Whether you're on the road for business or on vacation for some R&R, many people still want or need to workout and choose not to disrupt their training schedule. Since I was 17, I have NEVER missed a workout during any of my travels for business or pleasure. Working out for me and for many of you, is a lifestyle and it’s something that makes us feel great. I’m certainly not suggesting that you never take a break – Obviously if you’ve been training hard, you’re entitled to some rest and what better way to enjoy that than during your vacation.

This article is not about what you should be doing, but more about what you can do to accommodate your workout needs while traveling.

Whenever I make plans to travel, the first thing I do, is call the hotel where I’m staying and ask them how their in house workout facility is – Most quite honestly are AWFUL! Once they tell me about their broken elliptical and the 1970’s Universal Multi Gym, I ask them what gyms are in close proximity to them. It only takes a moment for them to get this info for you and you’ll often find that many hotels will comp you for use of those local gyms. All you have to do is ask.

I was on my honeymoon 3 years ago and prior to leaving, I asked the luxurious hotel to tell me about their in house gym. The hotel concierge described their State-Of-The-Art workout facility and I was just psyched to know that I would have a place to train, if I had time and the wife was ok with it, of course!

When we arrived at the hotel, I was just curious to see their high end facility! When we reached the place where the gym was supposed to be, I told my wife that we must have went the wrong way – It must have been their old gym. We entered and what we saw was disgust and disaster! It was full of archaic equipment that was full of rust, frayed cables, broken dumbbells and torn & mildewed weight benches. It was a train wreck!

Long story short, I ended up training, using mine and my wife’s suitcases. I did a decent job of getting the same amount of weight in each bag; about 40 pounds in each. I used them for biceps curls, upright rows & lateral raises for shoulders, triceps extensions.  

I did a hand stand and had my wife support my legs to avoid a fall – In the hand stand position, I did my shoulder presses. I did push-ups for chest, couch dips for my triceps, I did bodyweight lunges & squats for legs. I even managed to find a sturdy ledge in my hotel room bathroom to do pull-ups.

For cardio, I swam a lot and I did one of the greatest combination cardio strength training activities that I have ever experienced – I kayaked in the ocean! Better than that, I chose a breaking point about a ¼ of a mile out and I would perform kayaking sprints to that point, without rest – I would make sure to bring the paddle way in front of the kayak during each stroke and I would drive the paddle across the water using great force – I was using all of my upper body muscles and my legs were even engaged because of the quick and intense motion of moving back and fourth and switching paddles from side to side.

In a nut-shell, I came back from my honeymoon in better shape then when I left. Do you want to know why? First, the exercises were different than those that I was used to performing. As I always say,

The Best Workout Is The One You’re Not Currently On!

My body was being challenged by the different resistance – You might say weight is weight, but the use of oblong weights, like suitcases did a mighty fine job at distributing the weight, forcing me to use a variation of training angles and range of motion.

The bodyweight exercises are not something that I do often – I did many more reps than I was used to and trained until momentary muscular failure. It caused lots of micro trauma (a good thing for building muscle) due to the high volume and use of perfect form.

The pull-ups were awesome. I was only able to use my fingers to hold on to the ledge, but I was determined to get them done and I did! At first, I could only get about five great reps - By the end of the vacation, I was banging out 15 awesome reps! Talk about a training high!

This was one of the greatest training experiences that I ever had. It wasn’t because I found new exercises – If that were the case I’d bring my suitcases to the gym! ;)

I simply learned that you can ALWAYS make use out of that you’ve got available. If you have no weights, at all, make the most of it and do your bodyweight squats, lunges, pushups, pull-ups, chin-ups, hand-stand shoulder press’, ab work, etc. NO EXCUSES!

The most important aspect of this however is making sure that you have a plan of action. I’ve drilled it into you all before and I’m not about to stop – You should never just wing your workouts – Try to put some thought behind it – What muscle groups are you going to train? Which exercises make the most sense to begin with? How many sets & reps should I do? How much rest should I take between sets? Etc.

The more you think about these things and address them in an intelligent manner, the better your workouts & results!

Working out on the road should be fun and challenging - It's up to you to make it that way!

Keep Going!

James Villepigue CSCS