The Hotel Room Workout: 3 Exercises Every Traveler Should Know

The Struggle is Real:

Wondering what a hotel room workout is? I have been traveling full time for almost 3 years. Needless to say I’ve done a hotel room workout or two and so I do have a bit of experience on the struggle of staying fit and healthy while on the road. Plus in speaking with my fellow travelers and many of Fit Living Lifestyle’s readership I can say without a doubt that it is much more difficult to maintain exercise and health while traveling than when you are in one location.

Those of us who are digital nomads or business travelers spend many hours sitting at a laptop or in transit. We never seem to have enough time or else do not know what to do to exercise without access to a gym or gym equipment. Vacationers are also challenged with staying fit. They get caught up in the relaxation, eating and drinking and forget about the healthy lifestyle they try to lead at home. This can reverse progress made at home and also be a shock to the body.

It is important to try and keep exercise a constant part of your lifestyle, even when you’re traveling. This does not mean you have to spend an hour in the gym everyday on vacation or miss your work related Monday deadline. Just 20 minutes a day can make a huge difference. It simply means you have to be creative and stay focused and determined to add exercise when and where you can in order to stay healthy and fit. It takes a little effort and commitment but with The Hotel Room Workout: 3 Exercises Every Traveler Should Know , you should be able to accomplish it without too much trouble.

Exercise Breakdown:

The Push Up

The push up can be done just about everywhere and at anytime. It focuses primarily on your chest, triceps and core, but also utilizes your shoulders, back and legs as secondary muscle groups.

Push ups can also be done for any fitness level. You can do them against a wall, on a bench or bed and even on your knees. You can make them easier or much, much harder. There are many variations. Spider man push ups, close grip, wide grip, elevated, power, diving, pike, T-push ups, push up rows, cross shoulder push ups and more.

The key to push ups is to maintain good form and body alignment for each rep. For a basic push up you want your body to stay straight like a board and your legs and upper body raise and lower in one motion. Keep your core muscles tight and breathe in when lowering and breathe out when pushing off. Keep you hands below your shoulders and make sure when you lower your body that your forearms stay above your hands for the most part to keep stress off your wrists. You may need to adjust your hands or elbow bend depending on your body type. Take a look at this example below:

The Squat

The squat incorporates your entire lower body and engages your core. Building up leg strength and endurance is vital for any traveler especially those of us who sit for long periods of time. These can be done with just your body weight or with added weight.

There are many ways to add weight to your squats. You can find something in your immediate environment like a rock, piece of wood, chair or luggage. Adding weight helps build strength and builds bone density. Doing many, many reps will build muscle endurance for those long hikes and walks in your new destination.

Like the push up there are quite a few different ways you can do squats. Jumps squats, wide stance, close stance, jump squats, uneven squats, deep squats, squat holds to name a few. Make sure you are doing them right every time. As you squat down make sure you keep an eye on your knees. They should be inline with you feet and your knees should not go over your toes. Think of a squat as if you are sitting down onto a chair behind you. Your hips go back as you squat down and your knees should not move too far forward. Keep your core tight and breathe in as you go down and out as you push back to a standing position.

The Burpee

Burpees are the mother of calorie burners. The best part about burpees is that you build muscle strength and endurance at the same time as building up your cardio. Keeping your heart rate high as you perform these is key to a gut busting, muscle building exercise.

You may need a little bit of room for these, so make sure there is nothing you can slam into when performing these. These will work you chest, back, legs, arms, core and shoulders. Full body exercise with the benefit of cardio.
The basic burpee is performed by starting in a standing position and you squat down and put you hands on the floor in front of your feet. Then you kick both of your legs behind you in a push up position. You quickly jump your feet back towards your hands and then jump into the air. That’s one rep.

Again, keep your core tight and make sure you are in full control of your body at all times. You can add things to the burpee to make them harder by adding a push up when you go down, or doing one arm burpees and alternating arms. You can add extra weight to your burpee or kick your legs off to each side instead of behind you. The possibilities are endless.

Closing Notes:

So there you have it! The Hotel Room Workout: 3 Exercises Every Traveler Should Know.  I believe these three exercises would be enough to keep a traveler fairly fit and healthy on the road. I would not recommend these be the only exercises in someone’s life, but when you are in a pinch while traveling, these are great go to exercises for a full body workout.

You can mix these up into a good workout. For example you could do 10 push ups, 10 deep squats and 5 burpees back to back. Rest for 45 secs – 1 min and then repeat. Do that as many times as you can and you have a great workout you can do anywhere. Remember even the easiest, quickest workout is better than no workout at all.

Need help staying fit on the road? Check out our Ultimate Workout Database

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