Effective Training Routines Right in Your Hotel Room
A typical day’s travel from your starting point to destination, or just getting around once you’ve arrived, can result in extra stress and fatigue on lower body muscles. When you’ve been standing in lines, rushing for gates or cabs, or pulling suitcases, both your legs and lower torso can use some simple but effective exercise routines.
You can perform these workouts that include stretching, cardio and strength movements even in the limited dimensions of your hotel room. Make practical training use of some of the features around you–a chair, bed, and a door frame. Train for intensity and efficiency–so, if you’re traveling for a week or more and you usually train at least four days a week at home, then aim for a minimum of three days a week. Perform sufficient exercise to target all the major muscle groups over the course of your week, just as you would at your own gym.
Warming up:
Elevate heart rate first with some warm-ups – you could use anything from the inner stairwell of a hotel to a jump rope in your room or in-place running for at least 10-15 minutes.
Lower Body Movements:
- Traveling Lunges – use the maximum floor area of your room to stretch the hips, gluteals, and front quadriceps.
- Squats – even without weights, you can directly stress on the quads, hamstrings, buttocks and lower back by performing the squatting movement.
- Standing Calf Raises – use a wall or chair to remain standing upright while elevating yourself onto the balls of your feet.
- Extended Leg Raise – on all fours, extend one leg out and back to work gluteals and strengthen the lower spine.
- Gluteal Raises – target the glutes, lower back and quads by lying on your back with knees raised, then raising and lowering the buttocks.
- One-Leg Squat – standing with one foot on a phone directory, lower hips to a seated position to target the front quadriceps of the extended leg.
- Lunges – take alternate steps forward to a kneeling position to target the glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves.
- Hip Extensions – using a chair for stability, bend forward to target the glutes and hamstrings.
- 90-Second Wall Sits – an excellent strengthener for the lower body and especially the entire quadriceps.
Stretching:
Groin Stretch:
Emphasis: enhance flexibility in the groin and inner thigh areas. Performance: sitting on the ground, position the soles of the feet together. Grasp the ankles and gently push the knees down using the elbows. Hold for at least 10 seconds.
Lunging Stretch:
Emphasis: stretch the muscles of the hips, gluteals and front quadriceps. Performance: step forward with either leg and descend into a fully bent position while keeping the other leg straight. Hold this position for a minimum of 5-10 seconds, then repeat with the other foot placed forward.
Hamstrings Stretch:
Emphasis: a stretch which has variations but is mainly focused on the large muscles at the back of the thighs, gluteals and lower back muscles. Performance: place the feet about 6″ – 8″ apart from the floor. Keep the legs locked apart, while extending the arms straight up from the shoulders and bend forward to touch the hands to the feet. With increased flexibility, you can perform this in seated variations with legs spread straight to grasp the legs individually with the arms.
Calf Stretch:
Emphasis: stretch and tone all of the muscles at the back of the lower legs. Performance: facing a wall or solid vertical surface, position hands flat on surface at shoulder height. Move the feet backward until the right leg, torso and arms form one straight line. Keep the left leg bent to avoid placing weight on it, and then slowly press the right heel down to the floor. Adjust this heel extension as needed to intensify the stretch. Perform equal amounts of stretching for both legs.