Test Drive: Hotel Room Workout

Here is a fifteen minute workout I found on BuiltLean.com, with whom I have absolutely no affiliation:

On April 28th, I left the comfy confines of the farm to begin what amounts to Phase 2 of #ProjectNomad: the GALE FORCE book tour!

From the end of April to the beginning of June, I'll be on the road more or less constantly, on a trip that will take me from the Yukon to the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic to Pacific.

This is exciting, but I'm also apprehensive. My commitment to a healthy lifestyle has been relatively easy to maintain on the farm, where I can cook my own meals, run on the treadmill or work out with weights, and I go to boot camp or personal training four days a week.

Phase 2 is going to involve a lot of hotel rooms, a lot of restaurants. And it's going to be a lot busier than Phase 1. Typically, I'll be in a new city every day or couple of days, with either a flight or a long drive in between. That won't leave time for a lot of exercise or food preparation.

Typically, this is where I've really let myself go. It's a lot easier to grab McDonald's on the road. There will always be beers to drink after book events. And typically I've prioritized sleep over exercise.

As part of my preparation for Phase 2, I've been looking for work out tips that I can take to my hotel rooms, and I found the above circuit from BuiltLean through a Google search. Last night, I gave it a try.

I was a little nervous; who the hell even knows what a bomber push-up is? Or a Bulgarian split squat?

Luckily, the website has video to demonstrate the moves. I tried to memorize them before I started so that I could devote the entire fifteen minutes to working out, but I definitely had to double check the Bulgarian one before I did it.

The website also says you should be able to do this circuit every other day, and I can't see that being a problem; I worked up a really good sweat by the end and was breathing heavy, but unfamiliar moves aside, it was well within my comfort zone.

Definitely going to have to work on my form a little bit, and avoid getting a noise complaint for doing burpees too vigorously, but this looks like a good way to stave off the previously inevitable book tour flab, assuming I can stay motivated enough to keep at it.

We'll see how it goes!