The Hotel Room Workout #3: “Push” and core exercises you can use to stay fit while traveling, even without a gym

Just because you’re traveling doesn’t mean your health and fitness should go on a vacation. Particularly for the frequent flyer, establishing a way to continue exercising and eating well is an important means for maintaining both a healthy body and mind, and can even help you avoid jet lag.

Yet, hotel gyms and travel schedules pose some significant problems. If the hotel has a fitness facility that’s open when you have time to work out, it still might serve a sad excuse for exercise. Often, hotel workout rooms feature a treadmill and TV infomercial style machine in a room overlooking the dumpster, with nary a free weight in sight.

No need to panic. You want to be immune to such barriers, therefore it is best to assume there will be no facilities at all at your travel destination. Instead, you can make do simply and effectively with what’s available in your room.

Other workout articles by this writer are available on HubPages that emphasize the lower body and “pull” exercises. The following hotel room workout focuses on core muscles and “push” exercise routines. A good fitness schedule works many muscle groups in multiple ways, and these exercises represent some that can easily complement your existing workout in both home and travel environments.

The workout: Alternating core and upper body push exercises

When you travel you are usually time-pressed and need to get personal matters managed in a hurry. Your workout should be efficient as well, so these exercises are ordered in such a way that you will be in near-constant motion, exercising one muscle group right after you’ve fatigued another. This is not a bad way to arrange any workout in any environment, by the way.

Warm up: It always helps to get the blood circulating, muscles stretched and pumping. Calisthenics you learned in school can serve you well in this situation: perform jumping jacks for a period of at least two and up to five minutes. No need to worry about it looking silly – you’re alone in your hotel room, another advantage over a standard health club. Alternatively, try the following:

Drop-kickbacks. Stand with arms raised above your head. Rapidly drop to a crouched position with both hands on the floor, then kick your legs back to a full extension behind you. Just as rapidly, pull the feet back toward your hands then rise up to the starting position.

Heads, shoulders, knees and toes (and back). Stand straight up with arms upraised toward the ceiling, then quickly move the hands to touch your head, shoulders, knees then toes or the floor. Retrace that back to the upraised arms position and repeat.

Once you are warmed up, you are ready for the core and push exercises.

Core #1: Edge-of-bed leg lifts. Sit on the edge of the bed, anchor your tailbone about 9-12 inches onto the mattress, then extend your legs straight out and parallel to the floor. Extend arms and hands out as well, then raise and lower legs, attempting to touch your toes with each rise.

Push #1: Towel tri-press. Using a towel-rope (twisted bath towel) wrapped around the back of your neck, grasp each end with each hand, with the right hand holding it about a foot away from your head, palm facing outward. Press the right hand and arm forward (largely engaging the tricep muscle), but resist all movement with the strength of your left hand and neck. Hold for 10 to 30 seconds. Next, allow about two inches of towel to slip forward, then press again with the right hand for 10 to 30 seconds. Continue these incrementally shifting positions (this is also known as “static contraction training”) until arm is fully extended, then repeat on the left arm.

Core #2: Face-down leg lifts. In a reverse of the Core #1 leg lifts, lie face down on the bed, with knees and lower leg hanging off the bed. Grasp sides of the mattress* with hands, then lift legs and hips off the bed, slowly returning them to the mattress. Repeat 10-20 times. This engages the backside of the core as well as the buttocks.

*If bed is too wide for your arm span, alter this exercise by facing into a corner of the mattress and grab along the mattress sides there.

Push #2: Towel shoulder press-ups. Grasp the towel-rope in the right hand at the shoulder level, palm face up, while holding the opposite end of the towel at a lower level with the left hand (hands can be centered along the body, or assymetrical). Slowly press upward, perhaps taking as much as 20 or even 30 seconds to peak out with the right hand fully extended upward. Reverse direction at the same pace, then repeat on the left side.

Core #3: Zombie kicks. Stand with arms stretched forward, “zombie” style. Keeping both legs straight throughout, kick the left leg up toward the hands, then return it down, then back up behind you as far as you can reach. Repeat this cycle 10-20 times, never touching the left leg down until finished. Repeat on the right side.

Push #3: Towel shoulder press-outs. Grasping the towel-rope at both ends (2 to 4 foot between hands), arms raised over your head and with palms facing outward, concentrate on the right hand pushing away from the center of your body while providing sufficient resistance from the left. Return to center with the left pressing outward, this time with sufficient resistance provided by the right arm. Note: as outlined in another hub by this writer (“The Hotel Workout #2: Exercise for People Who Don't Want Travel to Interrupt Their Fitness Routine”), this routine can easily become a different, “pull” exercise by simply having the palms face inward.

Core #4: Overhead towel side tips. Grasp the towel-rope with hands 1 to 2 feet apart, arms fully extended overhead. Slowly tip as far as possible to one side, staying within a lateral plane (i.e., do not lean forward or back), allowing the lower hand to fully stretch the torso. Pause, then slowly return to center before proceeding to the opposite side. Repeat 10- 20 times.

Push #4: Pushup Palooza. Don’t just do pushups – do fifty, ten repetitions in five different positions and do them slowly. Those positions are:

• Standard; hands spaced approximately shoulder width apart and planted on the floor at about mid-chest.

• Wide-grip; taking the hands wider than the shoulders.

• High-stretch; walk the hands higher/forward from the standard position as far as possible and still perform the exercise without sacrificing form.*

• Left/Right emphasis; while it may be nearly impossible for most mortals to do one-arm pushups, you can place 60, 70, 80 and perhaps 90 percent of your weight on one arm with assistance from the other for the remaining weight. Center your body closer to the working arm, with the assisting arm further from center.

• Push-pinch; performed in the standard position but with a strong pinch-pause (chest flex) at the top. For added drama, press off the floor and clap hands together in mid-air in place of the pinch.

*Standard form for pushups involves a plank-position body, that is, from the heels to the head the body is as straight as a wooden board and is raised up and down from the concentrated chest and arm muscle groups. Elbows can point back or out, each providing a different dimension to the workout.

These are exercises that can be performed in 20 to 30 minutes or more, depending on how many sets you choose. By activating those muscles, the metabolism is raised and feel-good hormones such as endorphins can be released, making your travel all the more manageable, enjoyable – and far less stressful.

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For additional hotel room workout routines, and other health and fitness ideas (including how to eat healthy in restaurants and convenience stores), see other hubs by Russ Klettke. He also wrote "A Guy's Gotta Eat, the regular guy's guide to eating smart" with Deanna Conte, MS RD LD (Marlowe & Co., NY 2004), available in bookstores and more than 70 public library systems in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

What are your biggest challenges at staying fit while traveling? Eating the wrong foods - perhaps because you are required to wine and dine with others? No time to workout? Just being away from your regular routine? Or have you developed some tricks for doing it right? Send me an email to discuss it: RussKlettke@gmail.com.