Make Your Hotel Room a Gym – Travel & Your Home Work Outs

October 26th, 2010 by Angela

Traveling can impact your exercise program, unless you plan in advance and keep your discipline. If you travel quite a bit, maintaining an exercise regime can be difficult.  As a frequent traveler, exercise is important to staying in shape and I use P90X by Beachbody. But, in order to keep your program on schedule it requires commitment and some ingenuity when you are away from home.  

So, I will share some tips on how to stay on track with P90X while travelling and staying in a hotel.  First, for those not familiar with P90X, it is a great exercise program that will absolutely give you some tremendous results, but the program demands you place in the effort consistently, day after day.  P90X is based on muscle confusion principles and a program of diverse cross training workouts.  You will be doing muscle building workouts, plyometrics, cardio workouts, Kempo and intense yoga workouts.  These workouts only last for sixty minutes, but exercise routines are constant with minimal rest periods and at the end you’ll be drenched and wasted.  It sounds enticing doesn’t it?  Well, if you can make the trip, the results will be gorgeous.  Trust me, I’ve done it.  Another good thing about P90X is that you don’t need a lot of equipment, usually bands or a few dumbbells will do the trick.  Your work outs are guided by Tony Horton your video host and trainer.  Just plug in the DVD and get going.  There are others out there which also are extreme home training programs, but whichever you use staying committed and showing up apiece day is a key to success. Whatever exercise regime or program you follow, all share a basic stipulation that you stay on schedule and commit to doing the prescribed workouts.”

Let’s talk about how to adapt when you must travel  First, like many programs, there are no excuses or voluntary free days for P90X.  You must stay in schedule if at all possible.    So, the most important tip is you must think about how to exercise when you are away at a hotel   Take Your Exercise Bands With You.  Bring your exercise bands.  They are light weight and simple to transport.  if you use dumbbells they might not give you the exact same workout you are accustomed to, but they are a decent substitute.   Of course, your first best option just might be the hotel’s fitness room, if it is decently set up with dumbbells and a pull-up bar or lat machine.

Bring a roll-up mat.  If you have a mat, bring your roll-out mat.  It will help wage a clean surface when you exercise in your hotel room.  If you don’t, don’t sweat it.

Use Your Hotel Room as Your Gym.   Most hotel rooms have an ample amount of space in which to do your workout.  You might have to move a chair or two out of the way but you can clear enough space to exercise.  With P90X you only need about 8 feet by 5 feet to do most anything.  But, if there is a Hotel exercise facility, it probably will be the best option especially if they have a chin-up bar or demolition you can drapes bands over for lat pulls.

Beware of Hotel Room Rugs.  Hotel room floor rugs are notoriously dirty.  T doesn’t matter how much they vacuum, there is a lot of people coming in and out of the rooms, and there are plenty of germs nestled in those rugs.  Since you will be working out close to floor, and breathing heavy, so will want to place down a clean bathroom towel or your exercise mat if you brought it.  How important is this?   On the last day of an extended trip, I forgot to place down a towel and within 24 hours of doing a routine in a European hotel room, I was deadly sick with a chest cold.  There is no doubt is came from the floor.

Where to put Bands for Pull downs in Your Hotel Room.  First, checkout the fitness room in the hotel.  If it has a pull-up bar or other piece of equipment you can use to hang from, then cart  your laptop and exercise DVD down to the fitness room and exercise there.  Who cares what others think.   Others will be impressed with your workout intensity, and you just might convert one more fan to your program.  If there is no hotel exercise facility, then I have a great way to solve this problem.  Use the hotel room bathroom door with exercise bands.  Simply open the door so you can wedge your band between the door and the casing so the band rests in the crack on top of the top door hinge.  The bands with be draping apiece side of the door and hanging on the door hinge.  Next,  grip the exercise band handles and move back away from the door and get down on your knees.  Lean forward as far as you can from region so that your arms and back are straight and when extended they are extended they are in the same plane as the bands from the top of the hinge.  This set-up will enable you to perform pretty intense pull downs using your bands.

Discipline & Planning Ahead.  Let’s face it, when you are on the road doing business there is a good chance you will be intake dinner out and possibly enjoying a few drinks with business associates.  It is best to try and schedule a late dinner so you can squeeze your workout in before dinner.  Or, if you are an early riser, get your workout done in the early morning.  But, overall, moderation is the key.  Don’t place yourself in a situation where you can’t get your workout done.  When you are on the road, there are plenty of distractions, including evening dinners and a few social drinks with business partners and potential customers. So, it is important to intelligently plan your workouts.  If you can do them in the morning, it is a great way to stay away from conflicts and get your workout done before other events compete for your time.  If you are a night owl and like a nighttime workout, then it is best to try and get a workout in before dinner and late night activities interfere.  Simply schedule a late night dinner.  It’s simple enough to make the excuse you’ll need an hour or two to check back with the office and take care of few things.” 

As a final thought, don’t stress if you don’t have everything you need or have less than best workout space.  As Tony Horton states in P90X, do your best and forget the rest.” Simply adapt and alternative exercises and work as hard as doable to achieve that great burn. Any effort is superior than none and your body will thank you.  

About the Author.  The author is a Senior Editor for RoomRate Hotels, a leader in providing consumer friendly hotel booking services on the web.  RoomRate provides hotel deals direct from hotels with no booking fees, and does not charge its own cancellation fees and penalties like many other travel web sites. RoomRate offers great hotel deals direct from tens of thousands of hotels in the United Says for all cities, including  Austin Hotels, Cincinnati Hotels, and Miami Hotels, to study a few. 

Publishing:  This article might be freely redistributed and republished without royalty or cost provided it is reprinted in its entirety and proper Author attribution with links are included.  Parties republishing this article concur to hold the harmless and indemnify the author for any claims by other parties.

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