nothing right If you don't have the right habits and are just not able to stick to it and to keep seeing results, then all what you've worked for in that short period of time where you were so motivated just goes back and you're back at zero, and that is what I see a lot.

Speaker 2:

Also. What I see is a lot is that people depend too much on gyms. So people try to I mean happen to me in the beginning as well Like I always try, I search for gyms and then you go there and then it's closed and then you think like, ah, okay, and I walked all the way and let's just go to a cafe and whatever and I just skip my workouts. So, depending too much on certain factors like gyms or not being able to then adapt to a new environment where food might not be so easy, to not be so healthy in general, where it's not so easy to get the right food, that is also a thing which is hard, which is, for sure, hard, and I understand that these struggles and I'm not saying that I eat perfectly clean and perfectly healthy, but to have a good balance between fitness and freedom wherever you are and I think that is a challenge and that is hard to reach, and hard to reach in a sustainable way like you did actually. So it is possible and it's the motivation actually.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it is possible, absolutely. But I definitely agree with you because, especially on the flexibility part and I think that really solves the issue of depending too much on a gym or going all in and building the habits but doing everything at once I think that flexibility is so important because once you get too much of a perfectionist about your plans, I think that's when it can easily go wrong, and I think what you taught me is that it doesn't matter if you do another workout, if you have scheduled a strength workout but you're really not feeling the strength workout and you would much rather do a cardio workout. Well, do a cardio workout but at least do a workout.

Speaker 1:

Yes, it's always better to do something than to do nothing or to skip it or whatever, which is always have a plan B. And, like I, said it's always better to do something else instead of nothing.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. That is always better physically, because your body still gets some kind of sign that we're moving, we're being active, we are still that active, fit person, but also mindset wise. Not or skipping is a bad thing. If you skip too many times in a row, you might think, okay, it doesn't make sense to get back. But if you do at least something, even if it's 10 push-ups, whatever you didn't skip, you did something. You had your plan B or your plan C ready, which is a very important thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, after a true. So, speaking of flexibility and like having kind of a plan B even when the gym is closed and it all doesn't go to planned, what is the best thing that we can do? Do you have a go-to Plan B workout that you could recommend?

Speaker 2:

A go-to Plan B workout? Hard to say because also here, this depends on your individual goal. What I would always say a quick and location-independent workout as a spare workout you could say is a workout that consists of five different exercises that you do for three rounds. These five different exercises have to cover the different muscle groups that your body has, so it's a full-body workout. You do the whole thing for three rounds and then you can actually set a timer and let the timer run through until 15, starting from zero, and then, with the beginning of every new minute, you start a new exercise. That is a very simple spare workout.

Speaker 2:

I think this is not the right time to explain every workout or every exercise one after the other, but I think here even a YouTube workout is better than doing nothing. A YouTube workout might be a bad spare workout, but it's a spare workout and that is still better than no workout at all. So whoever right now thinks, yeah, I should do something, but I don't know where to start YouTube full-body workout, check it out, just do it. And then everybody who actually wants to be a little bit more serious about that, where it's not just about workouts but about getting a whole toolbox of how to get and stay fit as a digital nomad, wherever in the world you are. Here we have a five-day email course which you can find on our website, which is for free. You can just sign up, check out that course and here we will then get a little bit more into detail and not only talk about one spare workout, but about a whole toolbox of these big five things that get you ordered and enable you to get and stay fit on the road.

Speaker 1:

Okay, perfect. That is awesome that you have that free email challenge. Where can people find it? We'll also link it in the show notes, but can you also tell us what the URL is for that?

Speaker 2:

You would find that on nomadstrongcom, I think, as you said you're going to link it in the show notes nomadstrongcom, right on top, you can sign up for that five-day email course. You cannot oversee it actually. So, yeah, we're happy about everyone who is actually serious about their fitness and signs up there. And then, yeah, once you sign up maybe I should mention that once you sign up, you get five emails, one email per day for the next five days, where we then talk about five different topics 3D training, intermittent fasting, movement snacks, habit organization and the right attitude.

Speaker 1:

Okay, interesting. Well, that sounds great. It's awesome. Yeah, as mentioned, the link is in the show notes. If you want to follow you, Marlon, where can they find you?

Speaker 2:

On LinkedIn. Marlon Shadek is my name and you can find nomadstrong also on LinkedIn. You can also find my dear colleague Joe Miller on LinkedIn, or you can find me on Instagram, marlonsd Okay cool.

Speaker 1:

Those things will also be in the show notes, so we're making it easy for you. Marlon, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast to share more about nomadstrong. I'm really excited about what you're building and I mean it's obviously working. So, yeah, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us today.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for letting me share it. Thanks to everyone for listening and happy about everyone that I see in our gym or wherever.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly yeah. Thank you for listening. See you next week, and that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate it very, very much. I would appreciate it even more if you could leave a review on Apple podcasts for me. That way, more people can find this podcast, more people can hear the inspiring stories that we're sharing, and the more people we can impact for the better. So, thank you so much if you are going to leave a review, I really appreciate you and I will see you in the next episode. No-transcript.