I recently had two wonderful days away with my husband, child free (thanks Grampy) and we were really looking forward to having the chance to train together in the hotel's "fully equipped fitness suite".
Now, let's get this straight, the hotel did definitely NOT have a "fully equipped fitness suite", there was a small pool with a few items of gym equipment at the side of the pool. Yes, I actually said that, there was equipment at the side of the pool! There was a little wall that separated the main "gym" but nothing to stop a sodden toddler fresh from their swimming lesson head straight onto the rowing machine.
Bizarre.
Anyway, the moral of the story is: even though the gym was by no means fully equipped, the fact that my husband and I were flexible in our approach and fully equipped with some back up plans, meant we still managed to achieve a workout worthy of a celebratory gin (or two) afterwards.
So I wanted to share my favourite back ups with you in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation!
(We also made the most of Payasugym and found ourselves a real fully equipped fitness suite to use the following day)
1. Tabata. No equipment needed. Timer required
20 seconds of work. 10 seconds rest. Repeat 8 times.
You can make a beasty workout with this in mind, here are a few ideas:
Spinning bike
Jumping squats
Crunches
Rowing machine
Jumping lunges
Burpees
Tuck jumps
Press ups
The list can go on and on and on!
Just 4 minutes per exercise, you can soon build up a decent workout. You can target specific areas too or mix it up and do a whole body session.
2. 100's. Limited/no equipment needed
Usually saved as a finisher, but if weights are limited, it is a great way to exhaust muscles.
Basically do 100 reps of an exercise, for example:
Bicep curls
Scull crushers
Lateral raise
Front raise
Or if you have no weights at your disposal at all, you can do exercises that require no weight at all, for example:
Press ups
Tricep dips
Crunches
Squats
Lunges
Try to work your way through to 100. If you need to stop at any point, only rest for the number of seconds that is equal to the number of reps you have left. For example, if you stopped at 40, rest for 60 seconds, if you stopped at 73, rest for 27 seconds etc.
3. HIIT. Limited/no equipment needed. Timer required
Similar to Tabata. Periods of high intensity exercise followed by rest periods
You can set your own timings, or if in doubt head to YouTube and Joe Wicks aka The Body Coach has some brilliant workouts on there.
So there you have it.
Enjoy!