The business gym

Travel often becomes an excuse to stop exercising, when in fact it is the perfect opportunity to explore your creativity. The next time you are on the road, bring your 'business gym' that can travel wherever you do.

The first component of the 'business gym' is your body. There are literally thousands of exercises that can be performed with nothing more than body weight.

Every major muscle group has an exercise that can target it:


• Chest muscles - push-ups

• Back muscles - pull-ups or modified push-ups known as 'dive bombers' or 'Hindu push-ups'


• Shoulders - handstands, yoga moves, raising arms over head, also push-ups with arms wider apart and feet closer to head


• Biceps - any flexion of the arm including pull-ups

• Triceps - any extension of the arm including push-ups

• Thigh muscles - body weight squats, squat jumping, etc.

• Hamstrings - lunges

• Abdominal muscles - crunches

• Lower back muscles - back extensions or 'superman' exercises

Yoga is also a discipline that provides many unique exercises that can target various areas of the body. The United States Marine Corps has a program known as 'daily 16s' that involves various combinations of stretches, push-ups, and other exercises that can be performed anywhere to help improve strength and endurance. There are plenty of books on the topic of body weight exercise and flexibility.

The second component of the 'business gym' is creativity combined with some inexpensive props. It does not take a large budget to invest in the right tools to enhance your training program. Here are some items that are inexpensive and easy to take with you on the road:

Resistance Bands

These are rubber bands that either come as tubes with handles on each end, or as loops. They can be used to perform any variety of exercises. Wrapping them around your back while performing push-ups can increase the resistance.

Stepping on one end then swinging your arm out and over your head becomes a great shoulder-strengthening exercise. Stepping on the end and curling the other end up will work your biceps. The tubes can be purchased with varying amounts of resistance and are very easy to pack and take with you.

Jump Rope

You won't need a treadmill when you bring this handy 'business gym' component along. A jump rope is inexpensive and easy to pack. It can provide a cardiovascular workout that challenges most gym equipment when it comes to calories burned. Simply by varying the rate and method by which you hop, skip, and jump during the routine can help modulate the intensity of the workout.

Pull-up Bar

While this is perhaps the most expensive and least portable piece of traveling gym equipment, a pull-up bar can be a life-saver for your back no the road. It fits into most standard door frames and distributes the weight evenly so that you can grip the bar and perform pull-ups without having to grasp the doorframe. It can also be used to perform abdominal workouts by hanging and performing leg and knee lifts.

These are just a few examples of items that can assist you with your traveling workouts. I've heard of people using phone books to do curls and using the ice box filled with water to perform squats. The imagination is really the only limit to what you can accomplish.

Fortunately, many places are also equipped with a small gym. While it might not have the equipment you are used to, it's often enough to get a modified workout in. The pool is a great way to get in extra cardiovascular exercise and jogging is one workout that can be done almost anywhere. So the next time you travel, don't use your last minute trip as an excuse to skip out on your new habit of healthy living. Bring along your very own 'business gym.'