You think effective strength training is only possible in a gym with heavy weights? This is firmly anchored in many minds. There are also good reasons for this. But there is actually a lot that speaks in favor of training with your own body weight .
Maybe you don’t really have a choice either. Maybe you travel a lot and don’t have much time. As a former management consultant, I am still very familiar with this situation. In these circumstances, it makes sense to skip training sessions. Alternatively, you can also make the most of what is available there.
At the start of this blog, I wrote in my article about my transformation from a fat management consultant to a well-trained fitness athlete. So many people wanted to know how exactly I trained during this time. After all, I was (almost) always in hotels in different cities during the week and worked long hours. So I wrote two articles sharing this with you.
In this article I am going to look at the requirements of an effective training plan for frequent travelers. After all, it is important that such training can also realistically be carried out regularly under the conditions on the road. This also includes why, from my point of view, full body training is best suited for (for most).
In the next article you will then learn from me which exercises you should include in your hotel room training plan . Finding a suitable and above all accessible fitness studio on the go is not so easy. That’s why I’ve created various special plans for myself and others that meet the special needs of busy people and frequent travelers.
But what exactly is important when planning such a training? What should you pay particular attention to when training on the go?
Hotel room training – requirements for training on the go
At first I thought about the requirements I have for such a plan. I asked myself: “What makes an optimal training plan for someone who travels a lot, has little time and whose schedule is subject to strong fluctuations?”
I determined the following 5 requirements. In principle, they have hardly changed since then, while since then I have of course always adapted my training plans to my training status and my goals.
Success factor 1: Maximum mobility
So that you can train with your training plan anywhere on the go, it should above all be able to be carried out anywhere with maximum mobility. For your hotel room training, it should be a plan that can be carried out with no or as little equipment as possible. If you decide to use equipment, it should also be as transportable as possible.
With my fitness packing list for (business) trips I always have my gym with me in my suitcase. That has developed as a fixed set over the years. Maybe you can also get inspiration from it.
Success factor 2: Maximum flexibility in terms of time
If you have a lot to do and travel a lot, you usually need a little more flexibility. For your training, this means that it shouldn’t matter exactly when and how often you can train. Your training must be able to forgive you for minor deviations. Training must always be possible, regardless of whether you want to train in the morning or prefer to train in the evening after work and want to end your day with it. There is no optimal training time and your plan should withstand deviations in this regard.
Unfortunately, with complex split training it is often the case that you are very much bound to a fixed schedule and cannot even simply postpone a training session. That quickly creates a domino effect.
Success factor 3: Minimum expenditure of time
Time is our most valuable asset. This resource is often particularly scarce on (business) trips. So my aim has always been to accommodate as much training as possible in as little time as possible. It shouldn’t take more than an hour to complete a comprehensive training program. For this it is necessary to combine the right exercises in the right way. So I always use the classic basic exercises for strength training. There are also very effective variants of these exercises that you can do without heavy weights. These are presented in the article Basic exercises in bodyweight training here on the blog.
To save a little extra time, you can also use Supersets . It also helps a lot to pay attention to your pauses between sentences , for example. You could probably write an entire book about the possibilities of saving time during training … In fact, I wrote a guide about it, which is included in my Muscle Building Basics Program in the Value and Premium Package.
Time can also be wonderfully saved in endurance sports by doing a lot with interval or HIIT training is being worked. If your main goal is to really boost fat burning, then even 4 minutes are enough to boost your metabolism for the next 12-24 hours. Such a crisp Tabata workout is also wonderfully suitable for hotel room training.
Success factor 4: Simplicity
Complicated training is not the right thing for long, stressful days. So the exercises in your plan should be easy to learn and perform. A training plan whose exercises are too difficult to clean quickly will quickly become frustrating. However, you should therefore not refrain from more complex exercises. Here on the blog I have instructions on how you can learn complex exercises yourself, such as squats or deadlifts , quickly and safely. Of course, some bodyweight exercises require a little more exercise, but here you can start with simpler variants.
Another important aspect is that your training is not too diverse and varied. What on the one hand may be motivating for some, on the other hand always requires a little more concentration and reflection. Here you shouldn’t make your life unnecessarily difficult, especially on stressful days. So get yourself a fixed set of exercises that you do regularly over several months.
Success factor 5: Targeted effectiveness
Last but not least, your training should of course be as effective as possible. After all, you want to achieve something with your training and change or maintain your body in a targeted manner. With the right composition, it should still be possible to achieve good results despite the great mobility, the flexibility in terms of time and the small amount of time required. Your training should be geared towards this goal.
So if you want to build up muscle mass while training on the go in a phase , then your training plan should allow that. And yes, muscle building with your own body weight and on the go is possible. In fact, at least to a certain extent, it works pretty well if your muscle building training plan is geared towards it! Likewise, if your goal is maximum muscle maintenance in the diet because you want to define your muscles , your training plan should be geared towards this.
Based on these success factors, I have decided that a full body training plan makes the most sense. I then put together one based on the premises. The result is hotel room training that can be carried out with little equipment anytime and anywhere with little expenditure of time.
Advantages of a full-body training plan for you:
I’ve already trained with a two-man split on the way. For most, however, a solid full body workout might (for now) be the best option. Such a full-body training plan simply offers various advantages. These make it the ideal training concept, especially for people with a stressful and difficult to plan everyday life. Among other things, the following arguments speak in favor of a GK plan for your training on the go.
- A significantly lower training frequency is enough for you. Two to three times a week is sufficient. This means that the time you spend is extremely low.
- You have greater flexibility in terms of postponing appointments. It’s okay to train a day later. This way you will not have a decisive negative impact on your training success.
- You have more regeneration days. Your muscles have more time in which they are not used and can regenerate. Especially if you occasionally have a night in which your sleep is a bit short, this makes sense in the long term.
- Despite the lower weekly workload, the training stimulus for muscle growth / muscle maintenance is absolutely sufficient. Training all major muscle groups at once leads to even greater hormone release than a split training plan .
- The strain on your nervous system is less overall. With every hard training it becomes irritated and has to regenerate. More days without heavy training between the training days mean less stress.
As you can see, a bodyweight full-body plan fits like a fist on the eye for your hotel room training on the go.
With this we have come a lot closer to your perfect training on the go. All you need now are the best exercises. You can find a suggestion for this in the following article:
The 10 best exercises for your hotel room training plan
For a long time I trained on the go with exactly the training plan described in the following article.
Until then, have fun training!