Traveling Workout

            Recently I had a good friend ask about what she and her boyfriend could do with limited equipment in a hotel room to get a good workout. I know there is an obvious inappropriate answer you’re just dying to blurt out. I’ll give you a moment…. Good? OK, let’s move on. She has available to her a TRX and a medicine ball. If you’re unfamiliar with a TRX, it’s basically straps with handles you connect to and external anchor. It’s a great tool to have traveling if you need to work out. If you don’t know what a med ball is you probably don’t workout, go to gyms, and have probably already navigated away from my blog. What to do for exercise while traveling is actually a cool question because it requires a bit of imagination.

            So before launching in on this one I am going to say, personally I would rather workout outside. If you’re a desk athlete and you have the option to go outside, take it. Generally speaking, most of these desk athletes are deficient in Vitamin D, being inside all day, and all one has to do is go outside and enjoy the rays, but not too much. You are also going to perform better if you get exposure to the sun and are in an open area. I’m sure there is a study somewhere but I’m too busy with lifting heavy things and catching up on episodes of Fringe to find it. All this to consider, I will take it from both sides: Working outside and getting some light on that vampire skin and working in your hotel room like Sarah O’Conner in Terminator 2.

TRX pistol

    

        Inside:

            If you and your boyfriend have a med ball and a TRX you are going to have to super set, that is doing your exercises back to back. For the unequipped people reading this, know that you can create a makeshift TRX by taking a sheet and tying a knot on both cattycorner ends then putting it on top of the bathroom or entrance door and just closing the door, making sure one knot in the sheet is on the other side of the closed door (on top).

So while one person is working on strength, the other is doing conditioning. For example: Round 1 would be one of you doing rows on the TRX while the other is doing squat presses with the med ball. The row is strength and the med is considered conditioning. Here is what the parameters look like: 1-minute of each exercise, 3 times. Then move on to the next superset. Now you both have iPhones so you can time it or even download an app (sorry, I’m not plugging any apps) but, for anyone who doesn’t, figure, for example, if one row takes 2 seconds then, that’s right! You’re doing 30 reps in 60 seconds. Damn you’re smart.  And sweaty in a hotel room… gross.  I will attach some ideas in PDF form. This is a thank you to you for all the awesome BBQ’s you guys have invited me to. And no, it wasn’t me who made the mess in the bathroom. I swear.

High School Kids doing side flows

            

 Outside:

            When I have the opportunity, I love working outside. Just creating a different stimulus in your workout will make you push harder. Attach your TRX to a tree or whatever you can find and grab your med ball. The parameters for this one are a bit different: 1 minute rounds with a conditioning set in between. Both of you will superset a strength exercise while sprinkling in sprinting and side flows. The idea here is that one of you is hitting upper body while the other is hitting lower body. For example: One of you is doing alternating TRX pistols while the other is doing body weight push-ups. You switch after one minute and complete one more minute of work, then sprint. I would recommend only 50 meters for all the conditioning work.

All right, so I will attach a few ideas as a PDF you can download if you like. Lastly, let me say when on the road and away from iron, having a decent knowledge and/or guide to body weight exercises is crucial to getting a great workout. I would highly recommend “The Naked Warrior” by Pavel, and “Convict Conditioning” by Paul Wade.

            Good luck on your training on-the-road and let me know if you have any questions.  Here is the link: http://ironbodysystem.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Traveling-Workout.xls

Also, please know that you can get creative and these are just ideas. HAVE FUN!