Free Fitness Areas at Airports Help Keep You Fit, Refreshed

By John Roberts 
Many of the world's business airports offer on-site gym locations, whether a standalone fitness club like Fitness Beast Gym at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas or a hotel that offers a day pass to its gym.

But did you realize that airports are starting to offer easy-access, free fitness spaces in common areas?

Exercise Bikes
Philadelphia, for example, offers a variety of exercise bikes. It also has created a fitness zone, with other low-impact equipment that is moved around the concourse.

The Philadelphia airport set the pace with its cycling station.

Yoga
San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago and Burlington, Vermont, feature dedicated yoga rooms to help travelers limber up bodies that inevitably stiffen during flights. San Fran's airport offers its yoga and meditation room at the connector area between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. 

In the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, find the yoga studio near Gate D40 in the hallway connecting Terminals B and D.

Both Midway (along Concourse C) and O'Hare (Terminal 3) in Chicago contain yoga rooms. 

You can reinvigorate yourself in the yoga studio at the San Francisco airport. Other airports have added similar amenities and meditation rooms, too.

Trail Walking
The Burlington airport also offers a "green roof" atop its parking garage. It's a peaceful place for a walk along its paths among alpine gardens. The Phoenix airport has an indoor fitness trail with a view of the skyline (you can download a map that describes what you are seeing along the two-mile route). The fitness trail, past security in Terminal 4, features seven chilled-water filling stations, too.

The Burlington, Vermont, airport's green roof.

These awesome free fitness amenities are few and far between given all the airports throughout the world. Let's hope more cities make the move to give passengers goodies like this to help foster healthy habits. A nice 30-minute stretch or workout helps keep you positive, fends off jet lag and reduces stress. 

I've only been able to use the bike space in Philadelphia so far, but when I have more than an hour layover and want to get the blood pumping, I'll find a little space to myself at an unoccupied gate area and do a few pushups and stretching. Sure, I may get a few odd looks when going through my routine, but I also know I'll be thanking myself for it when I'm wedged into my seat on that four-hour flight.

I'm 6-foot-4, so I get quite uncomfortable (maybe that's also being 48 years old and arthritic?) unless I stick to my regimen. 

What are some tips and tricks you have come up with to sneak in a workout to offset boredom and avoid having your body get all locked up during a layover?

Thanks for your input and thanks for reading. Travel fit!

JR