Think effective strength training is only possible in a gym with heavy weights? This is firmly anchored in many minds. There are good reasons for this. But there is actually a lot that speaks in favor of training with your own body weight .

Maybe you don’t really have a choice either. Maybe you travel a lot and don’t have much time. As a former management consultant, I am still very familiar with this situation. Under these circumstances, it makes sense to skip training sessions. Alternatively, however, you can also make the most of what is available there.

At the start of this blog, I wrote in my article about my transformation from a fat management consultant to a well-trained fitness athlete. So many people wanted to know how exactly I trained during this time. After all, I was (almost) always in hotels in different cities during the week and worked long hours. So I wrote two articles sharing this with you.

In this article, I’ll look at the requirements for an effective training plan for frequent travelers. After all, it is important that such training, under the conditions on the road, can also realistically be carried out on a regular basis. This also includes why, in my opinion, full-body training is best suited for this (for most of them).

In the next article you will learn from me which exercises you should include in your hotel room training plan. Finding a suitable and above all accessible fitness studio on the go is not so easy. That’s why I’ve created various special plans for myself and others that meet the special needs of busy people and frequent travelers.

But what exactly is important when planning such a training? What should you pay particular attention to when training on the go?

 

Hotel room training – requirements for training on the go

At the time, I first considered what requirements I would have for such a plan. I asked myself: “What makes an optimal training plan for someone who travels a lot, has little time and whose schedule is regularly subject to strong fluctuations?”

I determined the following 5 requirements. In principle, they have hardly changed since then, while since then I have of course always adapted my training plans to my training status and my goals.

 

Success factor 1: maximum mobility

So that you can train with your training plan anywhere on the go, it should above all be able to be carried out anywhere with maximum mobility. For your hotel room training, it should be a plan that can be carried out with no or as little equipment as possible. If you decide to use equipment, it should also be as transportable as possible.

With my fitness packing list for (business) trips , I always have my gym with me in my suitcase. That has developed as a fixed set over the years. Maybe you can get inspiration from it too.

 

Success factor  2: Maximum flexibility in terms of time

If you have a lot to do and travel a lot, you usually need a little more flexibility. For your training, this means that it shouldn’t matter exactly when and how often you can train. Your training must be able to forgive you for minor deviations. Training must always be possible, regardless of whether you want to train in the morning or prefer to train in the evening after work and end your day with it. The optimal training time does not exist and your plan should in this respect bear deviations.

Unfortunately, it is often the case with complex split training that you are very much bound to a fixed process and cannot even simply postpone a training session. This then quickly has a domino effect.

 

Success factor  3: minimum expenditure of time

Time is our most valuable asset. This resource is often particularly scarce on (business) trips. So my aim has always been to accommodate as much training as possible in as little time as possible. It shouldn’t take more than an hour to complete a comprehensive training program. For this it is necessary to combine the right exercises in the right way. So I always use the classic basic exercises for strength training . There are also very effective variants of these exercises that you can do without heavy weights. These are presented in the article Basic exercises in body weight training here on the blog.

You can also use supersets to save a little extra time . It also helps a lot to pay attention to your breaks between sentences , for example . You could probably write a whole book about the possibilities of saving time during training … In fact, I wrote a guide about it, which is included in my muscle building basics program in the Value and Premium package.

Time can also be wonderfully saved in endurance sports by working a lot with interval or HIIT training . If your main goal is to really boost fat burning, then even 4 minutes are enough to boost your metabolism for the next 12-24 hours. Such a crisp tabata workout is also wonderfully suitable for hotel room training.

Success factor  4: simplicity

Complicated training is not the right thing for long, stressful days. So the exercises in your plan should be easy to learn and easy to perform. A training plan whose exercises are too heavy to be done cleanly quickly will quickly become frustrating. Although you should therefore not refrain from more complex exercises. Here on the blog I have instructions on how you can learn complex exercises like squats or deadlifts quickly and safely yourself . Of course, some body weight exercises require a little more exercise, but here you can start with simpler variants.

Another important aspect is that your training is not too diverse and varied. What on the one hand may be motivating for some, on the other hand always requires a little more concentration and reflection. Here you shouldn’t make your life unnecessarily difficult, especially on stressful days. Therefore, get yourself a fixed set of exercises that you do regularly over several months.

 

Success factor 5: Targeted effectiveness

Last but not least, your training should of course be as effective as possible. After all, you want to achieve something with your training and change or maintain your body in a targeted manner. With the right composition, it should still be possible to achieve good results despite the great mobility, the flexibility in terms of time and the small amount of time required. Your training should be geared towards this goal.

So if you want to build muscle mass in a phase of mass while training on the go , then your training plan should make it possible. And yes, muscle building with your own body weight and on the go is possible. In fact, at least to a certain extent, this works pretty well if your muscle building training plan is geared towards it! Likewise, if your goal is maximum muscle maintenance in the diet because you want to define your muscles , your training plan should be geared towards that.

 

Based on these success factors, I have decided that a full body training plan makes the most sense. I then put together one based on the premises. The result is hotel room training that can be carried out with little equipment anytime and anywhere with little expenditure of time.

 

Benefits of a full body training plan for you:

I’ve also trained with a two-man split on the go. For most, however, solid full-body workouts might be the best option (for now). Such a full-body training plan simply offers various advantages. These make it the ideal training concept, especially for people with a stressful and difficult to plan everyday life. Among other things, the following arguments speak in favor of a GK plan for your training on the go.

• A significantly lower training frequency is enough for you. Two to three times a week is sufficient. This means that the time required for you is extremely low.
• You have more flexibility when it comes to rescheduling appointments. It’s okay to train a day later. As a result, you will not have a decisive negative impact on your training success.
• You have more regeneration days. Your muscles have more time in which they are not used and can regenerate. Especially if you occasionally have a night in which your sleep is a bit short, this makes sense in the long term.
• Despite the lower weekly workload, the training stimulus for muscle growth / muscle maintenance is absolutely sufficient. Training all major muscle groups at once leads to even greater hormone release than a split training plan .
• The overall strain on your nervous system is lower. With every hard workout it gets irritated and has to regenerate. More days without heavy training between training days means less stress.

As you can see, a body weight full-body plan fits like a fist on the eye for your hotel room workout on the go.