Exercise and gym during travel
 

Hi, this is not directly related to air travel but I'll give it a go for advice!
I'm a total gym rat and work out five times a week. As I travel more and more, I am desperate to find solutions to fill in the missed work outs.
Business hotels have poor gyms - a measly set of weights, treadmills and an all in one machine at best. Unless it's a spa hotel of course.

Can anyone recommend a way to keep me pumped? Anyone else have a similar vanity problem?

:-)

It is a bit of a nightmare!

You just have to acknowledge you need to use your bodyweight as resistance and work out a routine for yourself.

And for cardiovascular exercise, running is always free.

I have never yet bothered but have often considered looking for Judo (or similar) classes nearby - a nice way to work out and, perhaps more importantly, meet some nice local people...

Obviously if what you are after is just weights to pump rather then general exercise your options are more limited.

There are the beginnings of global gym passes but they do not meet my requirements.

General exercise can be done anywhere. If all you want to do is lift heavy weights in a nice gym most days, best to get a job that does not involve travel!

I like to run when I travel. If you're trying to do more strength training, what about packing an exercise band? You can do all kinds of strength work with one. Also, a packable yoga mat would allow you to do yoga or pilates mat work.

Exercise band - excellent idea. I'll get on Ebay right now!

I travel for work almost every week, and while I'd never consider myself a "gym rat," I do always travel with my suspension training system. TRX is the most popular, but I really enjoy mine which are Lifeline XT. Compact, lightweight, I sling them over the hotel room door and have an instant workout that's as intense as I make it.

Also I find TRX to be a good mix of strength and endurance training, saw a thing called the Monkii Bars that can be hung on a door or wall, which is rather convenient for travelers to work out in the hotel room(hang on the bathroom door or so).

Yup, I have a set of bands that I bought for $25 on amazon which are super portable and can be configured for most things (e.g., banded push ups, squats, deads, et al). I've also used jugs of water since I usually don't eat out but go the Whole Foods anyway ... I just buy some extras of the biggest water jugs I can find. Yeah, not a replacement for a full cage, but adds a little weirdo spice into your routine.

Now, if you bench 400, yeah, nothing will really help you there, but I'm also a big believer that you can substitute reps for weight. I kinda like the water jugs because they're unwieldy especially if you do a max-speed eccentric motion. So, for example, I'll do banded overhead presses while also holding a water jug in each hand. Or a banded floor press with the water jugs. You can do banded dips too with a chair or table. Pull-ups and lat motions can be a bit challenging, but if I'm not going to be back for awhile I come with some creative configs.

Good ideas all round. So I'm not the only one making a sweat in the hotel room alone :-)

I have the exercise bands (don't forget the door stop), perfect push up (older collapsible) with two paper plates to do sliding mountain climbers and push ups. (you can buy feet sliders but paper plates are lighters and more compact and work great on carpets)

You can do a complete workout from within your room and it fits in your luggage nicely.

The bands are amazingly strong, I can bench about 315 and while it isn't a dumbbell or bar workout, it can give great resistance when travelling.

Running or just do pushups.

Great add! I also do a lot of "tiger" or hindu pushups on the road, really gets tough fast for me

Currently I run and carry a trx for working out at home and on the road. Also like to do sets of max speed jumping Jack's to warm up.

I used to carry a resistance band and jump rope but some component of the rubber began to alarm as explosive during airport screening.

Have you looked at some of the national chains of gyms where the membership allows for entry into multiple cities? I know that some gyms, like Planet Fitness, have facilities all over the US and you can use them.

+1
My husband knows where all the Marriotts & Hiltons are that are near a gym location that he can use! When he travels somewhere that our gym doesn't have a location, he can sometimes find a local gym that will sell him a day pass for $10 or so.

I always have this problem, especially when I travel to Asia, where even well stocked gyms seem to have very low max weights. I tend to do lighter weights, more reps when I travel, use my bodyweight and get a bit creative with the gym equipment. Its rare to find a fully manned gym in a hotel and I just use equipment in ways it wasn't designed for.

Eg Seated shoulder press machines are great for standing shoulder shrugs and are often stacked with 150kg+ (stand on the seat) Great when shrugging the puny 60KG dumbells just wont cut it.