Fitness on the Road

RunnerDude's Travel Workout Kit

One of the challenges that many of my clients face is work related travel interfering with their workout routines. Sometimes a hotel will have a great fitness center or provide access to a local gym, but more than not, there is either no fitness center or what's there is comprised of a treadmill and some dumbbells.

Several clients have asked me to create a travel workout plan that they can use on the road. Initially, I created full-body circuit workouts that contained exercises using only body weight, not knowing what, if any, equipment they'd have available to them.

Just recently, I put together a workout for a client (Marie) who is an international flight attendant. Her workout incorporated body weight exercises and some using a resistance band. When other traveling clients found out about Marie's plan, they too wanted a plan to take on the road.

My answer to this need is RunnerDude's Travel Workout Kit. The 10-exercise circuit workout hits upper-body, core, and lower-body and includes three resistance exercise bands (light, medium, heavy).The circuit design let's you get in a great workout without taking up a lot of your time. The great thing is you can just toss it in your suitcase. No need to pack awkward or heavy equipment. It's also great to keep at home when you're just not able to make it to the gym.

The Travel Workout Kit includes

• 10-Exercise Full-Body Workout (printed on a heavy-duty laminated card for long lasting durability)
• Pre and Post Workout Stretching(printed on a heavy-duty laminated card for long lasting durability)
• 3 Exercise Bands (light, medium, heavy)
• RunnerDude's ABCs of Fitness
• Information on Exercise and Aging
• All packaged in a plastic zippered pouch perfect for tossing in a suit case.

To learn more about or to order the Travel Workout Kit [click here]. While you're there, be sure to check out the Beginning Running and Fitness Walking Kits as well as the GYMBOSS interval timer (perfect for the beginning runner and/or for circuit training).

Chariots of Fire Meets The Terminator

Ever been in a situation where you know you're in trouble and you're not quite sure what you're going to do to get out of the situation? Not a great feeling, huh? I had such an experience this past Friday at the gym.

I've been working on functional resistance training to increase leg-strength and Friday I was on the leg press machine. I was quite impressed with my puny-self pressing 230lbs. All was going really well. I could feel my glutes, hamstrings, and quads expanding, and building muscle as I was pumping that iron (okay it was all in my head, but my backside was burning). All was fine until after repetition #10 when I was trying to engage the safety in order to stop the weights and allow me to take a rest before the next set.

Problem was, the safety would not engage. Try as I might, I could not get the safety to work. Earlier that 230lbs felt really good, but now that same 230lbs felt like 460lbs! As my life was flashing before my eyes, I was trying to figure out a way to get out of this predicament that didn't involve me becoming a flattened pancake.

Luckily right behind me, an "Arnold clone" was doing back squats on the Smith Machine. So, in the deepest voice I could muster, I said, "Hey man, would you mind helping me a second?" Evidently he had been watching me squirm in this predicament and said, "Yes" with a little chuckle in his voice.

Using his hands, he pushed up on the weights to give my legs a break while I continued to jimmy the safety trying to get it to engage. Still no luck. By this time, I was the talk of the gym. Two more Arnold clones came over to see what was going on. Now two guys were holding the weights up while a third tried to engage the safety. Fortunately (saving me some pride) he too could not get it to lock in place.

Then one of the hulks said, "Just lower it." I'm thinking, "What?!!!" So down the weights go and so do my legs, my knees getting closer and closer to my eyeballs. Wishbone was coming to mind. Then finally, "click!" The bar stopped. Unbeknownst to me, there's a backup safety, so if the handheld safety doesn't latch or comes unlatched, you won't get squished.

So, out I scrambled as quickly as possible. Upon further examination, we discovered that the safety was hanging and was in fact not working properly. I was so glad that it wasn't just due to my ineptness.

The one good thing that came from this adventure was I actually communicated with the "Big Boys" in the gym. It's always been "Us" and "Them." The "Haves" and the "Have-nots." Myself being one of the latter. Well on Friday, we found some common ground. Even though I was about a fourth of their size, I seemed to impress them (just a tad) with my knowledge of resistance training. And I realized that these guys (even though they're huge) are just regular Joe's. When I told them I had run 10 marathons, that gained a little respect too. Each of us had strengths, just in different areas.

Will this fiasco keep me from working out in the gym? Heck no. I may be checking the safety on the equipment before climbing in, but it won't deter me from working out. Plus now I don't feel so intimidated by the Big Boys.