Great Travel Workouts

I’ve been out of town for work the past couple days so I don’t have a ton of food pictures or any out of this world recipes, however I do have a few tips to share about working out while traveling- particularly when your hotel gym stinks.

Since I knew I would be sitting for 8 hours each day (not so out of the norm for anyone working an office job) I packed my workout clothes and planned to workout both days I was there.

5 pm rolled around, I went up to the room, put on my workout gear and headed to the hotel fitness center. Based on my internet research skills, I was expecting the hotel gym to look like this:

Turns out a mirror had broken in the gym area the day before so all the equipment was moved into a meeting room. This would have been fine but the one, yes one, weight machine that they had (a lat pulldown) was broken, the T.V. was propped on a buffet table below eye level, and the cardio machines were the cheapest models they could purchase. I tried out one of the ellipticals and after clunking for about 30 seconds, hopped off.

All dressed for a sweat sess, I wasn’t going to let this dinky gym deter me so I decided I’d go outside for a run. Surprise – in addition to being super cold it was also raining. Being the fair-weather runner that I am, I went back inside. I couldn’t fathom going back into the fitness center, but luckily I had a grand idea- the stairs! I ended up using the stairs for the majority of my workouts both that evening and the next morning. I also did a few other “no gym required” exercises and ended up getting in two decent workouts.

Here are a few tips for how to get in a good workout, even while traveling/staying at a hotel with a less than stellar (or non-existent) workout center.

1. Go for run, jog or walk outside. So long as the weather is okay and it’s light out, this is a great option. You get to see some new scenery and get in a little cardio at the same time. Just make sure you don’t get lost.
2. Take the stairs. You can focus on going up and down the stairs fast or try taking 2 stairs at a time slowly for leg strengthening. This can be quite a workout – especially if you’re staying in a high rise hotel.
3. Bring along your yoga mat. Stretch, do planks, do your own vinyasa flow or if you have a laptop you can do a recorded yoga session (ie YogaDownload)
4. Do body weight exercises. Push ups, squats, lunges, tricep dips- you can use the desk chair or even the toilet – kind of gross, but it is the perfect height
5. Work your core. If you didn’t have room to bring your mat simple put a towel down. You can do crunches, leg lifts, flutter kicks.  
6. No-equipment cardio. Run in place, jumping jacks, butt kicks, high knees, mountain climbers, or jumping on the bed (it’s not like you have to worry about breaking your own bed.)

Obviously this list doesn’t exhaust the endless possibilities, but it’s a good start if you were in need some some ideas.

Do you have any go-to workouts you do while traveling? Do you always pack your workout gear and continue your exercise routine as normal or do you view trips as a break and slack off on working out?

I do a little of both. Had this been a vacation trip where I was out exploring, swimming, and walking around I wouldn’t find it necessary to work out as much, but considering I was traveling for work and sitting for 8 hours each day, the 45 minutes of activity actually felt good and provided a nice release.

Speaking of working out, I took the day off and instead of heading to the gym after work, Isaac and I had a picnic dinner. It was out of the ordinary and so fun. We need to do things like this more often. Here’s a teaser photo:

And last but not least, I’ll be sure to post the herbed tofu and bok choy recipe asap. Happy almost TGIF!

- Brittany

Tagged as: Great Travel Workouts, what to do when your hotel gym sucks, Working out while traveling