Though most people can work from home, there are instances when you have no other choice but to travel. And for more than a year, traveling has changed a lot. If you are not yet fully vaccinated and traveling, there is a chance that you will end up spending days in hotel quarantine. This doesn’t mean that you have no other choice but to skip your workout. These are hotel quarantine workouts that can help keep you fit (and sane).
Jumping Jacks
Since you can’t leave your hotel room for a few days, you only have a few choices for cardio. Jumping jacks is a great way to keep your cardio up. It can also serve as your warm-up and get your heart rate to go up. The good thing about jumping jacks is that it can burn a decent number of calories too. For someone who weighs around 120 pounds, you can burn around 8 calories per minute.
If you weigh 250 pounds, you can burn as many as 16 calories per minute. You can burn around 100 calories in 10 minutes. That’s not a bad number if you can’t jog or sprint outside. Do a total of 10-15 minutes of jumping jacks divided into 5-6 minute sets and you end burning your calves and sweating.
Squat Variations
Hotel quarantine is no excuse to skip leg day. And even if you don’t have a squat rack in front of you, you can still work on your lower body. You’ll be surprised by the number of variations that you can do with bodyweight squats.
You can do regular air squats or you can be doing split squats. If you want to do serious work on an individual leg then you can be doing pistol squats. You can also work on your progression if you are still working on doing a low pistol squat. You can grab something stable when you are doing your rep.
If you are looking to build explosiveness, you can mix a bit of jumping squats on your workout to make things interesting.
Spiderman Pushup
Spiderman push up is a great way not only to work on your pushing muscles but also your obliques and your lower body. It’s an advanced variation of your regular pushup, but this is a great way to hit two birds in one stone.
To get started, you want to start with a regular pushup position. From the plank position, you will get your leg up. You will get your knee to meet your elbow and do the same for the other side. While doing the exercise, it is similar to climbing a wall like Spidey, thus the name.
If the workout is too difficult for you, you can just transition towards easier pushup variations. You can start even try kneeling pushups or go with wall pushups.
Bent over row (Using resistance bands)
Resistance bands are fast becoming popular nowadays and for good reasons. One of the hardest things to do when you are left with no equipment is to work on your back. For sure you can do push-ups to work on your chest and other pushing muscles, but what about your pulling muscles?
If you brought some resistance bands with you during your travel, then you can work on some bent-over rows. You can step right in the middle of your resistance bands, be sure to keep your back straight, and start pulling. The shorter the ends get, the more resistance you are going to have on your bands. You can also get more from your workout if you extend the isometric part of the rep.
Bicep curls (Using resistance bands)
Another great way to use your resistance bands is to work on your biceps. Just like working on your back, the bicep curl is a pulling motion making it difficult to do without any weights. With resistance bands, you can get creative and get the burn that you wanted.
Burpees
Burpees can be a good alternative to sprinting. And when you are on quarantine, this can serve as great cardio even when you don’t have access to a treadmill. Just how difficult is doing a burpee? The 3-minute burpee test has been used to evaluate a person’s strength and endurance.
It’s a physically demanding exercise that can promote strength and endurance. You get to start the movement by crouching and moving back your feet. You will end up in a push-up position. From here, you will return on your feet and jump as high as you can.
Leg Raises and Planks
The core is usually equated by the average person to abs. But what if it is so much more than just aesthetics? What if it’s the pillar to keep your spine stable whenever you are lifting something heavy? Or what if it can help you generate more power by efficiently transferring energy throughout the body.
You may also be thinking of doing regular sit-ups. In reality, this can injure your neck. What you can do is do leg raises. This way, you get to work on your lower abdominal area as well. If you can do 50 and quickly follow it up with 40-60 second planks, then you get to work on the entire core.
Final Thoughts
If you ever considered traveling, be sure that you are also prepared to keep yourself busy during your days in hotel quarantine. Instead of just watching TV and perhaps eating whatever you can order, might as well stay busy with these exercises.