Fitness in Freiburg: Staying Healthy While Abroad

Fitness and working out are a big part of my life in the States. I am constantly rushing off to a yoga or pilates class, and I am also currently training for a marathon. On top of fitness, health is super important to me, and so I’ve also been mindful about what I am eating. So, when going abroad, I totally expected to be at my same level of fitness and working out. However, so far it has been harder than expected to keep up with my previous lifestyle.

When I first got to Freiburg, life got busy quite fast. Between orientation, getting settled, and exploring the city, I ended up taking a full week off from working out. Honestly, I had planned for that and assumed I wouldn’t have a ton of time during the first week, so it didn’t bother me much. However, when that one week turned into two (and then almost three), I started to feel it. I am someone who works out not just for physical health, but also for my mental well-being. So unexpectedly going without it, especially while adapting to a whole new environment, left me feeling a little off mentally. It made me realize just how important movement is to keeping me grounded, especially during big life transitions.

Thankfully, after the first few weeks, I figured out how to make time for myself again. I realized that no matter how packed the day seemed, I could always find an extra 30-minutes to an hour to go for a run or do a workout. At first, I worried that taking time for myself would mean missing out on something fun with friends, but looking back, that mindset was kind of silly. Taking a small percentage of my day to take care of myself did not leave me with a sense of FOMO, but it actually left me feeling better mentally, inadvertently making the time spent with my friends more enjoyable. 

Plus, Europe in general is more walker-friendly than the States, and Freiburg has proven to be no exception. Through my time here, I have consistently been getting 30,000+ steps a day just due to walking to classes or wandering around the city. All of the walking has been a nice change of pace in comparison to my life in the States. While I do attend a massive school and get a lot of steps throughout the school year, when I am home for the summer, I am not walking nearly as much as I have been here. Along with all of my running, staying physically active cardio-wise has been quite easy in Freiburg.

I also recently joined a gym! Since I mainly run and do pilates or yoga, I was not planning on joining a gym during my time here because those are workouts I don’t necessarily need a membership for. However, Freiburg is quite hot, and so running outside was not only miserable but also dangerous. The gyms in Freiburg are quite nice, and while I do recommend getting a membership if you are someone who loves to work out, please, and I can not stress this enough, make sure your gym has air conditioning. My gym does not have AC, and this was something I did not notice until I had already purchased my membership. 

Overall, staying healthy and active while in Freiburg is different than my life in the States. It did take me a few weeks to find a routine that worked for my temporary new life abroad, but that adjustment period was a reminder that fitness doesn’t always have to be rigid or structured. Between all the walking, the runs, and now my gym workouts, I’ve found new ways to feel strong and grounded, both physically and mentally, while abroad. If you’re someone who loves staying active and is planning to go abroad, just know that it is totally possible to keep up with your fitness, just expect and make peace with the fact that your routine will not be the same. As someone who thrives off of routine and order, this was difficult at the beginning, but I promise that if you just accept it won’t be the same, you will find the fun in the newness of it all.