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Exercise When Traveling

Q & A with Trainer Chris Powell

Just like healthy nutrition, your workouts can sometimes take a backseat when traveling. Jet lag, delays, and time schedules can throw even the most avid health and fitness pro out of whack…trust me, I know! A one or two day trip every month or so won’t have a significant effect on your health and wellness… but for those who live a life on the road, it’s time to prioritize and schedule in your daily 30 minutes to treat your body to some good exercise!

Exercise when traveling: CARDIO
To throw a twist on the regular fitness center grind, why not get outside for your workouts and enjoy your travel destination! Okay…if you are in Duluth, Minnesota – go to the regular fitness center. But if your travels take you to interesting and fun cities and destinations, get outside and wander around. When in the cities, I always like to do this fun interval workout:

Warm up by walking a block or two. Pick up the pace a bit for the second block and even more for the third. Once you're ready, run one block, then walk the next...I’ll cover 8 to 10 blocks out, then turn around and do 8 to 10 blocks coming back. If you're just starting out, don’t push yourself. Always warm up by walking a block or two, then pick it up to a jog if you can. The key is just to push yourself within your own limits for the workout, but to always keep your workouts within the range of your fitness ability. Trust me, you’ll get incredible results! It makes for a quick and extremely effective interval training workout, and the HIT (High Intensity Training) aspect of it will increase your metabolic ‘afterburn’ for hours!!

Exercise when traveling: WEIGHT TRAINING

Fortunately, most hotels now have fitness centers so that you can jump on a treadmill or play with some weights for your ‘me time’. If you are currently a member of a commercial fitness center (LA Fitness, Bally’s, 24 Hour Fitness, Gold’s Gym, etc.) you can request a travel pass for a small fee that will grant you access to all of their other facilities.

If leaving the hotel is out of the question, you can actually get an incredible workout in your own hotel room! In fact, some of the greatest athletes have mastered hotel-room workouts so that they can train whenever the fitness centers are unavailable. With all of the available furniture in a hotel room, it’s like having your own personal gym for an incredible workout! I put together a challenging hotel-room workout that you can do in less than 30 minutes – to stimulate all of the muscles of the body, burning hundreds of calories!

THE HOTEL ROOM WORKOUT
This is an incredible circuit that you can do in the comfort of your own hotel room. Perform 15-25 reps of each exercise before moving on to the next in rapid succession. The exercises are split between upper body, core, and lower body to allow the muscles to rest between exercises. With just a few helpful items like the ice bucket and your own suitcase, there’s no need to leave your hotel room for intense workout!

Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
15-25 repetitions
Push-Up
The basic push-up is an incredible total-body ‘pushing’ exercise that forces the activation of your core muscles, chest, shoulders, and triceps (the back of the arm)

1) Start with your hands slightly wider than shoulder width and arms extended
2) Tighten your abs as much as you can
3) Slowly lower yourself down to a 90 degree angle on the elbows (letting your elbows point out for more chest stimulation / keeping your elbows tucked into your sides for more shoulder and tricep stimulation)
4) At the bottom of the motion, press slowly until the arms are fully extended again.

Beginning Position	Mid Position	Finishing Position

Beginners Push-up from the side of the bed or desk
Intermediate Push-up from your knees
Advanced Push-up from the floor

Core
15-25 repetitions
Crunch-Up
The Crunch-Up is a hybrid blend of the traditional crunch and sit-up. The exercise should be done in two motions on the way up and two motions on the way down. The crunch activates the ‘six pack’ muscles (rectus abdominus), and the sit-up activates the larger supporting muscles beneath the ‘six pack’ (internal oblique)

1) Start on your back facing up with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor
2) Push your lower back into the ground, tightening your abs
3) Exhale gently as you raise your head and shoulder blades off of the ground, pointing your chin to the ceiling
4) Once the crunch is finished, contact your abs hard and raise your whole torso off of the ground, keeping your elbows pointed out to the sides
5) Inhale gently as you lower your head and shoulders back to the ground

Beginning Position	Mid Position	Finishing Position

Glutes (butt) / Quads (thighs) / Hamstrings (back of leg)
Squats
15-25 repetitions
1) Begin with feet shoulder width, keeping your weight on your heels
2) Tighten your abs as much as you can
3) Slowly lower your butt down to the chair like you are going to sit down, extending your arms forward as a counterbalance, or keeping our hands on your waist
4) As soon as you feel contact with the chair, press slowly through your heels until your legs are fully extended again.

Chair Squat (beginner)

Beginning Position	Mid Position	Finishing Position

Deep Squat with weight (advanced)

Beginning Position	Mid Position	Finishing Position

Back, Rear Delts, Biceps
15-25 repetitions
Suitcase Row

1) Starting in a lunge position with right foot forward, brace yourself on a chair or desk using your left hand
2) Using your suitcase as a weight, raise your elbow to the ceiling, pulling the suitcase along the line of your leg
3) Hold for 2 counts then return to starting position

Beginning Position	Mid Position	Finishing Position

Glutes (butt) / Quads (thighs) / Hamstrings (back of leg)
15-25 repetitions
1 Leg Lunge (advanced)

1) Step about 2 feet away from the chair and place one foot back on top of the chair
2) Tighten your abs as much as you can
3) Keeping your weight on your front heel, slowly lower yourself down , trying to touch the ground with the back knee (see picture)
4) At the bottom of the motion, press through your heel slowly until the leg is fully extended again.
5) After 15-25 reps, repeat on the other side

Beginning Position	Mid Position	Finishing Position

Core
15-25 repetitions
Chair Jacknife

1) Start in a balanced position on the edge of your chair with feet extended out off of the ground
2) Tighten your abs as much as possible
3) Exhale gently as you raise your knees to your chest, contracting your abs
4) Hold for two seconds, then extend them back out again

Beginning Position	Mid Position	Finishing Position

Total Body
Back Lunge With Twist
15-25 repetitions

1) Start on your back facing up – heels should be resting on the edge of the couch
2) Squeeze your glutes (butt) and raise your hips off of the ground
3) hold for 2 counts then return to starting position

Beginning Position	Mid Position	Finishing Position

The workout is probably feeling a bit challenging by now. This is good. We’re already halfway done! Okay, now it is time to move on to the next set of exercises. This time we will be combining our shoulder muscles with more core exercises.

Suitcase Step-Up
15-25 repetitions

1) Start with your right foot on the hotel room chair and hold your suitcase in your left hand
2) Squeeze your glutes (butt) and pressing thru your right heel, step up driving your left knee forward
3) hold for 2 counts then return to starting position
4) After 15-25 reps, repeat on the other side

Beginning Position	Mid Position	Finishing Position

Total Body
Wood Chop
15-25 repetitions

1) Start in a squatting position & using the ice bucket as a weight
2) Squat down rotating completely to the left side
3) At the bottom of the motion, make sure that your shoulder blades are retracted and your chest is out
4) Push upward thru your heels and rotate completely to the right side
5) Immediately squat back down rotating to the left
6) repeat 15-25 repetitions each side

Beginning Position	Mid Position	Finishing Position

MetaBOOST Circuits

When you are done with the slower paced workout, try this circuit of Plyometric ‘rapid’ exercises that are performed quickly back-to-back. It is an incredible way to spike the heart rate and create a huge metabolic ‘after burn’. Basically, performing 3 or 4 circuits of these exercises, you’ll be burning twice as many calories HOURS after you are finished with the workout!

NOTE: These exercises are for the advanced. If you are a beginner, you can slow down the speed of the movement to keep it controlled. I recommend you move quickly, but never leave the ground. As you perform these exercises more often, you will notice an incredible difference in your body and will improve quickly.

MetaBOOST Exercise 1
Jump Lunges
10-20 repetitions

1) Starting in a lunge position, jump as high as you can off of the ground
2) Alternate legs in the air, and land with the other leg forward
3) Immediately spring off of the ground again, alternating legs back and forth for 10-20 repetitions – each time jumping as high as you can

Beginning Position	Jumping
High Position	Final Position

MetaBOOST Exercise 2
10-20 repetitions
Pop Across

1) Start in a push up position with your right hand on a raised surface (a suitcase, or several pillows)
2) Spring off of your right hand, pulling your body across the surface, to land with the left hand on the raised surface
3) Continue to spring back and forth for 10-20 repetitions

Beginning Position	Mid Position	Finishing Position

MetaBOOST Exercise 3
10-20 repetitions
Jump Squats

1) Start in a squatting position
2) Spring upward as high as you can
3) At the top of the motion, pull your legs toward your chest
4) As you land, spring upwards again for 10-20 repetitions

Beginning Position	Mid Position
High Position	Final Position

MetaBOOST Exercise 4
10-20 repetitions
Mountain Climbers

1) Start in a push-up position with one leg forward
2) Quickly alternate legs as if you are ‘running’ with your hands on the ground
3) Try to keep your hips as low as possible and prevent them from bouncing

Beginning Position	Mid Position	Finishing Position

We are finished! Great job. Give yourself a pat on the back because you deserve it. You have just stimulated all of the major muscles of the body and most importantly, you’ve sky-rocketed your metabolism for greater fat burning throughout the day!

Whenever on the road, you can follow this hotel room workout for an intense workout – guaranteed. You don’t even need the gym or fitness center! On the days in-between, get outside for a walk, a run, or any other physical activity for just 20-30 minutes and you will see incredible results in just weeks!!

For information on training, nutrition, tips and more, visit me online at www.azfamilyfitness.com

As always, Think Healthy & Stay Fit!

~ Chris

Learn more about Chris

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