Dec 30 2016
Traveling but don’t want to miss your exercise regime? Here’s how to get a great workout right in your hotel room.
Whether you’re away from home on a fun-filled vacation or another hard-working business trip, staying in a hotel room can easily take you out of your workout routine.
In fact, this might sound familiar: you check into your hotel after a 4:30 am wake-up call so you could get to the airport in time to catch your 8 am flight. You have a few hours of downtime before a busy afternoon of business meetings and then dinner and cocktails with clients.
You have every intention of cramming in a great workout session in that small window of downtime – you even brought your running sneakers. But once you get to the hotel, it starts raining outside, the bed looks so fluffy and inviting, and your eyes so tired from the early morning plane ride. You get as far as putting on your workout clothes before you fall asleep…
This happens more often than not for business travelers and even vacationers, who really do intend to work out as they travel, but succumb to the temptations of the road. After all, it’s hard enough to get motivated when we have a set schedule and our neighborhood gym is right down the road!
But there is a solution: getting a great workout right there in your hotel room. In fact, you can facilitate vigorous exercise in a small space with no equipment no matter what your environment and goals – from toning to building muscle, increasing flexibility and even cardiovascular fitness.
A lot of these exercises are as traditional as our gym class routines when we were trying to earn the Presidential Physical Fitness Award back in elementary school. Some are so new-age that even the most holistic yoga teacher would approve, and others are used in military basic training and even by Navy Seals. Believe it or not, but many of the principles of getting an intense, muscle-building workout in a small space with no equipment come from…you guessed it: prison, or “jail cell workouts” as they’re called.
No matter who you are or what your fitness level, always start slowly to get the form correct first, and be mindful of any injuries. If you have health conditions or are new to exercising regularly, it may be a god idea to consult your physician first. I’ll just cover the basics, but if you need better explanations of what these exercises should look like, feel free to get on YouTube (I assume your hotel room has Wi-Fi!)
Ok, with the caveats aside, we have you standing in the middle of your hotel room with no equipment and half-an-hour to get a great workout. What next?
Pushups:
You can’t go wrong with the old standard pushup (or press-up). But too many people try to do them too fast out the gate, which can diminish the intended effect and even strain your elbows. Try them slowly, really squeezing your chest at the top. Once you’ve mastered the basic pushups, start doing variations – placing your hands wider and closer together, putting your feet up on a chair to create different angles, freezing at the bottom, and even clapping at the top!
Planks:
Planks may not look like much, but it’s a really great whole-body workout that strengthens your core – which can help prevent lower back pain from sitting at your desk so much. Start timing your planks so you can always challenge your personal best, and advanced planks can even go from resting on your forearms up into a pushup and back down, over and over.
Burpees:
To be honest, you could probably just do burpees and get in amazing shape (though the hotel guests in the room below you might not be happy with the thumping!) Burpees incorporate pushups, squats, shoulders, back, and work your core really well. After 10 or 15 burpees you’ll probably also be out of breath like you just ran around the block! This is a “jail cell workout” staple, by the way.
Squats:
By working the larger muscles in your legs and hips, you really jumpstart your fitness and will see results all over your body. Don’t worry about squatting with weight – just do them correctly and all the way down to avoid stress on your knees or back. You can also do one-leg squats, jump squats, or frog squats to mix it up. A good tip is that if you’re not used to squats, and you need some help to get the form correct, hold on to each side of the bathroom door handle to help stabilize you as you go down (just don’t hold on to anything that can come out of the wall or tip over!)
Tricep dips:
Put your hands on a chair or the edge of the bed while facing out (Google a proper demonstration) and dip, which works the triceps, shoulders, and chest.
Biceps and back:
The hardest exercises to work on the road are probably your biceps and back, as they involve pulling motions. Short of having something that can act as a stable pull up bar (don’t try the shower rod!!!), you can try some more basics movements. Fill your laptop bag or the pillowcase with as many heavy books or items as you can find and curl that, or do bent-over rows to work the back. You can also take two heavy books and hold them out, and lift them up and down at an angle, which can work shoulders and back muscles.
Handstands:
There are huge fitness, circulation, and health benefits to handstands, so clear a space against the wall to aid your feet and legs and take the plunge. (Don’t try these solo unless you’ve practiced them before.)
Hotel room cardio:
It may seem like the biggest challenge would be getting a full cardio workout in an enclosed space, but there are plenty of things you can do in your room. Jumping Jacks, running in place, running with knees up, shadowboxing, and the aforementioned burpees all will get you breathing heavily and your heart racing.
Every hotel has a stairwell in case of a fire, so run up and down the flights of stairs as many times as you can, or find a nearby parking garage with plenty of steps.
I also bring a jump rope with my on the road, which takes up almost no room and weighs next to nothing, but can be used in any parking lot, stairwell landing, hotel ballroom, or even inside your room (sorry, downstairs neighbors!)
Yoga:
Take out your laptop, pull up a yoga channel on YouTube or put in a DVD you brought, and do a full yoga session right in your room. The deep breathing element will keep you fresh and relaxed amid all of the stress of business meetings, and the flexibility and circulation benefits will help you feel great through long plane rides. By the way, you can bring your own yoga mat or just use a hotel towel!
Water-filled weights:
If you want to lift some serious weight without paying extra baggage charges and lugging it through the airport, buy a couple of collapsible dumbbells that you fill with water. They make them special for business travelers, and you can fill them up with more or less water in the bathroom sink to adjust the weight.
Is this still not enough for you? Try to book a hotel with a workout room, ask the concierge where a good (and safe) loop is for a couple-mile run, or Google gyms in the area that accept guests with one-day passes.
Have a productive business trip – and a great workout!
Jan 26 2017
17 ways to finally build the life you love! (Part 2)
TODAY is the perfect time to make a change, breaking through the obstacles and problems that have been holding you back for so long and finally building the existence you’ve always envisioned.
Whether you want to lose weight and get in better shape, improve relationships and find the love of your life, or just get that promotion at work and improve your finances, there is a specific formula for achieving the life you love!
In part one of this blog, we covered the first 8 ways to finally build a life you love. Here are the next 9:
9. Write down your goals
We ended part one of this blog by telling you how critical it is to set specific goals. The next important part of your goal setting is writing them down. It seems like a minor thing, but numerous studies show that the process of committing your goals to paper goes a long way towards actually reaching them.
In one case, a psychology professor at Dominican University in California, Dr. Gail Matthews, conducted a study on goal. She compared several test groups, breaking them down as:
Group 1 thought only about their goals but didn’t commit them to paper.
Group 2 thought about and wrote down their goals.
It went all the way up to Group 5, that not only wrote down their goals, but wrote down action steps they could take to reach them, shared their goals with a supportive friend, and finally, made weekly progress reports to that friend.
Her work concluded that Group 2 – who simply committed their goals to paper – was 42% more likely to achieve them than Group 1.
Incredible!
10. Have an accountability partner
In that same study, test Group 5 wrote down their goals but also action steps they could take to reach them, and then shared their goals with others, including a weekly progress report. Remarkably, that group achieved their goals at a 78% higher rate than Group 1 – who just set and thought about their goals.
The point is that if you REALLY want to get to the finish line with your goals, it’s paramount that you not only set them and write them down but share them with a trusted accountability partner, including periodic progress reports.
11. What can you control?
They say that about 99% of the things we worry, stress, and get anxious about never actually happen. While I don’t know if that statistic is accurate, the point is valid. If you want to achieve your goals in 2017 and beyond, focus only on what you can control, and then work towards and pursue those things. You’ll be amazed at how much time and energy you have, that you used to waste on things you can’t control.
12. Stop making excuses
We all have goals and dreams we’d love to reach in life, but too often, we find a way to create one excuse after another to discourage ourselves. I always tell my clients that making excuses is just your subconscious trying to negotiate a surrender before you’ve even tried. In fact, we’ve dedicated a whole blog to highlighting twenty of the most common excuses we make – and how to break through them for good!
13. Change your diet = change your life
It’s physiologically impossible to fill your body with garbage and poison (like processed foods, bad fats, empty carbs, sugar, toxins from pesticides, etc.) and NOT feel a long term negative effect. Honor the temple that is your body by eating a healthy, clean, natural diet, and you’ll sleep better, have way more energy, get sick less, think more clearly, be less stressed, and enjoy a whole host of other benefits that allow you to live the life you love!
14. Banish negative thoughts
You’ve probably been barraging yourself with negative self-talk and limiting beliefs your whole life, and embracing every failure while dismissing your victories. But there are ways to train your mind, just like you train your muscles, so with even the smallest step in the right direction or the first smallest victory, belief will grow from a seed into a tall tree.
15. Surround yourself with positive affirmations
Replace all of those negative, self-doubting thoughts with inspirational messages. Plaster photos, quotes, and reminders of your goals, dreams, and aspirations all over your bathroom mirror, your car, your desk, your home gym, on your phone, etc. as a constant reminder. Research shows that the mind can’t differentiate between real and imagined thoughts, so by filling your head with positive affirmations, you’ll be altering your physiology, outlook, and belief systems!
16. Take risks
There is nothing wrong with failure. In fact, we should embrace failure, because we can learn, grow, and get stronger from it. But there is something wrong with not trying new things or not adventuring out – and that choice lies entirely with you. So get in the practice of taking risks that get you out of your comfort zone and bring you closer to the life you want to live, regardless if they pay off or not. It will be so scary at first, but with discipline and practice, pretty soon you will be fearless!
17. Find your “WHY?”
Your WHY? is the overriding meaning you give to your life, your reason for existence that makes it all worth it. It’s what makes you go “Ahhhhh” and be at peace when you see a sunset or just lay your head on the pillow every night. Your WHY? can be to help others, provide for your family, your artwork, your legacy, or just a big goal that drives and motivates you. No matter what it is, keeping that big picture in mind will help you love the life you live, enjoying the journey along the way!
By Norm Schriever • Diet, Exercise, General Health News, Health and Wellness, Motivation • Tags: break through, inspiration, live the life you want, motivation, new years resolutions, personal coaching