Fitness During Travel
For both soldiers and business travelers, living out of a hotel room can negatively impact our health and wellness. But a refined approach to rest and exercise can open up a world of possibility when staying in hotel rooms as part of your job.
Living in hotel rooms can be hard
Travel for work or military TDYs can take a toll on our bodies and minds. This can be in part from the new setting (add in jet lag for those further trips), as well as disrupted schedules. Layer on top of that the lack of conveniences of home (easy access to healthy food and fitness facilities we are familiar with), and you've got a recipe for degraded health and a higher potential for injury. Compounding this negative situation can be separation from loved ones.
But it doesn't have to be that bad. Viewing business trips or TDYs as an opportunity to improve wellness rather than degrade it just takes some planning, creativity, and discipline.
Why should you listen to this advice on maximizing wellness from hotel rooms?
I've been traveling professionally for the past 20 or so years and have found shortcuts to make the most of my time on the road. Between being an Army Special Forces Officer, a strategy consultant, and a business executive, I use many of the below tips to stay in shape (and sane) while on the road.
Conduct IPB to make the most of your hotel stay
Much like MDMP, the second step of maximizing wellness for a hotel stay is gathering information. In my mind, this comes down to picking a hotel with the right amenities and getting one that's in the right location.
Hotel location for amenities - Find a hotel with good proximity to supermarkets and running trails. Staying near supermarkets will allow you to purchase healthier food (pro tip - Whole Foods salad bar for dinner) with your per diem. I also like to use the Strava app to look for running trails near hotels. To do this on their app, click on the Maps icon, then Segments, then put in the address of the hotel you are looking at. Finding Strava segments is a good indicator that people where you are going tend to run in those areas.
Hotel facilities - When you're booking through DTS, you don't always have the choice of what hotel you can stay in. But when you do, do some research on hotelgyms.com to find the ones with the most comprehensive workout spaces.
Minimize distance to the reason you're staying in a hotel - if you're staying in a hotel because of work, then there's some reason or mission for the stay. If you can solve for the above, then a third criterion can be minimizing the amount of time that you spend driving. This will decrease the amount of time you spend 'commuting' and will hopefully allow for more fitness and rest.
Maximize rest and recovery during hotel stays
Traveling can be hard on the body and mind. This difficulty is true whether you are a soldier on TDY or a regular business traveler. Getting good rest can be hard in hotels, but the below tips can help.
Pick a room that will let you rest - the first step is getting a room that is quiet and dark. For me, that means asking for a room away from the elevator or ice machine. In some hotels, it may also mean moving away from a busy highway or airport to minimize the ambient noise. When you first check-in, don't be afraid to ask the front desk for a quiet room or to come back if the first room isn't quiet enough. This won't always work, but it's worth a shot.
Improve your sleep - hotel rooms are notorious for having lots of little lights in them, which can degrade your sleep quality. Turn off or cover up annoying lights to make the room as dark as possible. Making the room chilly as well as decreasing blue light (think TVs, phones, tablets, and computers) before bed can also improve the quality of sleep.
Maintain good habits - Just because you are on the road doesn't mean your normally healthy habits should go out the window. Things like alcohol late at night, late meals, poor hydration, and inconsistent bedtimes all degrade sleep quality. Find ways to embrace the travel to double down on your good habits and even try new ones (pro tip - pre-bed sleep meditation is wonderful for calming an anxious mind). I use my Whoop 4.0 to keep track of my daily habits and how they impact my recovery.
Better eating - nutrition has a big impact on our sleep quality. Avoid super late meals and find ways to integrate healthy/fresh foods into your travel diet. Your sleep quality will be much improved with better nutrition.
Maximize fitness during hotel stays
On to the part that you likely started this article to learn about - maximizing fitness during hotel stays. While not every hotel is equipped with an ultra-modern gym, you can still use your time in hotels to maintain or improve your fitness.
Early to bed - hotel gyms (especially those near military installations) can get busy/overcrowded. Beat the rush by getting to bed at a decent hour and getting up early. This will also ensure that you are well-recovered for your workout.
Find a buddy - finding a battle buddy is generally good military advice, but it can also help you stay accountable to your fitness goals while traveling. If you are attending a professional development course or just happen to be traveling with co-workers, finding a friend can be that extra nudge you need to stay on track when it’s easy to slip up.
Hotel gyms - your average hotel gym generally has a couple of treadmills, an elliptical, and free weights up to 50 lbs. While this clearly isn't a THOR facility, it is absolutely enough to get a decent workout in. Let's dig into this subject a bit deeper:
Guided workouts - I use the Peloton app at home (and for meditations on airplanes), so it's a go-to for hotel gym workouts. Throw on some headphones, connect to the hotel wifi, and get it done. Most of their strength workouts just require dumbbells, so you should be good in most gyms. Don't stress if you don't have access to super heavy weights, even lighter weights are still better than nothing.
Gym workouts from the internet - if you're not on a 179-day TDY in this hotel, a quick google should reveal plenty of ideas for upper and lower body strength workouts. Some favorite sites are GarageGymReviews, FittestTravel, and Accor. Mix in some running, spinning, and stretching, and you should be good for weeks.
Ask chatGPT - laugh, but you could ask chatGPT to "suggest an upper body workout that I can accomplish in a hotel gym with only access to dumbbells ranging from 5 to 50 lbs" and it will spit out a workout. These aren't the absolute best programming ever, but they can help you break up your routine if you're in a rut.
Hotel gym alternatives - use that per diem for something more than expensive meals or drink nights. A quick google search can help you find a Crossfit box, a climbing gym, or a track that you can run laps on (check out RunTrackRun). Bonus: workouts can be great ways to meet locals. If you think ahead, a TRX + door jam can also be a great way to mix up workouts in a hotel room.
Finding places to run outdoors - one of my favorite aspects of business travel is getting to run in new places. I generally use Strava Segment Finder to identify places that seem ripe for running and then head out. Some of my favorite memories from business trips have been from getting to run in spots that I wouldn't normally go to. Plan ahead and consider how light it will be outside (pro tip - pack a headlamp in your suitcase).
About the author - Kyle runs the EffectivExec website, which is dedicated to helping business travelers be more impactful and lead healthier lives. He is an Army Special Forces veteran with an MBA from Wharton. Outside of work, he is an accomplished triathlete, mountaineer, skier, rock climber, and father of three.