When I travel, I usually have the option to choose my own
hotel. One of the criteria I look for is a fitness center. Over the years, the
quality of hotel fitness centers has improved greatly. Occasionally, I still
come across the “fitness closet,” which is what I call a broom closet into
which the hotel management has squeezed one floor-to-ceiling mirror, one
discount-brand treadmill and one deflated stability ball. Invariably, these
hotels will have some kind of Photoshopped creation on their website that makes
the fitness closet look like an actual gym. (This is where travel sites with
actual guest photos and user reviews come in handy—know before you go.)
If I have the option to choose my hotel, I like a fitness
center that includes my preferred mode of cardio. Okay, that’s just a lie. My
preferred mode of cardio is dancing, which I can’t actually do in a fitness
closet. Instead, I pound away on a treadmill, which (little known fact) was
intended to be the eighth level of Dante’s Inferno, but it was cut from the
book by editors looking to save paper. Treadmills deserve a whole post of their
own, so more on that later.
Several of the best fitness centers I have seen are in
hotels in California—these can be like full-scale gyms with both free-weights
and weight machines. The left coast knows how to do a fitness center right.
They typically line up the machines so that you can actually watch something
interesting while you work out, like the pool or the ocean, or the guys on the
free-weights.
The benefit to the in-hotel fitness center is that you can
work out at your convenience without having to worry about whether the
neighborhood near the hotel is safe, or what the weather will bring. You can
also exercise on your schedule. For example, when we go to Las Vegas, I like to
run outside because it’s so flat there. However, I have to get up at the crack
of dawn to beat the heat, the sun, and the tourists. Early morning Vegas also
smells like recycled beer and stale cigarettes. If I used the hotel gym, I
could work out in the middle of the day, which might be a better fit for the
Vegas pattern of staying up late. On the other hand, committing to the early
morning workout forces me to drink in moderation and go to bed at a decent
hour. This keeps me from inflicting other unnecessary damage on my body.
Even though I like a hotel with a good fitness center, there
are plenty of times I just don’t get one, or I never use it. Some hotels charge
$10 or more per day to use their “fitness closet.” Sometimes the hotel gyms are
full of people attending the same conference I am, and I just don’t want to see
them and have to make small talk while I’m wearing a bra top and dripping sweat.
Most of the time, I really prefer to get outside and make my workout a part of
my work or vacation experience.
Working out on your
own
If you choose not to use the hotel fitness center, there are
still lots of ways you can get a great workout.
Cardio
The cardiovascular component of your workout is probably the
easiest to take on the road. In most tourist-oriented locations, there are
readily available walking/running routes.
If you are in an unfamiliar area, ask the hotel concierge
for advice about safe routes. Go early in the day (but after dawn) to minimize
road traffic. Always take your phone with you. If you run into trouble, you’ll
be happy you have the phone handy. And you can also take pictures of local
wildlife, like potato-sized cockroaches in Manhattan, or early-morning hangover
victims in Vegas, and post them to Facebook while you run. I also like to use
the Mapmyrun app on my iPhone, because it shows a map of where I am and counts
my distance and time for me.
Always carry a water bottle and tuck a few bucks, photo ID
and a credit card into your pocket. Why the credit card? Because it was my
mother’s great fear that we should ever be in desperate need of something and
have no money. I have never yet actually used my credit card on a run, but I
always feel better knowing that I have it.
In many tourist-oriented areas, you can also rent bicycles
for a few hours or for the day. If biking is your thing, this can be a great
way to get a workout and see some sights.
Strength training
Everyone should be doing some form of strength training. If
you aren’t, you should start. Right now. Go ahead. I will wait.
Since you won’t be lugging your leg press machine on the
plane with you, this is a good opportunity to use the hotel fitness center. If
you choose not to, you can still get a good strength workout in your room,
using just your own body weight. Squats, lunges, burpees, pushups, planks and
pikes all require only what your mamma gave you. If you feel like you just
can’t keep up your awesome physique with these simple movements, try doing your
pushups under the hotel bed, lifting its weight on each upward phase. Or, you
could just use the fitness center.
The next installment of this blog is about travel fitness
equipment—especially the TRX and resistabands. Are you psyched? I am!
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