Marion Freijsen A blog about Sports, Fitness & Health

The Travelling Warrior

Apart from the tips on how to eat when you are totally busy travelling around, be it for holiday or pleasure – it is obviously harder for us weak-willed individuals to work out whilst we are on the road. So here’s some ideas of things you CAN easily do, just send spouse and kids off to the buffet, whilst you buff your body!

In a hotel:

You really can do a ton of different exercises in a hotel, here’s a favourite selection of mine…find a radiostation you like if you did not bring an ipod and get going…

Warm up

• simple jumping jacks can be done virtually anywhere, unless you are in a midget hotel with low ceilings. Do 20
• go straight from jumping jacks into jogging on the spot – 1 min.
• REPEAT 3x
• Grab the chair from behind the inevitable desk, rest your feet on the seat, face down, leaning on your shoulders. Doing a push-up in this position is harder then the normal one on the floor so you can do less, 3x 10 should be great to start with.
• turn around and sit down on the chair, legs bent in 90 degree angle, feet firmly pressed into the floor. Straighten one leg in front, now stand up 10x on one leg, then do the other one (obviously, 10x too)
• Move the seat a little further back, do 30 squats. Keep your toes pointing forward, or a minimal turnout if you find this too hard, but no wide-opened knees and duck-feet positions! Keeping chest up, using arms for balance, lower your butt down to the chair’s edge and back up. No sitting down, it’s simply there as a guide.
• Repeat the above 3 exercises twice more each!
• Do 20 jumping jacks and 1 min. of jogging. If you want to get your heartrate up further, you can add (or substitute) burpees – One burpee is simply standing up, drop your hands to the floor in front of your feet, jump both legs simultaneously backwards and jump back in. Lift your hands off the floor and jump straight up in the air. Do 20 of these if you can.
• grab a towel from the bathroom – lie on your back. Straighten your legs in the air, and do tiny low-ab crunches by lifting your hips off the floor. The smoother you make this movement, the more you use your lower abdominals. Try not to jerk and don’t use your lower back. I find this movement easiest if I hold on to something behind my head to keep my neck from straining, use a bedpost for instance to hold you into the right position. Try 10-15 – make them hard by really concentrating on keeping the tension in your lower abdomen…
• now bend your knees, press them together and lower them to one side. Back and shoulders are still on the floor, your hips slightly tilted. With your face firmly looking up at that spot on the ceiling, do 20 small crunches up. Hands behind your neck for support (tip: don’t interlock your fingers, but hold your hands flat on top of each other right behind your neck, it forces you to move your elbows out nice and straight).
• Repeat on the other side
• turn around into a plank. Elbows on the floor/towel, feet on your toes, keep your pelvis tucked under – there is no strain on your lower back. Hold for 30 secs. Then lift your right leg, keeping it straight – hold for 20 secs. lower and lift other leg for another 20 secs.
• Do 20-30 burpees to finish.
• Repeat stomach exercises 3x and finish with a nice stretch and cooldown.

I will add some more leg exercises and power exercises in my next blog – so check back soon! This little set should keep you going for today