Take Your Workout on the Road
 
BY: By Camille Noe Pagan / Photography: David Martinez / Styling: Beth Katz / Talent: Jane Johnson/Wilhelmina
A Los Angeles singer and frequent flier learns how to turn a hotel room into a personal gym.

The Reader: As lead singer in a traveling band, Jenna Sanz-Agero, 35, needs a workout that fits her on-the-go lifestyle.

The Expert: Exercise physiologist Mark Lebos and certified trainer Shaman DeArco, cohosts of FitTV's Housecalls.

Before: "The hotels I stay in often don't have gyms,” Sanz-Agero says. Traveling can be stressful, especially when she's stuck on a tour bus or plane for hours and working out calms the Los Angeles resident. "My goal is to exercise three to four times a week so I can stay in shape—and keep my cool."

To help, we asked Lebos DeArco to design a workout Sanz-Agero could do in the tiniest hotel room. These experts are used to small spaces—they've developed routines for folks who call houseboats and high-rises home.

The Workout: Many people find working out on the road difficult, but a new locale can be a welcome change. "Without access to your regular exercise environment, you will have the opportunity to vary your workout, so your body can use new muscle groups," DeArco says. It's also a good idea to focus on stretching areas that become tight or sore from sitting on a plane or traveling in a car for long periods of time, like your hips and back, Lebos adds.

The On the Road 30-minute Workout builds muscle endurance, burns calories, and stretches tired or overworked muscles. The moves are divided into upper body, lower body, and abdominal sections, and use only what you have access to in a hotel room, such as a desk chair, water bottle, and towel.

After: Jenna Sanz-Agero raved about the travel-friendly workout's convenience: "It's great that everything I need can be found in an average hotel room." Her favorite move was the hip-flexor stretch. "After a long flight, it's the perfect way to loosen up," she says.

Although the exercises call for less weight than she typically lifts at the gym, Sanz-Agero says they still provided a challenge. "And pushing myself helps me maintain my motivation," she says. "These moves really worked my muscles. Especially the chair clams—those are tough."

Best of all, while Sanz-Agero wanted a plan to take on the road, she discovered that the workout served multiple purposes: "I did it at home when the weather was too bad to drive to the gym. This routine can be done almost anywhere, any time—it's excuse-proof!"

Camille Noe Pagán is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn, New York. She writes about health, fitness, and nutrition for Shape, Time Out New York, and Fitness.

 

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