Fitness on the Road: In the Hotel

This morning I had to leave my hotel by 5 to catch my flight so the hotel gym it was. Granted, I am now still sitting in Orange County because we boarded and then had to get right back off because of a ground hold at my destination, but that’s another story.
Most hotels have some sort of gym, usually a treadmill, bike, and sometimes an elliptical. They aren’t usually great, but you can get in a decent workout and not get too bored.

20:20:20- Twenty minutes on each machine- elliptical, treadmill, bike. It keeps you from getting bored on one machine, and inspires me to work harder on each segment because I think of it as only a 20 minute workout.

Tobada and Strength Elliptical Workout- Warm up for 5-10 minutes. Then do 5 minutes of tobada (20 seconds all out, 10 seconds of recovery), then 5 minutes of increasing resistance (start at a level that is slightly challenging and up it every minute, by the last minute it should be very hard), then 5 minutes at a moderate effort to recover. That is one set. Repeat 3-4 times.

Treadmill Interval Workout- Warm up 5-10 minutes at easy pace, I usually use speed 6.0 which is a 10 minute mile. Now time for intervals- 1 minute at 6, 1 minute at 7, 1 minute at 8, 1 minute at 7, and 1 minute at 6. That is one set. Repeat to reach desired time. If I am doing a long workout (40+ minutes) I usually throw in a couple ½ or 1 mile repeats at 7 in to break things up and build some longer speed endurance.

No equipment workout- Sometime the hotel doesn’t have a gym, or it’s too crowded. No excuse to skip a workout. You can do this in your room with no equipment at all. I always carry a jump rope and resistance band because they don’t take up much room, but you can do with just your body weight. For an hour I alternate 2 minutes of cardio (jump rope, jumping jacks, high knees, skips, mountain climbs, etc) with 1 minute of strength. For the strength, I do a mix of upper body (push-ups, rows with band, biceps with band, tricep dips, handstand pushups, etc), core (planks, crunches, leg lifts, swims, oblique crunches, side planks, etc), and lower body (lunges, squats, side leg lifts, etc). 1 hour and you’ve done a total body workout!

Keep your fingers crossed that I get home at some point today!