Do These Workouts the Next Time You’re Stuck at the Hotel Gym

Posted on August 11, 2022 by resourcefulman

Now that you know how to view the hotel gym , the next step is to know what to do when you get there. Hotel gyms tend to be pretty basic, so you’ll have to make the most of limited equipment and often lighter weights than you’d like. But that doesn’t mean you have to train halfway.

I recently went on a trip where I chose the convenience of hotel gyms over the (also acceptable) option of going to a local full-service gym. I figured I’d have some fun creating a collection of limited equipment exercises to share with you guys when I get back. I was fine with the possibility that it might not be the most effective workout in the world, but let me tell you: it’s deadly if you want it to be.

This is a workout, not a workout program

First, I am describing the workouts , not the program . You can of course do these workouts at home if you want, but they are not built on top of each other with constant focus or constant progress. They just give you the opportunity to stay busy, strong and healthy, no matter how long your vacation is.

Another important thing to know is that whenever you do exercises other than what you are used to, you will be especially prone to delayed muscle soreness or DOMS. In other words, you may wake up the next day feeling stiff and in pain. ( Here we have some tips to ease the pain .) To avoid this, consider doing a shorter or lighter workout on the first day than you think you need.

The structure of training in the hotel gym

Instead of doing a bunch of different exercises for the traditional three sets of 10 reps, I decided to pick just a few exercises and do each one for more sets. I also wanted to make sure I was in and out of the hotel gym at predictable times as I would be doing this every morning while the rest of my family was waking up and getting ready. So I was already leaning towards something that was based on time.

I liked Brian Ahlsruhe’s RPM approach, where each workout consists of four 10-minute blocks. (If you want a normal progressive program with this structure for every workout, check it out.) In each 10-minute block, you do the exercise at the start of every minute, then rest for the rest of the minute, then go again as soon as you see another set of zeros on the timer. Here is an online timer that will beep every minute for 10 minutes .

This approach is quite common in CrossFit and other areas of functional fitness, where it is known by the acronym “EMOM” (every minute, per minute). I especially like this for hotel workouts because it makes the most of light weights. You build up fatigue every minute as you move on to the next, and by the end even small dumbbells feel heavy.

I used 10-minute EMOMs for hotel workouts, but if I had little time, I could do 5-minute EMOMs for strength training and easily get in and out of the gym in half an hour. So I will present this as an option as well.

So how does each workout go:

One 5- or 10-minute block of pushing exercises
One 5- or 10-minute block of traction exercises
One 5- or 10-minute block of leg exercises
One 10 minute conditioning block (or 5-10 minute core)

This adds up to 40 minutes with the 10 minute option, or 20-25 minutes if you’re doing five minute blocks. Add a few minutes of transitions between exercises and your time will be around 30 minutes for the short version and less than an hour for the long version. If you have more time, you can do some extra cardio on a bike or treadmill at the end. (I didn’t do any specific warm-ups to prepare, but you can add a few minutes of cardio or jumping at the start if you like.)

In my version, unlike Ahlsruhe’s, everything can be modified depending on what you prefer or what is in this cramped room. Do the exercises in any order that suits you (he does the legs first). Figure out a suitable weight when you’re setting up and warming up for an exercise (it has recommended percentages). And I’ll let you choose your reps based on what feels hard to you, but still allows you to recover by the end of the minute.

If you need a rough guideline for variety, choose one exercise each day as “hard” and do the rest as easy or medium. Here’s how I rate reps for each one and how they should feel:

Heavy: 3 reps per set and oh my god now you need to sit down
Medium: 5 reps per set, you feel pretty confident and you’re happy with those 30 seconds of rest.
Easy: 8+ reps per set, not bad, and you can keep working after a very short rest.

Workout #1 – Dumbbells Only

Here’s one I made at the gym that only had a dumbbell rack. If you’re bigger/stronger than me and the dumbbells in your gym seem pretty light, do more reps on your lower body exercise.

Clean & Jerk: Dumbbell bench press 5 reps per set (I used 35 pounds in the beginning and dropped to 30 by the end).
Deadlift: Pullover with dumbbells for 8 reps per set (I used a 20-pound dumbbell).
Legs: Romanian leg deadlift using the front leg as the working leg and the back leg as the support. I used a pair of 40lb dumbbells for 3+3 reps (three on the right, three on the left, then rest).
Air conditioning: 5 thrusters (with a pair of 25lbs) every minute. It’s not so much about the force it takes to move the weight, but about doing enough work to increase your heart rate. Think of it like HIIT.

When you do single leg work, such as the RDL on a stand, you can do more reps by doing them on one leg each set. So, in this example, I could do 6 reps on the right in one set, and then 6 reps on the left in the next set. Of course, you’ll want to do an even number of sets: if you’re using the 5-minute version, do this set for 6 minutes, so you have three sets per side.

Workout #2 – Dumbbells Only

I didn’t get a chance to do this, but this is what I would do if I had another strength day at the hotel with only dumbbells:

Clean & Jerk: Incline Dumbbell Press 3-5 reps.
Row: Croc row (or regular dumbbell row) 5-8 reps. Croc deadlifts are good because you can do heavy and explosive exercises, but if the dumbbells are too light for you, regular deadlifts will do.
Legs: Bulgarian split squats with a raised back leg on the bench, 5-8 reps on each leg.
Preparation: 100 burpees or 10 minutes of burpees, whichever comes first. You can do these EMOMs if you want: 10 (or as many as you can) every minute.

I’m going to suggest an alternative to conditioning because I know most of you will miss burpees. If you need an easy exit, jump on the treadmill and do a 20-second sprint at the start of each minute, then walk for the remaining 40 seconds.

Workout #3 – If you have a rope machine

One of the hotels I stayed at had a rope machine, horizontal bars, dumbbells, kettlebells and more. I couldn’t do a dumbbell-only workout with all that stuff, so instead I did this:

Deadlift: Pull -ups 3 reps every minute. (By comparison, on a good day, I might do 10 pull-ups. You’re not trying to max out here, just aim for the amount you can do on a rep.) You could also do a cable pull instead.
Clean & Jerk: Overhead press with kettlebells , 5 reps every minute. You could use a pair of dumbbells, but kettlebells are good for variety, so I used two of the heaviest kettlebells in the gym, which weighed 25 and 30 pounds. Yes, the weight was uneven; I changed sides in every set.
Legs: Zerchers on a cable , 5 reps every minute. Do you know that direct rod fastening that often happens with wire rope machines? I hooked both sides and kept them in the crooks of my elbows for a good heavy squat.
Air conditioning: cycling intervals . Or, to be more precise: I did a 10-minute Peloton climb. (This hotel had a real Peloton.) You can also take a 10 minute YouTube ride to use on a regular bike like this one .

More workout ideas at the hotel gym

Want more options? Swap any of these for pushing exercises:

Z-press (sitting on the ground, legs straight) with a pair of dumbbells or one dumbbell
Push-ups with raised arms or legs as needed (arms up easier, legs up harder)
Push-ups between two benches (or on the uneven bars, if any)

And here are some more ideas for traction:

Cable pull, two-arm squat or one-arm half squat
Renegade dumbbell rows
Incline bench presses

Here are some leg options:

Cup Squats
Steps (with or without dumbbells)
Rollover squats are great for working the quads if there was a joint yesterday that involved more hamstrings.
Walking lunges

Cardio machines are great for fitness, so you probably don’t need more ideas for this – just download interval training on YouTube or any fitness app of your choice. But there is another option – to do the main workouts as the fourth block of the day. Some options there:

Farmer’s does EMOM with the heaviest dumbbells you can find (I’d say it’s a combination of core and conditioning).
Devote one minute to crunches, and the next to supermen, then repeat.
Do any of the three basic exercises in this post . Three rounds perfectly fit into 9 minutes.

For a steady routine during your vacation, I would recommend doing one of these full-body strength workouts every other day, and then either resting or doing low-intensity cardio (like 30 minutes of jogging or bending over) on the days in between. walking on a treadmill).

More…

Fitness