Travel workout: how to keep lifting on the road

A week or two away won't cost you much strength, and you'll get most of it back in a few sessions. So the goal on the road is simple: keep the habit and keep the muscles working, with whatever you have.

Hotel room, no equipment

Two or three rounds, resting a minute between exercises. Slow the lowering to three seconds to make it harder.

1. Split squat or reverse lunge: 10 to 15 per leg
2. Push-up: as many as you can, stopping a rep or two short
3. Towel row under a sturdy table or in a door frame: 10 to 15
4. Single-leg Romanian deadlift: 10 per leg
5. Glute bridge: 15 to 20
6. Plank: 30 to 45 seconds

• Split squatQuads, Glutes
• Push-upChest
• Doorway towel rowUpper back, Lats
• Single-leg Romanian deadliftHamstrings, Glutes
• Glute bridgeGlutes
• PlankAbs

Hotel gym

Most have a rack of dumbbells and a cable or two. Goblet squats, dumbbell bench press, one-arm rows, Romanian deadlifts and lunges cover the whole body. See home gym dumbbell workout.

Coming back

After a short trip, pick up where you left off. After two weeks or more, start a little lighter and build back over a few sessions. See getting back into lifting.

In Liftsmith

Add a gym with only body weight (or the hotel's dumbbells) and Liftsmith plans each workout from what's there. After a longer gap, the first session back starts lighter on its own.