When hitting the road (not literally, of course), it's always a good idea to plan ahead to take advantage of the activity opportunities of your destination. For example, many hotels have fitness centers (of widely varying quality), a beach trip can feature lots of water activities (swimming, snorkeling, bodyboarding, wind surfing, etc.), and a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area can (and should) include hiking and biking and, of course, hill sprints.
But what about strength training? More hotels seem to have dumbbells these days, and that's a good thing. Another option is to bring some travel-friendly equipment with you. Superbands (not like U2, but giant, super-strong rubber bands sometimes just called "resistance bands") travel well and are very versatile. Suspension trainers (TRX is the most well known) offer plenty of options with a doorway attachment.
But there's an alternative that's always available: bodyweight training. At StrongFast, rather than targeting specific muscles we often work on basic movement patterns: push, pull, hinge, squat, and lunge, plus some core stabilization work. So here's a quick but thorough workout you can take on the road, with some suggestions for modifications to make exercises easier or harder. This will have only quick introductions to the movements rather than detailed explanations. As with all such exercises, having someone who knows what they're doing to help you learn the movement is invaluable.
Hinge: Hip hinging is an often overlooked, but extremely important training movement. A couple of the most common loaded exercises for this one are deadlifts and kettlebell swings. With just bodyweight, we can use hip raises (sometimes called hip bridges). For the basic version, lay on your back with your knees bent and feet flat, then push up through your heels to get your hips in line with your torso and thighs, squeeze your glutes, hard, then lower. When done correctly, it's harder than it seems, but if that's too easy, use one leg at a time.
Pull: This is the only one that requires more than a floor because if you're going to pull your bodyweight, you need something to hold onto. Fortunately, suitable things are pretty easy to find. Here, I'm using that old standard: pull-ups. (By convention, a "pull-up" is done with the palms facing away; a "chin-up" with palms facing toward you.) Things to pull-up on include tree limbs and ledges. (If you have strong fingers, a sturdy door frame will work.) I went with the ledge. If pull-ups are too much, stand on a sturdy bench or chair and use your legs--only as much as necessary--to help you complete the movement.
Lunge: These are notoriously hard to do well, with a strict vertical movement of the hips. I like split squats because they put you in the lunge position and keep you there for all your reps making it easier to focus on consistent form. They're nice to do while holding dumbbells, but they're good unloaded as well. (You can always improvise loads, of course, by holding buckets of water, for example. Or sacks of cats.) If these are too difficult, hold on to something and use your arms to assist the movement.
Push: The easiest one to accommodate, thanks to the classic pushup. There are far too many variations of this basic movement to even scratch the surface here. But the basic version is fine. Too easy? Put your feet up on a box. Too hard? Put your hands on a box or table (higher = easier).
Squat: This is another one of those neglected movements that is difficult for most people (including me!) to do well, which is unfortunate since it's not only an extremely important movement, it's one we grow up doing perfectly but lose along the way. The goal is to get your hips low enough that the top of your thighs are at least parallel to the floor. But it's important to do the movement by pushing the hips back to take excess stress off the knees. A good way to develop this is by squatting down to a chair or box, lightly touching your butt to it, and pressing up through your heels. Keep lowering the box until you get the thighs-parallel position, then eliminate the box which will enable a bit of bounce off the bottom. Too easy? Slow it down. Take three seconds on the way down, pause, and take three seconds on the way up.
Core Stabilization: Planks and side planks. That's all I have to say about that.
You can do these as a circuit: do one set of each and then repeat them all one or two more times. It doesn't take a lot of time, but it does a lot of good. So next trip, give it a shot. Heck, you can even do it while you're home!
Be seeing you.
-gary