Healthy Business Travel: Exercising on the Go

National Car Rental wants you to be a healthy business traveler, so today Steve and I are going to give you everything you need to Go Like a Pro and be a healthy business traveler – even if all you have is a little hotel floor space.

If you spend many of your days in cabs, planes and hotels, you probably have already experienced the challenges of maintaining some kind of fitness routine. Luckily, most hotels have some type of fitness room – some smaller than others. But, at least you normally have the option of getting on a treadmill or elliptical, if nothing else.

Before smart phones, people had a difficult time going for a run without knowing how far they were going. Now, with handy dandy apps like the RunKeeper or MapMyRun, you can throw on your tennis shoes and go for a productive run even if you have no clue where you are or where you are going. With the help of the built-in GPS system in our smart phones, you can know exactly how far you went, and how to get back to your hotel if you get lost.

Learn Your Go-To Exercises

First, let’s talk exercises. There is cardiovascular exercise, which we use to burn calories and stored fat, and there is more traditional strength training to tone muscle. If running outside or working out in a hotel gym isn’t an option, what can you do? Plenty! The problem is, most people don’t have a big enough exercise library in their head to pull from. This is where Steve and I come in! We are going to give you a list of 20 exercises you can do anywhere – and all you need is a little floor space.

Click on the links below to see video demonstration of each exercise. Once you get familiar with each one, then we can talk about how to put them together in a purposeful, and effective, workout.

20 Bodyweight Exercises You Can Do In Your Room

1. Burpee – Full body/cardio
2. Double Unders – cardio
3. Jumping Jacks – cardio
4. Heismans – cardio
5. Butt-kicks – cardio
6. Mary Catherines – cardio, legs & glutes
7. Crisscross Squat – cardio, legs & glutes
8. Skater – cardio, legs and glutes
9. Air Squats – legs and glutes
10. Static Lunge – legs and glutes
11. Curtsy – glutes
12. Bridge Crunch – hamstrings, glutes & core
13. Push-up – Chest and arms
14. Squat Thrust – upper body, core & cardio
15. Triceps Dips – upper body
16. Bicycle Crunch – obliques & abs
17. Plank – core
18. T-plank – core
19. Superman – core, low back, hamstring and glutes
20. Seated Glute Stretch/ Sciatic Stretch – great stretch for people who sit, for long periods of time (like being on the road) to help or prevent sciatica.

Create a Workout

To simplify things, I listed each exercise into categories, A (cardio), B (lower body conditioning), C (glutes), D (upper body) and E (core).

Now you can create a simple workout by choosing the right combination of exercises to help you reach your goal. Before you can do this, you need to know what your goal is. Do you want to burn calories? Do you need to just work a specific body part (like upper body, lower body or abs)? Once you determine your goal, you can follow these programming tips to create your very own custom workout using this simple graph below.

*The Glute Stretch should not replace a regular exercise. It should only be ADDED to the day you do glutes to help stretch out your glutes to help, or prevent< sciatica.

5 Workout Formulas

First, choose your workout (below). Then, using the workout formula, choose the exercises from the assigned categories to customize your workout. Write down your workout so it’s easy to follow. Next, you’ll choose your time.

Choose Your Time:

Each of the above workouts are based on 5 exercises that you will do for 1 minute each. This means, each circuit will take 5 minutes to complete 1 time through. This way you can curtail your workout around your schedule. If you only have 15 minutes, then you will do it 3 times through. If you have more time, you can add more rounds, sets, exercises or additional workouts.

While I am allotting 1 minute for each exercise, that doesn’t necessarily mean you will be exercising for all 60 seconds. Depending on your fitness level, your work time may vary. Here is a suggestion: 

Beginner: 30 seconds of each (30 seconds rest)
Intermediate: 45 seconds of each (15 seconds rest)
Advanced: 60 seconds of each (no rest) 

Sample Workout

To make things even easier for you, we came up with a simple workout you can do in your hotel, along with a video demonstration for you! Just to prove it, we went to the lovely Costa d’ Este Beach Resort to demonstrate the workout for you. You can start with this workout, and then build your own with the tools I gave you in this blog. Let me know how you do!

Here are the exercises. Watch the video for instruction & tips!

Couplet #1: 10 Tuck Jump & 10 Air Squats (3 X)
Couplet #2: 10 Mountain Climbers & 10 Push Ups (3 X)
Couplet #3: 10 Roll Ups and 10 Bicycle Crunches

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