Going Overseas, No Lifting for a Year

Not sure if this is the right section, but maybe I’ll get some bites. I’m going overseas for a year in southeastern Asia mostly. I’m going to do missions work, sometimes we will be living in churches or houses but sometimes we will be living in our tents.
I won’t have much control over my diet, but they say there is time to exercise (train) while on the field.

I’m not overly impressive to most of the readers here probably, I weigh 205 I’m 5’9 bench is 255, deadlift 455, squat 325, OHP 135x4. These numbers will all elude me soon I’m sure as I will drop weight quite quickly. I was planning on bringing bands and doing a lot of band pull aparts, facepulls, and whatever else one could do with bands. Also the obvious pushups, situps, and hopefully a place to do pullups.Training is not going to be a high priority this year, however when I have the time to do it I am going to put all I’ve got into it.

My question is this, and it’s more opinions than advice I’m looking for, but I would definitely take advice, what would you guys do if you were in my situation?

[quote]mwiersma wrote:

My question is this, and it’s more opinions than advice I’m looking for, but I would definitely take advice, what would you guys do if you were in my situation? [/quote]

Lots of bodyweight work, and lots of pull-up variations (check out books by Paul Wade and Al Kavadlo). I would also do lots of physical labor like hauling rocks and sand, busting up rocks with a sledgehammer, digging trenches, and splitting and hauling firewood. I don’t know where in Southeast Asia you’re going, but even when I was in some pretty rustic places in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, there was always someplace to train. And if you’re out in a poor village with nothing made out of iron to lift, have the villagers put you to work. There’s always some heavy shit that needs to be lifted and taken from one place to another.

has anyone been to koh samui? is there anywhere to train there? if so, what kind of equipment?

cheers

[quote]TheCB wrote:
has anyone been to koh samui? is there anywhere to train there? if so, what kind of equipment?

cheers[/quote]

http://skygymsamui.com

Also, you might explore the possibilities of sandbags, tires and logs, three things that you should be able to procure in great quantities in even the poorest, crappiest village in the third world.

If you can find an iron bar, two tires and some cement, you can make yourself a dandy barbell.

Fill an old basketball with concrete, add a PVC handle (a pair of condensation traps works well), and voila! You have a kettlebell.

Really, your only limitation is your imagination.

Buy a damn sandbag! $60, fill it with rocks or whatever!

[quote]Aero51 wrote:
Buy a damn sandbag! $60, fill it with rocks or whatever![/quote]

Sixty dollars nothing! An old army duffel bag works fine, and they can be had for under twenty bucks on Amazon.

[quote]Varqanir wrote:

[quote]TheCB wrote:
has anyone been to koh samui? is there anywhere to train there? if so, what kind of equipment?

cheers[/quote]

http://skygymsamui.com[/quote]

thanks!!

any others you could recommend (i have googled around, just asking).

jailhouse strong by josh bryant

Thanks for the response, I will be going to these countries, China, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, India, Indonesia, Phillipinnes, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Combodia. With the exception of India however I have no idea what city I’ll be in. I know that in India I’ll be in or near Hyderabad. I appreciate the Paul Wade recommendation, I think I’m going to buy his book “convict conditioning”

That sounds like an awesome trip. I’ve been to six of those countries. Currently in Japan, but Thailand has become my favourite. Going back next month.

I think you’ll enjoy Convict Conditioning. Wade has a second book in the Convict Conditioning series, as well as a book on developing and keeping muscle size as well as strength using calisthenics. It’s called C-MASS, and I think this is another you might want to consider.

The Al Kavadlo book I recommend is called Raising the Bar. Pull-ups are awesome, as you likely already know, and this book tells you how to do just about every variation you can imagine.

Never mind about training, just do your best to stay healthy! Food, water, environment just take care. Still mines in V and C. However it won’t be like it was when I was there some fifty years ago when some of the population were very unfriendly!!

@Varquinar That is awesome! I thought that you were overseas, a couple of years ago I remember reading a really long thread from 2013 with you and Cortez talking about Japan, it was the best thread I’ve ever read on Tnation. I am planning on doing the workouts from the convict conditioning book as often as I can. I would like to see what I can do when I focus all of my efforts on things like pullups and pistol squats and whatnot. What part of Japan are you in? I believe that my group is going to be near Osaka but I could be wrong. Also just found out yesterday that in China I will be in Lanzhou.

[quote]Aero51 wrote:
Buy a damn sandbag! $60, fill it with rocks or whatever![/quote]

I just had a workout doing sideways lunges holding a fricking sand bag in front of me. I can easily squat north of 400 for reps.

I thought I was going to die.

Currently in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which is about three hours from Osaka by bullet train. Lots of mountains, which I enjoy climbing.