One of my tasks at Power Systems is traveling for trade shows.
My favorite things about traveling for these trades shows is, I love visiting new cities I’ve never been to… meeting enthusiastic trainers, athletic directors, group fitness instructors, and gym owners. When one of these professionals gets fired up seeing the products we’ve brought to the shows makes this job even better.
My least favorite part about traveling for trade shows occurs when I am tempted to skip out on workouts because of the late night flights, early mornings, long days, and underwhelming hotel fitness centers. This can make it easy to find additional excuses not to exercise. I’ve found I cannot control the hours or lack of equipment in the hotel gym, but I can control my motivation.
So, when I travel to shows, I get motivated ahead of time by allowing myself no excuses and pre-write out my workouts and bring along the equipment I’ll need.
The equipment:
Jungle Gym XT
SKLZ Slidez
… and suitcase or carry-on bag.
Why these 3 items? Since I travel with a bunch of workout clothes, that means I have a bag to hold them. The Jungle Gym XT is my favorite suspension trainer for the price point- only $99. It has an attachment to hang over any door or an attachment to suspension training cages. These Slidez are my favorite NEW product! They slide on carpet, hardwood, and rubber floor! Here are some workouts I’ve written for an upcoming trip that can be done in my hotel room:
Workout #1
5 rounds (20 minutes total)
One minute of each exercise. After each minute switch to the next exercise, no breaks!
Rows with Jungle Gym XT: Choose the progression that works best for you.
Plyo Toe Taps with your carry-on: Use the carry-on as a target to get those toes higher, but try not to rest the foot on top.
Russian Twist with carry-on: Seated on the floor with knees bent and feet flat on the floor, lean back with a lifted chest. Holding the carry on, maintain a tight core and rotate or twist side to side, as if your lead elbow is trying to line up with the spine.
Reverse Lunges with Slidez: With a Slidez under each foot, slide one foot back, allowing both the front and back leg to come to a 90 degree angle. Make sure to stack the front knee and front toe, to squeeze the glutes to draw the back leg in, and then alternate sides.
Workout #2
15 for 15 (15 minutes total)
15 reps of each exercise, as many times as you can go through them all, with a time cap of 15 minutes, so go as fast as you can!
Bicep Curl with Jungle Gym XT: The more upright you stand, with your body at less of an incline, the easier it gets. Get low to get more difficult.
Tricep Extension with Jungle Gym XT: Try to keep those elbows still and avoid a swinging motion.
Hamstring Curl with Slidez: Lying flat on the floor face up, place the heel of each foot on a Slidez. Engage the glutes to lift the hips, leaving the hips up throughout all 15 reps. Keep that tush tight and activate the hamstrings to pull the heels towards your bottom allowing your knees to bend. Watch out for a Charlie Horse the further you go along; those hammies love to seize up.
Plank feet in and out with Slidez: From the Hamstring Curls, flip over. From the floor push yourself into a push up position- hands under shoulders, flat back, and tight glutes. Place each foot on a Slidez with the toes curled under. Holding plank, and leaving the hips still, slide both feet out at the same time then use inner thighs to squeeze the legs back together. This one is killer!
Squat and hop over the carry-on bag: Stand laterally to the bag, squat, and as you rise up from the squat jump over the bag landing in a squat. Continue in this fashion until you hit 15 reps then move back to the Bicep Curls. 15 minutes will feel way longer than you’d think.
Workout #3
Ladder to H*ll (It is even worse than it sounds, trust that!)
Perform 1,2,3,4…. Of push-ups and 2,4,6,8…of lunge and squat and floor sweeper until you reach failure or 20 minutes, whichever comes first. (You’d do 1 push up, 2 lunge and squat, 2 floor sweeper; 2 push up, 4 lunge and squat, 4 floor sweeper, and so on.)
Push Ups with Slidez: I am sweating just thinking out this one. Start in a normal plank – from the floor push yourself into a plank up position with hands under shoulders, flat back, and tight glutes. Place a Slidez under each hand. As you bend the elbows slide the Slidez out and squeeze the chest to pull them back in to straighten your arms. An option here is to kneel as you do these push-ups.
Lunge and Squat with Jungle Gym XT: Yikes is what you’re thinking once you’ve watched the video! Feel free to scale back this exercise to just a pistol or regular squat.
Floor Sweeper with carry-on bag: Lying on the floor, engage your core muscles to draw the shoulder blades off the floor and press the carry-on bag up the ceiling. Leave the bag pressed up the whole time and with legs either full extended or bent perform a reverse crunch lifting those legs or knees up towards the bag. Just getting the glutes a few inches up off the floor with each reverse crunch is brutal.
Workout #4
If all else fails and I find myself without any equipment at all, I can always resort to my good old reliable, most hated workout – 150 burpees for time.
If you’re like me and you are on the go, plan ahead! Print out these workouts and visit our website for the products mentioned above. Have workouts, have equipment, so let’s travel!
