Traveling can make sticking into an exercise routine difficult.
For those that travel frequently for career, your ability to stay fit is hinged on staying active once you arrive at your destination, and managing calories (and quality of those calories).
While traveling, never forget the POWER of bodyweight based exercises.
Yoga, bodyweight strength training or an exertion focused workout, bodyweight fitness requires no equipment, minimal time investment, while delivering a potent dose of physical activity when you need it the most.
Spend time getting familiar with “minimalist” fitness techniques. You never know when you’ll need to put those resourceful methods into action.
If you know how to design a workout for a small space, with little to no equipment, in a varying time frames, you can stay fit for life.
And I’m telling you, getting a daily dose of exercise, no matter how small and insignificant it might feel, is worth the effort.
Here are 5 exercises for busy travelers:
1. Crawling
Crawling is the one of the most underutilized bodyweight-based exercise. Basic forward and backward crawling provides a ton of benefits that you’d just don’t get with other exercises. There are hundreds of crawling variations and combinations I can deliver a great workout and keep things fresh and interesting.
Sideways, Lizard🦎 , Bear🐻 , Amoeba 🦠 crawling patterns are all kick ass crawling variations.
Crawling can serve as a a reminder that fitness shouldn’t be all about up and down repetitions.
Movement is life, and it comes in many different forms.
Read more about crawling here
2. Kick-Throughs
Kick-throughs are a ground based movement pattern that challenge your core, upper body strength, timing, balance and coordination. These exercise variations, for many people, will be a much needed departure from traditional exercise.
Kick-throughs can be performed to the side or front.
Workouts can really benefit from incorporating MORE dynamic, free flowing movements like this.
Tip: Perform reps at slow tempo. Control every inch. Breathe.
Multi-planar, “quirky” movements like kick-throughs are an exceptional exercise to push movement training outward from the cookie cutter stuff.
If you find kick-throughs interesting, here’s an online program that specializes in coaching clients through multi-planar movement training techniques.
3) Flow Combinations
Flow combinations are a great option for minimalist travel workouts. Flows can include common bodyweight exercises into a 2-3 exercise mini circuit, or multi-planar (less definable, yet movement rich) drills into movement sequence. Either way, a flow adds a whole new dynamic to a travel workout.
Here are some examples:
Cossack Warm Up Flow
Push Up+ Cross Body Knee + Scorpion + Side Kick Through Flow
And I can’t forget about this really challenging low lizard crawl flow.
Dodging the furniture in a small space hotel room adds another level difficulty to the flow.
4) Push-Ups, Squats, Lunges
No article related to staying fit while traveling would be complete without mentioning 3 of the most effective exercises: push-ups, squats and lunges.
Over the years, one of my biggest regrets is not documenting the hundreds of the workouts I’ve done inside of sh*tty hotel rooms and Airbnbs. The best workouts almost always include variations of push-ups, squats and lunges. I’m not talking about a fancy pants variations either, just grinding HARD using the basic push-up, air squat and lunge.
Fitness trends remind me a lot of fashion trends. They come, they go. People get hooked onto “new” exercises, methods, etc… and in time forget about the pillar exercises and the principles that should be applied to those exercises (progressive loading, tempo, etc) that deliver predictable results.
Here’s a classic workout for you to try.
Perform the following, in cyclical order, for 10-15 minutes without stopping:
10 push-ups
10 squats
10 jumping jacks
10 lunges
Too easy? We can make it harder by ramping up the exercise complexity:
5 carpet slide push ups (per side)
5 pistol squats (per side)
10 no jump/push-up burpees
5 alternating lunge jumps (per side)
5) Burpees
“You son of a bitch! Burpees are the worst exercise ever created! Rot in hell, bastard!”
Few other topics get people upset like burpees.
Burpees have a bad reputation because many (not all) personal trainers mindlessly plug them into client workouts using super high rep ranges, without giving thought to the clients readiness to perform a burpee with reasonable technique.
A decent base of strength and mobility is required before diving into a full burpee workout.
If you can’t squat, don’t burpee. If you can’t push-up, don’t burpee.
Personal trainers have a tough gig because clients knock on sign up for training sessions often expecting to get beaten into a pulp.
It doesn’t have to be like that. Especially if you’re chasing body transformation (weight loss, fat loss, etc). Put less calories in your mouth if you’re wanting to lose weight. Versus injuring yourself doing an exercise your body isn’t suited to tolerate. As if the 100 calories burned during the beat down will offset the 500 calories the client ate on the way home. You dirty clients!
The benefits of having a blog is I get to write about whatever… Z-Fack… I want. And on that note, I love burpees. Actually, I don’t love them, but do I use them and see value in using them from time to time.
Burpees can elicit one hell of a training effect.
I don’t use burpees every day, or every week for that matter. I do frequently use them while traveling because they create a total body training effect with a minimal time investment. And, most hotel gyms suck, so if there’s no equipment available, burpees kick ass.
The key to having a healthy relationship with burpees is remaining mindful of the following:
- Burpee variations and modifications (select a variations to suit your abilities)
- Volume: reps/sets
- Rest periods for recovery
- Frequency throughout the week
- Current fitness Level
It’s all about expectations. Burpees aren’t the end all be all of fitness. They are difficult, but difficult doesn’t mean they are good for you.
Here are some other difficult exercises: kettlebell swings, rear foot elevated split squats, chin-ups, rowing or deadlifts.
Fact is, burpees deliver a WHOPPING punch when it comes to cardio. A shit ton of total body work can be performed in a really short amount of time.
Like any other exercise, be mindful of HOW burpees are being used in a workout. Don’t bite off more than you can chew with regard to volume and the ability to handle fatigue.
Burpees are a tool, use them sparingly, pay attention to your movement quality while doing them, keep a reasonable perspective about their purpose.
If you’re not ready to engaged in a burpee workout, don’t! Skip it. Use other exercises and mobility techniques to build a solid base first.
Or, give this burpee variation a try:
M(eaux)tion Fitness 