Dear JJ: I maintain a pretty regular gym schedule when I'm home, but during the last few months, I've been traveling a lot for work. Amidst that craziness, I struggle to meet my workout goals. How do you do it?
You're not alone! I've had clients who religiously hit the gym no matter how busy their schedule or how inclement the weather, yet even a weekend business trip throws off their routine.
You know the excuses: You don't have time, the hotel gym sucks, or you're stuck in meetings or playing tourist all day.
Trust me: I know how hard it can be. I travel about half the year, and even I struggle sometimes to find time for exercise. At the same time, I know how important working out is for my health, wellbeing, and energy levels.
Whether or not you're traveling, the most efficient workouts are burst training and resistance training.
Hotel stairs make the perfect way to do burst training, which involves short bursts of high-intensity-style exercise for 30-60 seconds, followed by one- or two-minute recovery periods. Jumping rope, burpees, a park hill, or an elliptical machine all make perfect ways to do burst training.
Studies support my enthusiasm about bursting. Researchers in one study asked women to do regularly paced exercise for 40 minutes or burst training for 20 minutes. http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/how-burn-more-fat-less-effort
Fifteen weeks later, the women who did burst training training lost three times as much fat as the women doing 40 minutes at a regular pace!
You can get those and a zillion other benefits in just 15 minutes. Burst training is simple! Begin with a fast-paced warm-up for several minutes. Now it's time to burst: go all out for 30 to 60 seconds with an activity that gets your heart pumping, then actively recover by spending twice as long on a less intense version of the same exercise.
So if you sprint for 30 seconds, then walk for one minute. Repeat with more bursts of fun exercise like jumping jacks, running in the hotel pool, or taking the hotel stairs two at a time.
Aim to work your way up to four to eight minutes of total bursting time in 30-60 second increments. If you're clocking in more than 60 seconds of burst training at one go, you're not going hard enough.
I like to combine burst training with resistance training using weights, which boosts your strength, raises your metabolic rate, improves insulin sensitivity, and protects your bones. (Check out this blog for help designing your own resistance traning workout that works at home or on the road.)
If you want the one-two punch of bursting and resistance training all in one workout, try my Fast Blast Workouts, which you can knock out in just eight minutes.
They are fabulous full-body workouts that incorporate the two absolute best ways to develop lean muscle, burn fat, and boost your metabolism, even amidst the craziest travel schedule.
You can knock out a Fast Blast and then join your friends for a glass of pinot noir or a stroll along the city you're visiting. Win-win! Best of all, you can grab a FREE one here.
How do YOU fit exercise into a crazy travel schedule? Share your thoughts below, and keep those fab questions coming at AskJJ@jjvirgin.com.