As a strength and conditioning specialist, I know how easy it can be to feel discouraged about improving your fitness level. But experience has taught me that prioritizing proper nutrition and training can make all the difference.
Optimal nutrition and training can be tough to adhere to anytime, and it can become especially difficult when you have limited access to a gym. Whether you’re on vacation or away on a business trip, it’s important to have a backup plan to get in a good workout.
These three training routines are excellent options to try out at home, in your hotel room, or even in the airport to help you keep reaching your goals — even when you don’t have access to weights.
1. German Volume Training
Goal: Improve lean body mass and burn off body fat
Time: 40 minutes
This workout is great for shedding body fat and increasing your lean body mass. While it is traditionally done with gym equipment, it can also be done at home using just your body weight.
This training forces your muscles to adapt quickly and efficiently to a high number of repetitions. Those repetitions elevate lactic acid levels and elicit a growth hormone response, which helps to burn body fat.
The Workout:
Bodyweight squat 10×10
Perform one set of bodyweight squats 10 times. Try to lower from the standing position to the bottom of the squat in four seconds. Each repetition should take about five seconds in total, and each set should take 50 seconds. Rest for one minute after you finish a set of 10 repetitions.
Calf raise 10×10
Perform one set of 10 repetitions of bodyweight calf raises. Each repetition should take five seconds: Fire up your muscles for two seconds with the heels off the ground, and then lower the heels for two seconds. Each set should take 50 seconds. Once you have finished a set of 10 reps, rest for one minute.
10 Repetitions:
- Bodyweight squat x 10 reps
- Rest one minute and move to the calf raise.
- Calf raise x 10 reps
- Rest one minute and move back to the bodyweight squat.
Continue this alternating exercise pattern until all 10 sets of each exercise have been completed for a total of 100 bodyweight squats and 100 calf raises.
2. Tabata — High-Intensity Interval Training
Goal: Burn body fat
Time: Four minutes
Tabata is credited to Dr. Izumi Tabata from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo. This training style is an excellent way to burn body fat and improve the body’s basal metabolic rate, which is the energy, measured in calories, needed to maintain bodily functions when a person’s at rest. The higher the BMR, the more calories a person burns while he or she is not training.
Any training style that increases your BMR will continue to burn calories at a high rate long after the training session has ended.
Tabata-style workouts are a great end to a workout, but they can also be used as a standalone routine when your time is limited. One of the best benefits is the versatility of the exercises; they can be modified to work for any fitness level at any time.
The Workout:
Beginner: Jump rope
Advanced: Burpees
This training style is simple. The workout will consist of four minutes of nonstop conditioning sessions broken into 30-second chunks. Begin with 20 seconds of work and then 10 seconds of rest. Repeat for four minutes. Try starting with something like jump rope if your fitness level is lower, or for more advanced athletes, try a more demanding routine like burpees.
Four Total Minutes
- 20 seconds: Work
- 10 seconds: Rest
- 20 seconds: Work
- 10 seconds: Rest
- 20 seconds: Work
- 10 seconds: Rest
- Continue this alternating work-rest pattern until you have completed four minutes of eight total work and rest sets. You can choose to do multiple rounds, but make sure to give yourself a two-minute rest in between sessions.
3. Deck of Pain
Goal: Total body muscular endurance
Time: 15 to 20 minutes
This workout is great for building muscular endurance without spending hours on a treadmill. It’s effective because it targets all the major muscle groups in the upper and lower body, and it includes conditioning.
The Workout:
Assign each suit in a deck of cards an exercise, and shuffle the deck. Each card will correlate to its value in reps — with face cards at 10 repetitions and aces equaling 11 repetitions. Work your way through the deck until all the cards have been flipped over.
- Clubs: Push-ups
- Spades: Bodyweight squats
- Diamonds: Sit-ups
- Hearts: Mountain climbers
- Cards 2 to 10: Face value in reps
- Jack, queen, king: 10 reps each
- Aces: 11 reps
Flip a card, and do the assigned exercise with the assigned number of repetitions. Once the repetitions are completed, immediately flip to the next card and do the assigned exercise. Continue this process until all cards have been turned over. Make sure to time your workout so you can try and match it — or beat it — the next time.
Alan Bishop is the Director of Sports Performance for Men’s Basketball at the University of Houston. Alan has a master’s degree in Sports Conditioning and Performance and holds certifications through the NSCA, CSCCA, and USAW.
