10 Hotel Room Cardio Workouts Without Equipment

Staying fit can be a challenge if you have to travel a lot for your job. Many hotels have added workout rooms to accommodate traveler fitness, but a lot of them either do not have this amenity or you might have to take a number and wait in line to use the equipment.

Fortunately, you don’t have to have a gymnasium or equipment to maintain your fitness level while you are traveling. In this guide to a hotel room workout, I will provide you with ten exercises that will help you maintain your fit form until you can get back home.

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10 Hotel Room Exercises For Traveling

Traveling, whether for business or pleasure, does not have to cause an interruption to your regular fitness routine. Though you might be used to certain types of training equipment back home, the lack of those pieces of equipment should not limit you.

The ten exercises I have laid out below might not match up with your typical gym or weight room workout, but they will keep you from losing that fitness edge and make it easier to get back into the groove when you return home.

1. V tucks

These exercises are relatively simple when it comes to what you do, but they take a good bit of concentration and some pretty solid core and ab muscle strength to pull off correctly. If you take your time and work on your form, this exercise can provide a powerful component to your hotel workout.

Targeted Muscles:
Abs and core muscles are the main targets of this exercise.

How You Do V-Tucks:

Starting Position: Sitting on the floor with your feet drawn up to your rear and your arms wrapped around your knees.
Separate your hands from your knees and raise your feet from the floor so that you are balancing on your coccyx.
Keep your arms straight and lean back slightly as you extend your feet outward until your legs are straight.
Maintain the position of your legs and arms and draw your knees and chest back together.
Repeat this movement 15 to 20 times in succession to complete a set.

Quick Tips
Slow down and concentrate on body position while you do this exercise, focusing on your core to both maintain balance and flex the proper muscles to perform the exercise.

2. Reverse Crunches

Reverse crunches essentially work the same set of muscles as regular crunches, but they provide added protection to your spine that tends to be lacking in a typical crunch.

Targeted Muscles:
The main targeted muscles are the abs and core.

How To Do Reverse Crunches:

Starting Position: Lie on your back with your knees bent, the bottoms of your feet planted firmly on the floor and your palms face down on the floor for added support.
Raise your feet from the floor so that your thighs and calves create a 90-degree angle.
Contract your core and ab muscles to draw your legs toward your chest without moving your hands from the floor or raising your shoulders and back.
Press your knees back to the 90-degree angle before repeating the motion.
Repeat this 30 to 50 times in order to complete a set.

Quick Tips
Avoid doing this exercise too quickly to prevent making use of the momentum of a swing. Also, avoid raising your head and straining your neck and shoulders while you do this exercise.

3. Flutter Kicks

Those who have been in the military within the last hundred years will likely recognize this old-time favorite callisthenic form of torture. They are a four-count exercise that does wonders for your core and they are a great way to maintain your fitness form.

Targeted Muscles:
The main muscles targeted include abs, core, hip flexors, and lower back muscles.

How To Do Flutter Kicks:

Starting Position: Lie flat on your back with your legs straight and your arms extended out to your sides.
Raise your left leg to 45 degrees from the floor while keeping your right leg on the floor for count 1.
Raise your right leg to 45 degrees from the floor while returning your left leg to just a few inches off of the floor for count 2.
Return the left leg to the 45-degree position while the right leg returns to only inches from the floor for count 3.
Reverse this position for count 4 to complete one rep.
Continue to repeat this action up to 20 or 25 times to complete a set.

Quick Tips
Work at relaxing your upper body and neck, which people tend to tense up and strain while doing this exercise.

4. Overhead Squats

Though you might think that squats are a useless exercise without weight, you need to keep in mind that doing them without weights can help to improve the posture and form when you add weights. In addition, even lifting your own body weight can provide toning benefits that will help you maintain your fitness.

Targeted Muscles:
The main targeted muscles are the core, hip flexors, and upper legs.

How To Do Overhead Squats

Starting Position: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your hands straight down at your sides.
Move your hands upward with your arms straight out in front of you while in the same motion you begin to lower your behind toward the floor.
Continue downward until your thighs are parallel to the floor and your hands are overhead and slightly forward to help maintain your balance.
Press your feet into the floor and lower your arms straight out in front of you as you return to your starting position to complete a single rep.
Repeat this motion 15 to 20 times to complete a set.

Quick Tips
Take your time and concentrate on the range of motion and proper posture while doing this exercise. As an added variation of this exercise, you can explode upward out of the squat into a jump, but watch out for low ceilings.

5. Jumping Lunges

Another old-time favorite of callisthenic leaders is the lunge. This variation adds the explosive element of jumping into it to provide additional benefits and aerobics.

Targeted Muscles:
The main muscles targeted include core and glutes, as well as upper and lower legs.

How To Do jumping Lung:

Starting Position: Stand tall with your left foot slightly in front of your right and at shoulder width. Your arms should be resting at your sides.
Engage your core to push off of the floor with both feet to become airborne.
Once in the air, switch the positions of your feet and land with your right leg forward.
Dip all the way down until your right thigh is parallel to the floor for the count of 1.
Explode back up out of this position into the air and switch the position of your feet again.
Land with your left leg forward and dip down until your left thigh is parallel to the floor for the count of 2 to complete the rep.
Repeat the above motions 15 to 20 times in order to complete a set.

Quick Tips
Keep your arms out in front of you with your elbows bent and your palms facing downward to help you maintain your balance.

6. Butt Kicks

Everyone needs a good butt-kicking to help maintain their fitness. Here is a simple butt-kicking exercise that will do just that while you are away from home and staying in a hotel room.

Targeted Muscles:
The main muscles targeted are the hamstrings and glutes.

How To Do Butt Kicks:

Starting Position: Stand tall with your feet at shoulder width and your hands resting at your sides.
Bring the heel of your left foot upward to your behind while reaching to touch the tow with your left hand and pumping your right hand upward with the elbow bent for the count of 1.
As your left foot is returning to the floor, pump your left arm upward and draw your right heel toward your behind while reaching to touch the right toe with your right hand for the count of 2.
Repeating with the left and right foot again are counts 3 and 4 to complete a rep.
Continue this series of movements 20 to 25 times to complete a set.

Quick Tips
Keep your shoulders back, your chest out and your abs tight while doing this exercise in order to get the most out of it.

7. Triceps Couch Dips

Though a relaxing vacation might be a temptation, you should not melt into becoming a couch potato since you are only inches away from an excellent exercise while sitting on your couch, loveseat or that overstuffed chair. Couch dips are a great way to keep your triceps toned while you’re kicking back.

Targeted Muscles:
The main muscles targeted are the triceps.

How To Do Triceps Couch Dips:

Starting Position: Sit down on a secure bench, chair, sofa or loveseat and place your hand’s shoulder-width apart upon the surface you are sitting. Slide your behind off of the seat and walk your feet out until they are straight in front of you.
Dip your behind toward the floor while keeping your knees straight and bending your arms at the elbows.
Continue downward until your upper arms are parallel to the floor.
Contract your triceps muscles to bring your rear end upward and bring your arms back to a straight position to complete a rep.
Repeat the same series of movements 15 to 20 times without resting your behind on the bench, chair or sofa to complete a set.

Quick Tips
Keep your shoulders down as you lower and raise your body in order to get the most out of this exercise. You can also bend your legs to a 90-degree angle in order to modify this exercise a bit.

8. Towel Biceps Curls

Those tightly toned biceps you have worked so hard to develop don’t have to suffer from the effects of time away from home either. You can keep them toned using a common item found in every hotel room. Just be sure to leave the towel in the hotel room afterward instead of sneaking it out in your luggage.

Targeted Muscles:
The biceps are the main targeted muscles in this workout.

How To DoTowel Biceps Curls:

Starting Position: Sitting down with your back straight and your rear toward the front edge of your seat. Place the mid-point of a towel under your right foot and grasp the two ends tightly in your left and right hands.
Draw the ends of the towel toward your chest, raising your leg to allow for movement, but providing resistance for the curl.
Bring your hands all the way to your chest, hold them in place for a count and then resist as you push the towel back down to the floor with your foot to complete a rep.
Repeat this movement 12 to 15 times to complete a set.

Quick Tips
Take your time and focus on proper form while you bring your arms into the flexed position. Downward resistance is as important as the upward curl so don’t forget that part of the exercise. Try to keep the resistance balanced to both arms by shifting the position of the resisting foot or alternating from one foot to the other between sets.

9. Wide Pushups

Any workout without equipment will typically include some sort of pushup or any number of different types of pushups. Though there are many to choose from, a wide pushup allows you to engage a muscle group that we haven’t yet worked in our hotel workout.

Targeted Muscles:
The pectoral muscles, shoulders, and arms are muscles targeting with this exercise.

How You DoWide Pushups:

Starting Position: Lie face down on the floor with your arms extended outward and your toes on the floor. Bring yourself up into the plank position by bringing your hands into position directly beneath your elbows and the fingertips rotated slightly inward while your arms remain at a 90-degree angle to your sides.
Lower your chest toward the floor bending at the elbows until your upper arms are parallel to the floor.
Hold this position for a count and then use your pectoral and shoulder muscles to press your chest back up until your arms are extended to complete a rep.
Repeat this motion 12 to 15 times to complete a set.

Quick Tips
Do not allow your hips to sag and keep your body in a perfect plank position throughout this exercise. Focus on maintaining form during downward and upward motion to get the most out of this exercise. Try to keep your head and neck relaxed instead of straining.

10. Burpees

To wrap up our hotel room workout we return to another of those old time callisthenic favorites; burpees or squat thrusts. Because this is both aerobic and pretty much engages all muscle groups in your body, this is a great way to wrap things up.

Targeted Muscles:
This is as close to a full-body workout as you can get with the main muscles targeted including arms, chest, quads, glutes, hamstrings, and abs. Your legs will probably feel the burn as well.

How To Do Burpees:

Starting Position: Stand tall with your legs at shoulder width and your arms relaxed at your sides.
Sink down into a squatting position placing your hands on the floor for the count of 1.
Kick your feet back into a plank position keeping your arms extended like at the top of a pushup for the count of 2.
Draw your feet back toward your chest to return to the squat position for the count of 3.
Stand up straight and return your arms to your sides for the count of 4 and to complete a rep.
Repeat this series of motions continuously 15 to 20 times to complete a set.

Quick Tips
The best way to do these is at a slow, but steady pace. Stopping in the middle of the rep only makes it 3 times more difficult to get yourself back in motion again. Here are a couple of additional tips:

Move your hands before moving your feet in order to maintain balance.
Many trainers suggest that you go into something of a robot mode to do this exercise.
Make sure not to arch your back when in the plank position.
Open your hips all the way up when you stand up straight.
Don’t forget to breathe.