bbombb

I have to be honest, I work out regularly, but when I travel, being outdoors and doing nature-related things helps me to get a (natural) work out in. If not, I just gorge on unhealthy foods and let the weights gather dust until I get back.

Correction, I consume unhealthy foods regardless~ XD

N1120A

A few things:

1) If you have leeway over the hotels you pick, try and focus on Omni, Westin and Hyatts. They all tend to have decent gyms that can give you a decent replacement workout. Kimpton has been improving their gyms, as have most chains.

2) If you are travelling domestically, getting a deal for a nationwide gym membership at a place like 24 Hour or Gold's could help.

3) If you are stuck in a hotel that has a poor gym and have no other options, look up "Ric Flair Deck of Cards Workout." You don't have to be a pro wrestling fan to see the value to that training style and it can give you a really great pump and cardio benefit, right in a hotel room.

HornsKeith

If there's no decent gym available, you can try to make do with exercise bands and/or a waterbell in lieu of the sand version.

Keith

N1120A

I tend to do the same. When faced with lower weights, I do exercises that focus more on the pump and less on strength and density.

NomadNick

Definitely a fellow gym rat here. I think domestic is fairly easy to find a gym nearby, but I find even the worst hotel gyms can still be used to get a great workout, it just takes more creativity than normal.

As has been mentioned, it definitely helps to focus more on lower weight, higher rep, supersets, drop sets, pre-exhausting techniques, etc. I just had a great workout in a terrible little hotel 'gym' (literally just a few dumbbells and a small universal machine) in China a few days ago by just getting creative with what was available. Tbh I was shocked that they had a gym at all. The bigger issue was their decision to have the AC set at 27C

But even without a gym at all: pushup variations, handstand push ups, chair dips, BW squats/lunges, core work, done in a room are plenty to keep you from losing much of any progress before returning to home gym. If you want to get weird with it, fill your carryon up and find a way to do overhead presses, curls, lying tricep extensions, etc. Often it is these weird workouts that keep your body guessing that help to get out of a rut.

eastflyer123

The suggestion of rubber bands was excellent. Thank you

gobluetwo

I've never seen a dumbbell even approaching 60kg in any hotel gym (NA, Asia, Europe) - usually max is around 25kg / 50lbs, if not less. What hotels are you staying in?

bennos

I've seen close in a handful of hotels. IIRC the JW Marriott Marquis Miami went up to about 50kg +/-. But yeah, pretty rare.

VA1379

The Marriott County Hall in London has an enormous health club. You have to sign in, and it is not open 24 hours for hotel guests. I visited it in 2009, and I was amazed they had dumbbells going up to 100 kgs (220 pounds). I had never seen so many dumbbells in one gym.

JW Marriott Seoul has a fairly large health club that is open 24 hours for hotel guests. There are a lot of free weights, barbells, weight and cardio machines. I don't remember how high the dumbbells went up to, but they had some around 50 kgs.

JW Marriott Hong Kong has a more compact gym, but it is better than the Conrad Hong Kong's gym. They have a TRX station, and there is one station to squat, bench or deadlift with an attached barbell. Max dumbbell weight was around 40 kgs.

Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego has a really large gym with several benches with barbells for upper body and squat racks. This is an large convention hotel so you will get a lot of walking if you have club access and are not located in the tower with the club lounge.

Orlando World Center Marriott has an extensive gym. Pretty much anything you want in a gym will be there. This is an enormous resort with over 1800 rooms. I am not sure if the timeshare Marriott properties near this resort have access to the gym at the resort.

Hyatt Regency Sha Tin in Hong Kong also has a decent gym. They have a barbell to bench press and a squat rack along with the usual cardio and weight machines and dumbbells.

THN

As someone who 3 years ago changed from a job with limited travel to now a job with global travel 5-10 days a month - combined with a tendency to gain weight - I am fully on board with you here.

I have a couple of solutions that works for me. It may not be for everyone - but it works for me
a) Always check luggage - and pack a s... load of gym clothes: Basically I sweat a lot when I train - and I hate freezing. So when travelling - even when I go running outside - I need a fair amount of "stuff". So rather than the old "should I check luggage or not" I have made the conclusion that I will always check luggage as I need 1-2 pairs of gym shoes (potentially outside/inside) + a number of change of clothes.
b) Use an HRM with activity tracking. Personally I use Polar V800 which helps me - it has a measure of "daily activity" - and when I travel I use that as my personal pacer to make sure I do reach a certain threshold
c) Not only do I check luggage, I also have a bit of nutrition that I check - some protein mix that I bring with me. So my routine is really that I every morning do some exercise before breakfast - and if I need energy I used the protein mix so that I can get the exercise done before the day starts (in the evening I am often too tired to do anything)
d) As for "gym on the run" I have few things that helps me
d.1) I use JeFit and have created a few routines that pushes me. Bascially I accept that during travel my fitness is not about building strenght, but maintaining - so I have a few travelling programs that roughly contains 20-30 min of cardio + some strenght
d.2) For places where the is no Gym I have downloaded TacFit Commando http://rmaxinternational.com/tacfitcom/ and stored it in a GoogleDrive on my phone - if needed I will then do the program in my hotel room (the marketing spiel on this is that it is designed for SpecialForces in a cell - not sure I believe it - but you can do it in a room)
d.3) For RTX, TacFit Rope (same location as above) would also work.

May not be for everyone - but this works for me

dhuey

Same here -- I've seen it a couple of times over the years, but it's pretty rare.

Much more common, though, is where a hotel has an arrangement with a nearby gym. The Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, for example, has a deal with the Wisconsin Athletic Club across the street ($10 per entry). The Hay-Adams in D.C. has a similar arrangement with a club whose name I cannot recall. That's your ideal situation if you want a regular gym strength workout.

N1120A

Yeah. If you find a hotel with 60kg (about 132 pounds), tell me where it is. Most hotels I see max out at around 60 POUNDS. Omnis sometimes go up to 75. The only place I've seen more is the gym in the Marylebone Hotel in London, and that is because it is part of the Third Space chain and serves the local public.

PFSHero

Here's to keep you pumping!

Just found this workout effective even you don't lift

johnsonannabel42

I like the suggestions of rubber bands and workout are better than other options!

cslewis

Various exercises can be done with the items in a hotel room. You can bring a few items with you when you are traveling to work out with.