Workouts with Resistance Bands for Road Warriors – Staying in Shape Away From the Gym

Nothing harder than staying in shape away from the gym and on the road.  Well, maybe there are a few more things harder, but staying in shape while traveling is challenging nonetheless.  Not anymore.  By working out with resistance bands, road warriors can answer that  fitness challenge.

Working out and staying in shape while traveling often get the short end of stick in a lot of cases.  Some hotels have very nice fitness centers while other motels would be lucky to have a stationary bike or treadmill. 

I stayed at a Best Western that had a couple treadmills, stationary bikes, and elliptical machines – very nice. Not so nice was that the fitness room was in the second building across the parking lot.  It was January in Maryland and about 20 degrees at night.  I was not going across the parking lot in frigid cold to ride a stationary bike for 30 minutes – no, sir.

But with elastic resistance bands, you no longer need to leave the hotel or motel room to get in a decent, 30 minute workout.  How sweet is that?

Although I use the Bodylastics Resistance Band System, the particular brand is not important.  What is important is that you take with you, as a minimum, 3 or 4 bands of varying toughness, a couple of grip handles, and a door stop.  Bodylastics system is nice because the bands come with clips that you can interchange on a separate grip handle.  Some system lack this versatility.

For range of my thoughts on using this tool for getting into and staying in shape – you can read it here.

This is the workout I recommend:

• Run in place for 5 minutes
• Alternate 1 set of 20 pushups and 20 deep knee bends
• Half  squats – 3 sets of 20, 15, and 12 reps
• Low to high chest press – 3 sets of 20, 15, and 12 reps
• High to low pull downs – 3 sets of 20, 15, 12 reps
• Seated shoulder press – 2 sets of 20 and 12 reps
• Preacher curls – 2 sets of 15 and 12 reps
• Tricep kickbacks – 2 sets of 15 and 12 reps
• Alternate front plank – 30 to 60 seconds with left side plank for 30 seconds, then right side plank for 30 seconds.

note – pictures and videos showing will be coming and/or will be updated soon.

Workout notes -

1. The key is to understand that these are “maintenance” workouts until you get back to your regular setting
2. The entire workout should not be more than 30 minutes, absolutely not beyond 40 minutes with all the warm-ups and cool-downs included.
3. After the plank exercises, you can do a few stretching exercises to loosen up all your joints.
4. Rest no more 30 seconds between sets and exercises.  Transition briskly from exercise to exercise.
5. If the times for the planks are not challenging, then hold the plank positions until you begin to shake with exertion.
6. Always use a stronger band or increase the resistance each set.  Your final set of 12 reps should be at about 85% to 90% of maximum effort.

If you were like me (during my sales days), the days normally ended late.  There were the stress of closing the deal or not making the sale.  There were presentations to prepare for the next day.

There was the feast or famine reality of a sales business where the income was 100% commission – no draws, no advances, no base, nothing but all commission.

Truly, the last thing on my mind was doing a full blown workout.  But now workouts with the resistance bands give you an option to either do a “full blown” workout or do a maintenance session like the one I prescribed.  It’s all about staying in shape, whether at home or on the road.

Because a healthy, strong body actually helps you sell better.

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