This? This would change my opinion of using a treadmill.
One of our readers is frequently on the road, flying hither, thither, and yon for on-site stuff for his job, and pinged us with the following request:
Tired Traveler Tires of Treadmills: I need good, preferably strength-oriented workouts [to do] while traveling. Something 30-60 minutes, but whole body, not just hopping on a treadmill or jogging around the hotel. And, obviously, [I might only have access to] zero equipment.
We’re of two minds here at ShrinkGeek Orbital HQ when it comes to walking as part of a complete fitness routine; your own preferences will dictate whether or not you want to include it as part of your regimen. Since this reader specifically wants other stuff, we’ll go in that direction this time around.
We’ve recently discussed the merits of interval training as a good way to turn strength and resistance training into a good cardio workout, so they’re obviously on the menu. Intervals can be used for any exercise at all, so they’re ideally suited for those times when you can’t get to the hotel’s fitness center (if they even have one). Jumping jacks, wind sprints, pushups, situps, squats, or even just jumping as high as you can — any of these, as long as you push hard during the work interval, will give you a good cardio workout as well as punch the muscles involved.
Another approach would be to use paired exercises that target different muscle groups, and alternate between them. One example is doing pushups and squats in a progressive rotation. You can go with pretty much any kind of moves that don’t both use the same muscles for something like this.
10 situps + 1 high jump
9 situps + 2 jumps
…
1 situp + 10 jumps
You can do a few rounds of these for a fairly good total-body workout, or alternate between this pair and another one — whatever seems like fun. By keeping moving, you can turn any kind of resistance training into a decent cardio session without resorting to any treadmill time or running to the hills. *throws the horns* \m/ (>_<) \m/
If you can make use of the fitness center at your hotel, you can probably work in a bit of circuit training or some complexes, or whatever your usual routine might be. Just because you’re stranded on a desert island (or a No-Tell Motel) doesn’t mean you can’t keep your fitness routine rolling.
Once you hearth back to your regular spawn point, you won’t feel like you’re starting over, and that’s always a good thing.
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