Exercise plan for the gym

This past week during my road trip, I spent a night at a hotel in Richmond, VA.

I hadn’t exercised out in a few days, and had no desire to go find out if they had a gym on site…so I made up my own workout while IN the hotel room, using nothing but myself and the room’s furniture. In just 20 minutes I had warmed up, exercised my entire body, and stretched out afterward.

Now, although I did this in a hotel room, it doesn’t mean it won’t work in lots of other places, like your own bedroom for example – I just know it works in a hotel because I did it a few days ago.

So there.

Whenever I create a workout, I always aim for a complete full body routine that will build muscle, burn fat, and also exercise your heart. These types of workouts burn more calories than simple cardio too (booooo to boring cardio!).

I hit four types of exercises:

• Legs – working both the front and back of your legs
• Push – chest, shoulders, triceps
• Pull – back, biceps, forearms
• Core – abs and lower back

That means that you can work out almost every muscle in your body with just four exercises – simplicity for the win! Unfortunately, I was the only person on my trip, and I wasn’t going to ask the maid “hey can you come videotape me in my hotel room?” so I wasn’t able to put together a video IN the hotel room of me doing these exercises (the videos are of me doing them in a park, but you get the point).

Always start with a warm-up (to get your core temperature up and muscles loose): 25 jumping jacks, 15 body weight squats, 10 push ups, 10 lunges (each leg), 10 hip raises, 25 jumping jacks. Do one exercise right after another – this should take you probably 3-4 minutes.

After that, move into your workout – set your watch/laptop for 15 minutes and then do as many full circuits as possible in that time frame, using PERFECT FORM for each repetition. I’ve split the workout into three levels – beginners should start at level 1 until they feel comfortable enough to advance to levels 2 and 3.

Do each exercise, one after another, without stopping if possible. If you need to stop between exercises or even in the middle of the set, go for it. Just remember you’re trying to complete as many circuits as possible within the 15 minutes without compromising your form. Advance to the more challenging exercises at your own pace, and if some exercises are too difficult or it’s too many reps, adjust them to fit your experience level – just make sure you are getting stronger and challenging yourself with each additional hotel stay. For example, if you can only do 5 incline push ups…aim for six when do the workout next time. So, here it is!

LEVEL 1

LEVEL 2

LEVEL 3

After your workout (you should be sweating like crazy if you did it right), ALWAYS remember to stretch. Pick four or five of the exercises listed under “stretching” in the how-to videos section for a good full body stretch.