I have been travelling a decent amount for work recently which really pisses me off during the summer. I should be working from a beach house not in some hotel conference room diligencing EBITDA adjustments. Getting a workout in on the road is difficult considering a minimum of 4 hours of your day is eaten up actually moving around (getting to the airport, security, walking to the gate etc.) and your MD expects a similar amount of work output despite the lost hours. Then you need to contend with varying levels of shittyness of hotel gyms and inevitable heavy dinners after whatever meeting ends. That's a lot of adversity but a little discipline will help overcome the shittyness.
Most importantly, always get whatever workout you can done in the morning before your flight out and/or before whatever meeting. Numerous studies have shown that 30 minutes of exercise is an effective way to prevent and cure jetlag symptoms. I used to prioritize the extra hour of sleep and try to fit one in after the meeting or dinner but would inevitably get smoked with some work deliverable or not be able to leave when the client wanted to stay out drinking. The first 10-15 minutes will be brutal but you will feel much better throughout the day.
To overcome the shittyness of hotel gyms, you still need some discipline as well as some creativity. When I was a college athlete, we had some SEALs come in and put us through a workout designed as a teambuilding exercise. After it was all done, one SEAL went on a rant about how 99% of people make excuses for themselves and included an example of some fat middle aged guy.
“I travel for work all the time and can’t get to the gym… bullshit… do burpees in your hotel room until you throw up.”
Awesome quote that stuck with me because I knew after graduating, I would be working long hours, traveling etc. and did not want to get fat. “Burpees until you throw up” is a great workout but here are some other ones that require varying levels of equipment depending on the hotel gym set up.
Minimal Hotel Gym
This workout was started by Lt. Dan Murphy as a way to stay in shape while on deployment and has since been popularized as a way to honor his memory (you can read more about the backstory here if interested). Every hotel gym should have a treadmill and a pull up bar which is all you need.
Run 1 mile
100 pull ups
200 push ups
300 body weight squats
Run 1 mile
Halfway Decent Hotel Gym
Some gyms will have a bench and dumbbells up to 50lbs which will get the job done in this scenario. A couple upper body / lower body supersets and you’re on your way.
Superset 1:
Alternating Single Arm Incline dumbbell bench: 4 x 16 - 20 (assuming 50s are light)
Chest supported row: 4 x 12 - 15
Superset 2:
Goblet squats: 4 x 15
Single leg dumbbell RDLs: 4 x 10
Superset 3:
Seated shoulder press: 4 x 10
Seated “good mornings”: 4 x 10
Finisher (option 1: lower body)
20 second continuous intervals of the following three exercises followed by 30 seconds rest for 10 mins total
burpees
jumping split lunges
jumping jacks
Ex. 20 seconds burpees, 20 seconds jumping split lunges, 20 seconds jumping jacks, 30 seconds rest, repeat
Finisher (option 2: upper body)
5 rounds as fast as possible
20 elevated arm push ups (10 right, 10 left)
10 waiter curls
20 triceps push ups
No Hotel Gym
Landed late and the gym is closed? There is no gym? Good. Here’s one that will have you gassed in 30 minutes.
Complete 10 reps every minute of each exercise for 10 minutes
burpees
push ups
sit ups
There are no excuses in life and don’t let travel get in the way of your health. I promise you, getting one of these done will make you feel way better than the extra hour of sleep will. Just get it done. Happy hunting.
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