Fly folks, we're bringing you something special this week. 

We’ve hinted in recent weeks at our forthcoming Travel Survival Guide: How To Stay Fit and Eat Healthy On The Fly, and one aspect of it will highlight the best places to eat healthy in the busiest airports in the country. We’ve already leaked some of those, including Atlanta Hartsfield (ATL), Los Angeles International (LAX), and Chicago O'Hare (ORD). 

Our Survival Guide will also contain interviews with experts on how they maintain their fitness, nutrition, and wellness while traveling and flying. Below is a sneak-peak at insights from one of our favorite fitness experts, Fernando Contreras, better known as @FitAviatorsClub. 

When Fernando is not flying for Envoy Airlines, he’s a fitness expert and National Academy of Sports Medicine-certified personal trainer with a burgeoning social media following and growing coaching business. 

Fernando is a second-generation pilot, inspired by his father to take to the skies. He is also passionate, genuine,  and—as you can see—straight-up jacked. 

airfare: You are in a hotel room. You have 30 minutes to work out. You have no equipment. What do you do?

Fernando: It depends on what phase of training I’m on, and what kind of exercise I had planned for that day. If it’s an "active rest day," I do 30 minutes of flexibility work with static and dynamic stretching, and some days I’ll do yoga to change things up a bit.

If it’s a workout day, I do a moderate or high-intensity interval workout with bodyweight. This includes exercising total-body prime muscle movers, stabilization muscles, and intervals with some type of plyometric or stability in confined spaces.

For example, one superset would be bodyweight squats for 20 reps, a 60-second plank, and 10 reps of the four corner hops with single or double leg movement. I do this three times and move on to the next superset. 

One good tip for maintaining an exercise routine on the road is to change into your workout clothes as soon as you get to your room. The hard part is to get started, and once you do, you’re on the path to a healthier lifestyle every day.

airfare: What are your favorite one or two not-so-expensive exercise gadgets you bring when you travel?

Fernando: My favorite inexpensive fitness equipment I take with me are tubes or resistance bands. These open up options for varying a bodyweight workout with elastic resistance. They are also a great addition to a limited-equipment hotel gym.

 I often use resistance bands to strengthen muscles like the gluteus medius to better support my lumbar-pelvic complex while sitting in the flight deck. 

Some of those seats have lost their comfort.

[Note from airfare: the glutes medius is on the side of your hip. The lumbar-pelvic complex refers to the ~30 small muscles that attach to the pelvic bone or or lower lumbar spine.]

airfare: What are the best destinations (like hotels, cities, or gyms) that make exercise considerably easier? 

Fernando: I’m really bad at choosing favorites because I try to find something interesting in each layover. For a gym workout, it mostly depends on the hotel. As for outdoor workouts, if the hotel is in a good location, I go for a run at a park or the city, or maybe even a hike if the location is close enough. A really good one I did recently was hiking Camelback Mountain on a layover in Phoenix. 

airfare: What is the biggest problem or frustration you face when trying to maintain your exercise regimen on the road? 

Fernando: That’s a good one! I wouldn’t have frustration over my fitness regimen because it’s important to have flexibility with my routines, especially as a crew member. However, a huge pet peeve is when there is a missing dumbbell at the hotel gym and I don’t feel like doing unilateral exercises that day. It drives me nuts.

To fix this, I change the exercise to one that I can do bilaterally and jump up to the next weight that I can handle for that specific movement. 

[Note from airfare: a unilateral exercise uses one limb to produce the movement, such as a bicep curl. A bilateral exercise uses two limbs, like a bench press. Fernando is saying that if a heavy dumbbell is missing, the weight won’t be enough for an exercise that requires more weight, like a deadlift.]

airfare: Is there an app you like to use to help you exercise while on the go?

Fernando:The Garmin App. I use the Fenix 5 watch and love it. The app has so much tracking information, but I don’t use all of it. It makes it simple to know the overall exercise outputs. However, if I wanted to train for something specific, like a marathon, there are so many features in that app that help track and progress.

airfare: Tell us about one time you failed to maintain your “wellness” while traveling.

Fernando: I think failing to maintain wellness occurs over time instead of as a one-time occurrence. I think it’s safe to say I haven’t "failed.'’ I wish I could say the same about college algebra some years ago.

[Note from airfare: Fernando didn’t mean he never eats unhealthy or misses a workout. He doesn't consider missing a workout or two—or even a whole week—a "failure." He looks at it differently, seeing fitness is a lifetime commitment. He said the only failure is  giving up, feeling bad for yourself, and not getting back on track.]

airfare: What type of workout makes you feel the best after a day of air travel? 

Fernando: Definitely a "postural corrective" workout that works on those muscles that become under-active due to the nature of sitting for long periods of time. It makes me feel completely realigned with my body again, and the psychological effect puts me on top of the world. 

The effects continue when I crush an intense workout the next day off. So, I use that corrective work to prime me for the upcoming intensity. 

Sitting for long periods of time without proper posture and under-active support muscles lead to lumbar compensation to stabilize the spine. This means the lower back has to pick up the slack of the muscles not firing to maintain proper posture. I use muscle activation and muscle endurance techniques when I have time before or after flying. I target my entire core with these techniques. 

[Note from airfare:: We asked Fernando to give us an example of a "postural corrective" workout, and he graciously passed along four of his videos.] 

Bonus: Fernando's motivational mantras

1. “It’s so important that you set a realistic short-term and long-term goal because progress is the real motivation.”
2. “There are several key factors to a healthy, balanced lifestyle on the road—it all starts with the mindset. Having a compelling vision of your goals allows you to find a routine in a non-routine environment, because your choices are derived from what you are trying to accomplish.”
3. “The mindset behind the motivation runs the show. With self-reflection and taking action you can take control of your mindset, and you can achieve anything you want. Repeatedly play it in your head, and you will eventually become it.”