Travel Fitness 101: The ‘No Equipment’ Workout

Posted on: December 10th, 2011 by paul

The perfect workout to do while traveling uses little equipment and allows you to exercise in your new surroundings. In this workout, no equipment is involved and you will need somewhere to jog (or substitute with jumping rope if you are not outdoors).

For intermediate – advanced exercisers, do the following exercises 3x with 20 repetitions of each.
For beginner exercisers, do the following exercises 2x with 15-20 repetitions of each.

Warm Up:

  • Light jog (or jump rope) for 5 minutes
  • Arm circles forward (10x)
  • Arm circles backwards (10x)
  • Leg swings (10x each leg)
  • Body squats (20x)
  • Pushups (10x)
  • Plank hold (40 seconds)

Exercise 1: Alternating Leg Lunges

  • Start with hands on your hips. Make sure the torso stays erect and perpendicular to the floor the whole time.
  • Step one leg forward and bend the front knee to 90 degrees.
  • Step the front leg back and switch legs.

Exercise 2: Staggered Pushups

  • In a pushup position (either on the toes or the knees), drop your right hand so it is below the shoulder and raise the left hand so it is slightly higher than the shoulder.
  • Do half of the repetitions from this position, then change the position of your hands for the other half.

Exercise 3: Good Mornings

  • Stand with feet about hip-width apart holding a medium sized rock (or phone book if you are inside) straight up overhead.
  • Keeping abs braced and knees slightly bent, tip from the hips and lower the torso until it is parallel to the floor, keeping the arms in line with ears.
  • Lift up and repeat.  Keep the abs braced throughout the move.

Exercise 4: Triceps One Arm Pushup

  • Lie down on left side, hips and knees stacked.
  • Wrap the left arm around torso so that left hand is resting on the right waist.
  • Place the right hand on the floor in front of you, palm parallel to the body. Squeeze the triceps and push your body up.

Exercise 5: Glute Kickbacks

  • Start in a quadruped position (kneeling) with hands on the ground directly below your shoulders.
  • Keeping your right knee bent and your right foot flexed, kick your heel as high as you can directly above your right glute.
  • Keep the only movement of your body at your hip.
  • Return your knee with control and repeat.

Exercise 6: Core Crunch

  • Sit with legs bent, back straight, arms wrapped around knees.
  • In one motion, extend your legs straight (hovering 3 inches from the ground) and extend your upper body so your back hovers a few inches from the ground.
  • Crunch back up to the starting position without letting your feet touch the ground.

After each set, jog (or skip rope) for 3-5 minutes at a higher intensity as your warm up intensity.

Gillian Johnson, BA CSCS

 

 


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