Workouts For When You Travel

By Kate Hiipakka of The Four Percent

Like many of you I work upwards of 50-60 hours a week in a field that requires some travel and time on the road. It’s hard enough as it is to keep up with a fitness routine at home let alone throwing in the wrench that is the hotel gym. Usually it’s small; it’s outdated; it’s poorly lit – so yea it sucks. In my five(ish) years as a professional I’ve developed a pretty decent system for killer workout outside of the gym and while the below elements as my playground.

Parking Lot: Wake up early when the lot is usually quiet and make the blacktop of your hotel prime real estate for squats, walking lunges, high knees, ski jumps, and short sprints. Whip out your NTC app for a structured workout that is guaranteed to make you sweat (my go-to is the “Get Focused: Cardio Killer.”) Be careful though! Watch out for traffic and don’t wear your ear buds so you can hear what is going on around you.

Stair Well: Either indoors or in the parking garage make these stairs your equipment for when you travel. Run up and down and turn the landings into stations. Example, at the foot of one set of stairs do 15 squat jumps, run up the flight of stairs and when you get to the next landing do 15 push-ups. Run up the next flight and then complete 15 plank walks. You get where I’m going with this. And you only really need one flight of stairs, change up what you do at the top or the bottom with each run. Your heart rate will go through the roof

and you’ll build strength too. But, you know, if you have knee or lower back pain, this might not be for you. Also, if you do this indoors, make sure the stairwell doors don’t lock behind you and there is re-entry at each level. Again, use some common sense here, if it feels unsafe stay clear.

Your Room: Duh. Push the coffee table, arm chair, and whatever else is taking up space to the perimeter of the room and go to town. Your body is the machine – a powerful one!

Quick Example:

Give yourself some room to move in your hotel room, treat yourself to an overpriced water bottle from the minibar and kill this:

Do these three sets twice. Each drill should be performed at 60 second intervals.

Set #1

• Squat jumps
• Push-ups
• Alternating forward lunges
• Triceps dips (using a chair, the bed, or the coffee table)
• Bicycle crunches
• Recover

Set#2

• Burpees
• Alternating froggers
• Squat hold
• Single leg dead lifts
• Forearm plank
• Recover

Set #3

• Tricep push-ups
• Jump wood chops
• Ski jumps
• Push-away balance
• V-ups
• Recover

Of course, you can always run outside or on that hotel treadmill from 1987. Get creative, think outside the box and use what you have. Even small and lame hotel gyms have potential – calories are calories you’ll burn them as long as you do the work.