If you travel a lot, or have traveled in the past for any length of time, you know how hard it can be to get a workout in, eat right and maintain or make progress in your fitness training when you are in and out of hotels.

The fitness center that most hotels claim they have are often not adequate and seem to be a stationary bike with no seat and maybe a battered, multi-station weight stack machine. Some hotels have deals with near by gyms that offer discounts or free passes, but you could be too busy to take advantage of those offers—or worse yet, you could be staying in a place that has no equipment at all.

This article will help you while you’re on the road and want to workout and eat right. There are training programs, nutritional advice and some exercises that don’t require special equipment except for what you can locate within and around your average hotel room or home.

Tips on planning your traveling workout

Of course, the more planned out your trip is, the easier it is to accommodate working out, but honestly, when you are traveling you often don’t have a fully laid out plan and have no idea what equipment you will have access to.

When ever you have a chance to workout, workout your total body. This is great because if you don’t have a chance to workout again for a couple of days, you’ve already worked everything. If you do have a chance to workout again within the next couple of days, you’ll benefit from this different training than your body is used to. Here’s a sample total body workout arrangement. When doing this, only take short, 30-60 second rests between sets. How many reps you get will depend on the exercise you use, but you should shoot for around 10 to 15 reps for each set.

5 sets chest, 5 sets back, 5 sets thighs, 3 sets shoulders, 2 sets biceps, 2 sets triceps, 2 sets calves, 3 sets abdominals

Your body is virtually motionless while you are traveling, so when you feel up to it, especially on days when you’ve been traveling for a long period of time, do some stretching to help loosen up. Resistance training may not be very productive after being motionless all day and stretching is easy to do, doesn’t need any special equipment and can really help to relax you. When you know you have a long trip coming up, begin to ramp up your current training schedule up to the date you leave.

You will want to start building up and working your body with more sets and using intensity techniques that begin to move towards overtraining. This way, when your trip comes, your body will need the break and the infrequent bodyweight training will help you recover and improve. If you travel often for business, the same strategy can be applied to you—for a couple of workouts right before you leave, make them extremely tough. Then on shorter trips, do a couple bodyweight workouts or just focus on stretching.

If your main goal is to lose fat, you can do fat-loss circuit training while you are traveling. This means basically doing cardio training in between sets of resistance training instead of taking a rest period of non-activity. This method is very powerful and gives you a strong metabolic response which gives your workout as much punch as possible. Here’s a sample of what a fat-loss circuit training workout looks like in action: 1 set chest30 seconds of cardio1 set chest30 seconds of cardio1 set back30 seconds of cardio1 set back30 seconds of cardioetc. In your hotel room, you have a number of options for cardio—you can pack a skipping rope, use stairs or a low bench or even just step-ups onto a stable, un-rolling chair in your room.

If you want to build muscle, do the total-body workout but use more challenging exercises that allow only eight to 12 reps per set. When you get right down to the heart of the matter—it doesn’t matter where you train, as long as you give your body a strong training stimulus, you’ll still be able to build muscle.

Nutritional advice for the traveler

When you travel, eating can be unpredictable. You just might not know what kind of food you’ll be eating, when or where on any given day. Here are some tips to keep your eating on track when you are traveling. Most of these are really just common sense, but it’s hard to watch what you eat when you travel, especially if you are with a group of people. The key to this is to do the best you can and not stress yourself out if you eat something you didn’t plan on. The stress is worse than the effect of doing it.

The more control you have over food choices, the better off you are. When you can choose, opt for healthier food without fancy sauces or fatty toppings. Stick to foods that are less processed and do your best to stay away from fast food as much as possible. If your hotel room has a fridge, you can stock your fridge with good food from a grocery store. If your room doesn’t have a fridge, do the best you can with non-perishable food items. Stick to foods that aren’t processed such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Bring a protein supplement with you on your trip. This could be protein powders, ready-to-drink formulas or protein bars. You will likely find that while you travel, it’s tough to get enough protein without getting the fat that goes along with it. With a protein supplement, you have control over how much protein you get and what is in it this way. Don’t forget to take your vitamins. You should be taking at least a multi-vitamin and extra Vitamin C to keep your immune system strong, especially if you’ll be packed on a plane with others who could be sick).

If you know that you’re going to have a meal where you won’t have a lot of choice as to what you can eat, try to schedule a workout right before the meal. This will minimize the impact of non-healthy foods that you eat and you won’t have to feel like you have to say no to everything on the menu. Eat breakfast—the best choice is something healthy that you bought at a grocery store. Most breakfast in restaurants offer fried, greasy, sugary or foods that are made with enriched flour. Start with a good, healthy breakfast that will keep you energized and alert through the day.

If you’re on a road trip, instead of stopping at a fast food restaurant, stop at a grocery store where there are more healthy food options. If you do stop at a fast food place, stick to the items on the menu that are grilled. Most fast food restaurants offer low-carb selections and salads. Order your food without any dressing or sauce or ask for it on the side so that you can control what and how much of it goes on your food. If you are at a gathering that is serving snack food, stick with the fruit, vegetables and nuts as much as possible and avoid the dips that go along with them. Exercises for the traveler

Here, we will discuss exercises that you can do for every major part of your body.

Chest

Push-up variations Regular push ups Close grip push ups with your hands shoulder-width apart Kneeling push ups Wall push ups where you stand with your hands on a wall, your body at an angle to the wall One arm push ups, keep your feet set wide apart for balance Feet on chair or bed push ups, these incline push ups increase the difficulty Between two beds or chairs push ups, put your hands on two objects to increase your range of motion Clapping push ups, explode upward and clap your hands between push ups Luggage on your back push ups, put your luggage suitcase or bag on your back for resistance Dips Between two chairs, use the tops of the backs of the chairs as dip handles In a counter top corner, stand in the corner of the counter facing outward and set your hands on either side of you and do your dip. Back

Pull-Up Rows—lay underneath a solid object such as a rail or table and pull yourself up underneath it like you’re doing the rowing movement.One arm suitcase rows—use your luggage for resistance, this is best if your luggage is heavy. Use your strict and best form and squeeze your back hard as you do them. Pull-ups—if there is something solid that you can pull yourself up on, you have a pull-up station. Suitcase knee rows—you’ll need a fairly large suitcase for this exercise. Rest the suitcase end on your thigh, which will be the pivot point and will use the suitcase as resistance for the exercise. Row the handle towards your body—one end will stay on your thigh while the other pivots up towards you.Farmer luggage walk—hold on to your two heaviest pieces of luggage and walk around with them for as long as you can. If you want to work your abs, hold only one piece of luggage to target your obliques. Thighs

Squats or Lunges can be done with a lot of reps without resistance or you could use your suitcase or another object in the room for resistance. Wall sits—maintain a sitting position with your back against a wall with no support for as long as you can. You can put a piece of luggage or other object on your lap.

One-legged squats—you can do these on the floor or you could stand on a stable chair to give you a greater range of motion. Stand on one leg and squat down as far as you can then stand back up, hold onto other objects for balance when you first try this workout.

Isometric leg curls—most hotel room have tables, so stand in front of an empty table facing away from it. Raise your foot under the table so that your heel pushes against the underside of the table—now, try to push the table upward. Hold it there for five to 10 seconds, squeezing hard, this should create a strong cramping in your hamstring. Relax and repeat.

Bench step one-legged squats—you will need a chair, bench or a stair for this

exercise (anything will do, you need something solid to hold onto). Move your chair in front of a solid object such as a door frame that you can get a good grip on. Stand on the chair with one foot, hold onto the object (door frame, for example) and lower yourself into a one-legged squat. You can go further down and you can use your arms to pull yourself back up if you need to.

Shoulders

Luggage shoulder presses and raises—press your bags overhead or do raises, front, rear or lateral with them. Grip your luggage on both ends and press the whole thing over head. If your luggage is light, do high reps or isometric holds at the top of the movement.Horizontal push-ups—brace two chairs against a wall two feet part and kneel down in front of them with your hands on the chair legs. Use your legs to push yourself forward then your shoulders to press your body backwards using your thighs as resistance. Biceps

Luggage curls—suitcases and bags have handles, so you can use these to curl. This works well because the bag hanging creates resistance under the handle which is a lot different from a dumbbell or barbell. When you curl up, bend backwards to keep the resistance on your biceps.Vertical pull ups—if you have something solid to do pull ups on, keep your torso completely vertical while you come up on the pull up—this gives more tension to the biceps. Triceps

Close grip push ups—these are done like a regular push up only different in that you will set your hands shoulder width apart. Keep your elbows tucked in.Body triceps extensions—you can use a chair, table edge, railing or dresser for this exercise. Stand in front of the object that is braced against a wall and step back a few feet then set your hands on the edge. Keep your body stiff and straight and lower yourself down so that your head goes under the edge of what you are grasping. Bench dips—you can do these on a chair or on a bed. Sit on the chair or bed and put your hands on the edge, underneath your butt, set your feet forward a little bit. Move your butt off of the bed or chair and lower yourself down. Use your triceps to push yourself back up. If you are stronger, you can do these with one arm, but make sure you set your feet wide apart for balance and keep your legs straight. Calves

Standing calf raises—this exercise can be done with one or both legs and can be done on stairs or any solid object in your room. Even a thick phonebook will work. Stand on the object with your heels off the edge, lower your heels then use your calves to push back upward. Full range calf raises—in this exercise you will combine the donkey calf raise and the standing calf raise together. Abdominal

Crunches—standard crunches work great. Abdominal sit-ups—all you need for this exercise is a rolled up towel. Place the towel rolled up in the small of your back and you a regular sit up from there. This changes the leverage in your body for the exercise and forces the abs to do the bulk of the work. Luggage squats—grip your luggage with two hands, and hold it face level in front of you only a few inches away from your body. Don’t hold it against your body, just use your arms. Squat down as far as you can and go back up. The luggage resistance targets the abs directly and strongly. It can be a challenge to stay in shape and exercise when you are traveling, but it is possible. Train as regularly as you can and use exercises that suit the environment that you are in—keep your nutrition as simple and as natural as you can and you should still be able to make progress in your training, regardless of your goals.