What's a good hotel room workout with no equipment?

Hotel room workout with no equipment: the short answer

Do a 20-minute hotel room workout with no equipment: squats, push-ups, split squats, glute bridges and a plank, done as a circuit. A circuit means you do each move once, then start over. Aim for 2 or 3 workouts on a trip.

Why: a week or two of lighter training costs you very little strength.[1] What matters most is not letting a trip turn into a month off.

Next: use the plan below in your room, or the hotel gym section if there is one.

The 20-minute hotel room workout

Clear a space about the size of a yoga mat. Do each move for the reps shown, rest about a minute after the last one, and repeat the circuit 3 or 4 times.

Move	Reps	Make it easier	Make it harder
Bodyweight squat	15	Sit back to the edge of the bed and stand up	Pause 3 seconds at the bottom
Push-up	8 to 12	Hands on the desk or bed frame	Feet up on the bed
Split squat	10 each leg	Hold the wall for balance	Back foot up on the bed
Glute bridge	15	Smaller range	One leg at a time
Plank	30 seconds	Knees down	Hold 45 seconds

Split squat: one foot forward, one back, lower your back knee toward the floor. Glute bridge: lie on your back, knees bent, and lift your hips.

Stop each move when you could do only 1 or 2 more good reps. If the circuit feels easy, slow down the lowering part of each rep. That makes bodyweight moves harder without any gear.

Do push-ups and bodyweight moves really work?

Yes. In a small 8-week study, young men who did push-ups gained about as much chest and triceps muscle and bench press strength as men who did a light bench press.[2] It was 18 people, so it's early research.

Bands work too. A review of 8 studies found training with stretchy resistance bands built about as much strength as dumbbells or machines.[3] A light band packs flat in a suitcase.

Using a small hotel gym

Many hotel gyms have a few dumbbells, a bench and a cardio machine. That's enough.

• Dumbbells only go up to 25 or 50 pounds? Use them for presses, rows and squats holding one dumbbell at your chest, and do more reps per set.
• There's a bench? Add split squats with your back foot on it and rows lying face down on the bench.
• Only cardio machines? Do the room circuit above, then 10 minutes of easy cardio.

Not sure what the gym has? Check the hotel's website or ask the front desk before you pack.

How little it takes to keep your strength

You can hold on to strength with much less work than it took to build. In one review, younger adults kept their strength for up to 32 weeks with one strength workout a week and one set of each exercise, as long as the weights stayed heavy.[4]

A hotel room doesn't have heavy weights, so a trip won't match that exactly. But it shows how little it takes to hold on. One solid 20-minute circuit, with each set pushed until it feels hard, is far better than nothing. Two or three is great.

How to actually do it on a trip

Plan the when and where before you leave. A review of 41 trials found people who made a plan for when, where and how they'd exercise were more active.[5] Write "Tuesday, 6:30 am, hotel room" in your calendar, not "work out on the trip."

• Pack shoes and one set of workout clothes on top, so they're the first thing you see.
• Do it first thing in the morning, before meetings and dinners take over the day.
• Walk when you can. U.S. guidelines suggest 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity a week plus strength work on 2 or more days.[6] Walking to dinner counts toward that.

Your one step for this week

If you have a trip coming up, open your calendar and put two 20-minute hotel workouts on it now. Pick the time and the place.

If you use SwipeHealth, tell your coach you're traveling and what you have to work with, and your plan is built around that equipment.