Wednesday, June 3, 2009

How to stay fit when you travel for work

As promised in my last posting, here is a simple workout routine you can do while you are traveling for work. I spent the most of last month traveling for work so I had little or no access to a gym. So rather than take a one month break from my exercise, I got creative and came up with some simple routines which anyone can do with little or no equipment.

Or, if you don’t have a gym membership, you can easily adopt this and make it into a home workout as well.

Below is a set of exercise which you can perform without using any equipment, and the idea of this routine is to do the exercise back to back without rest and to keep your heart beat elevated. Doing exercises back to back with little or no rest is called Circuit Training and this is one of the most effective way to strength train and burn fat at the same time. So here are some things you can easily do at home or your hotel room.

Push Ups – if you can do normal push ups, then go for that. If you need to build your strength first, then you can do knee push ups first as shown below. Do as many as you can before proceeding to the next exercise

Squat jumps – Come down to the squat position as shown below hold for one second and then jump up as high as you can. So you will leap from the squated position as high sa you can. Once you land, immediately squat down to the ssquat position below and repeat. Do as many reps as you can.

Sit ups – Lie on the ground and do sit ups as shown below. Do as many as you can. When you can’t do any more, pull yourself up to position 3 below, go down to position 2 and back to 3. Squeeze as many half sit ups as you can before you give out.





Leg raises – Lie flat on the floor, raise your legs straight up till it is 90 degrees with floor. Lift your bum and hips as high as you can. In short you want your legs to reach as high up as you can. Do as many reps as you can.




Dips - Get into the position below dip your bum down as low as you can and push yourself back to the starting position. For those who are stronger and need something more challenging, you can rest your feet on another chair (of equal height) and then perform the dips that way.



Other Tips to stay fit during your travel
Besides doing you very own routine in your room, most hotels these days also come equipped with a gym, so make sure you make good use of the facility. They have most of the basic equipments, so you can easily use the machines and free wieghts to get your own workout done

Almost 90% of hotels in Malaysia has a swimming pool. The other 10% are probably small hotels or Rumah Tumpangan type hotels, which I doubt you will be traveling to for work and definitely not your choice of stay during your holiday. a good 30 minute swim, burns twice as much as 30 minutes of walking. Of course floating around in the water does not count. Talking about 30 minutes of continuous swimming vs 30 minutes of continuous walking. To me, this is the best ofr of exercise. It’s fun and gives you a whole body workout in one go

If you are by the beach area, nothing beats taking a simple jog by the beach in the morning. Truly an amazing experience and hope all of you will try it. Not to mention, doing this will make you feel super energized for the rest of the day. If you are not by the beach, you can still jog around your hotel… just that it won’t be as amazing as by the beach

So, there you have it. Simple and easy to follow tips to stay fit even when you are away traveling for work or leisure. Should you have any other tips please do share and as usual, look forward to your comments.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

i probs could use this even whilst I keep attempt to keep awake at work ahahahahahah more productive and waiting for client to meet us which induces ZZZzzZZZzzzzZZzz

Bernard said...

Great tips but talking about hotels with gym, they are sometimes known as "Fitness/Health Centre" but what goes on in there is the topic of another discussion somewhere else!!!

ian yusof said...

I am a big believer in push-ups and crunches, and do 'em whenever I'm away. I guess it's important coz it takes care of d two most important assests for guys huh; abs and chest.

Rajan said...

ani: yes yes... you can do this. Besides the jumping, i think you should be able to do the rest. should be safe.

BTW, any plans to purchase a exercise bike?

Bernard: usually the fitness centers are ok... the problem is when the SPA is attached to it... then correct-lah.

CA: Agreed...i still feel chest is the best exercise for the chest ever. personally, feel it even beats bench press and all. OK you can't get too much size and mass on it, but heck it is the best thing for strengthening and toning.

Anba said...

Its good a combo..
personally nowdays morning
i try the some of the exercise you mentioned too
A set of 15 pushups, 15 squats and 15 sit ups done without rest
and do a set of 4 non stop..

and finish it up with some Yoga surya namaskar whenever it's possible..

Rajan said...

anba: Bro... that sounds like an awesome routine man. Keep it up dude. Maybe you can throw in some of the exercises i mentioned here to spice things up

anfield devotee said...

wake up . . . scratch balls . . . piss . . . yawn . . . stretch . . . go back to bed . . .

Rajan said...

AD: you forgot drink beer. hehehehee

but if there was a work out rouutine for you, this would be it lah. :-)