Oftentimes when traveling we don’t want to do anything. The easiest thing to do is sit there and relax. Go ahead, say, “I’m tired, I’m on vacation, I’m just going to chill out and not going to do anything.” What ends up happening is we end up feeling guilty, sluggish, skinny-fat, and one of the things we can do is take a step back and figure out to do just do something, a twenty-minute workout, something that maintains health and maintains the tension in the muscles so the body doesn’t feel like a complete piece of crap.

Let’s look at four bodyweight leg exercises to make the body stronger and more explosive while staying in a hotel room.

We love doing very simple movements like a squat with a jump. We also like to do some bounces at the bottom of the squat. Doing this combo of movements allows the body to get a little bit of a quad pump. We really like this movement as a warm-up for seven reps of four sets.

Right after that warm-up, we like to go into sliding cossack squats for four reps of seven reps on each leg. We like to use a towel to slide one leg on the tiles. No tiles in the hotel room? Just do normal cossack squats. The sliding cossack squat will establish nice tension on the leg squatting and the leg sliding out will feel nice tension in the groin because the towel needs to be pulled in. As the hips and ankles warm-up, the foot on the squatting leg will have the whole foot stay planted on the ground easier and the lower back will warm-up nicely. If we haven’t said it before, t Garage Strength, we love to do bilateral work and follow it up with unilateral work.

The frog squat is the first movement of this combo. The frog squat movement requires some nice extension from the knees but the body never gets out of hip extension. The movement requires knee extension while still holding hip flexion. What happens is the knee extension leads to a nice quad work but because the body never gets out of hip flexion the quads are under constant tension. The frog squats end up opening up the lower back even further, having the body feeling even more mobile.

From there, once the quads are nice and pumped, we add in the good morning to execute the Kang squat. Try to move a little quicker performing the Kang squat to really target that lower back. The key factor is to get nice and mobile in the deep squat, targeting the quads as they feel nice and mobile and tense with the heels opening up the ankles, and then add in some speed to feel a good burn.

Do this combo of movements for four sets of seven reps.

Once again, the use of the towel helps with this movement. It allows the body to get more dynamic and explosive. Again, if the tile floor and towel are not available, the movement can still be done, just replace it with a reverse lunge. Slide the back foot back with the front foot being very active, all the toes grabbing and coordinating with the hamstring. Make sure when the leg slides up the movement is dynamic. It is key to get deep, feeling the movement in the groin, through the hip, and into the glutes for a nice stretch. Do five reps for four sets on each leg. The body will be feeling a unilateral stretch, unilateral tension, and feeling pretty good.

The next movement will help maintain a ton of strength and is a little crazy for the hotel room. Find a chair or stool in the hotel room and perform a side depth drop and bound onto a table or some other firm surface that is safe for landing. The side depth drop will hit the glute-mead. If a sturdy, solid landing surface is not located in the room, just use the bed. Perform this movement for two sets of five reps.

These two are really unique and useful.

Be creative with the apparatuses at one’s disposal. Single leg squats can be performed with a pillow and a chair for two sets of five reps on each leg. Jump steps ups can be performed using a stool or chair as well.

But what we really recommend is finding a good finisher that is challenging. That movement comes in the form of the pistol squat. The pistol squat requires a ton of mobility and solid balance. Perform this movement for two sets of five reps on each leg as well.

When training in a hotel room creativity is key. Figure out how to go about having a really positive training environment to make gains, get stronger, become a better athlete, and be more explosive. Being in a hotel room is no excuse. People can get creative, train a weakness, and continuously get stronger while traveling on business, competition, or vacation. 

If you are looking for an upper body workout to do while traveling we have that too!