How to make due with what you got...
So here I am in a hotel in Norfolk VA for the next 5 days. I went down to the hotel "gym" hoping against hope that it wouldn't be as bad as I expected...
Here I am surrounded by 3 aging elliptical machines, a broke seated bike, 4 treadmills and a miserable rack of dumbbells. The dumbbells only go up to 40lbs. After a moment of anger and disappointment I decided to use this as a chance to talk about making due. Often as a traveling trainer one has to do exactly that. Make do.
One caveat before we begin. If your someone like me (i.e. enjoys heavy strength training using fairly large weight) these kind of workouts are not going to help you progress in that manner. Nothing you can do with a 40lb dumbbell is gonna help your 405lb bench press. Situations like this can give you a chance to focus on conditioning for a while and then you can step back into the "real gym" leaner and more fit than before. Unless your a pure super heavyweight powerlifter that is very rarely a bad thing! Think of this as taking time off the big goal to focus on a side project that will have carry over benefits later.
If like most of the Traveling trainees of the world you can get some good work out of this situation. You just have to be willing to use a little "strategery" (PS Thank you W for the greatest presidential quote in 30 years)
So what can we do with a little weight, some cardio equipment, and a bare floor? We can do circuits training my friend, oh yes we can!
So circuit training in 20 words or less...
The use of multiple exercises organized back to back with little or no rest between sets. (16 not to bad!)
In most cases you will pick anywhere from 5 to 7 exercises you can move from quickly and efficiently. You will do a number of repetitions that is far below your maximum with that move or weight. So if you wanted to use pushups (and you should) you would do maybe a set of 15 reps. You should pick a number you feel you could handle with one foot in the grave. If we do this right you'll feel like that at the end anyway. We will then perform one set of each of those exercises back to back with as little rest, preferably none, as we can manage until we reach the end.
These kind of workouts are best if you go for a whole body workout approach. So for example my basic "stuck in the wilderness with no weights in sight" circuit is:
7 rounds of 5 moves. Push up x 15 Crunches x 30 Body weight squat x 15 Plank x 30 sec Burpees x 15
The nice thing is that this is, to a degree, self regulating. You just go until you need a break. Then you rest as little as possible and keep pushing. Ideally you should pick a number of reps that is not extremely hard out of context. If it's taking you 45 min to finish this circuit your doing it wrong. You should try to keep it under the 15 -20 min mark. These are short intense workouts that don't waste time. If your stopping to take a call from mom, and you never break a sweat your also doing to wrong. Go hard, go quick, and get done.
The wonderful thing about these is the ability to scale it to your individual level of fitness. If you're weak in the upper body you can do kneeling pushups. Have lots of experience? Add a weighted vest or more reps. These workouts can be tailored to you, so everyone gets a good workout. The other up side is you can do these kind of things outside. I'm a big fan of outdoor exercise whenever possible. I just enjoy the idea. You can also do these in your hotel room alone. If you're a shut in...
So there it is. Circuit training FTW! As always feel free to comment / email me (sinfoniaopera@gmail.com) with comments, questions, or concerns. Have a great day and travel safe.
J
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