Training on the Go (by Jeremy Likness)


If you enjoy excuses, then this article is not for you – I’m going to take away any excuse you have for not training when you’re on the road or have a limited budget or access to equipment. I will discuss some simple and inexpensive equipment, how to design a program “on the go”, and various exercises that you can use to keep yourself in peak shape without needing a squat cage or a ton of machines.

The equipment that I recommend is inexpensive and highly portable. If you’ve ever hired a trainer who visited your home, then you’ve probably seen some of this equipment. While you could train exclusively with your body, these tools can certainly add a lot to your routine. Based on your particular goals, you should consider buying some if not all of the following items. 

Resistance Bands

The first piece of equipment that I recommend is the resistance band. I prefer the bands that come as a loop (usually a smaller loop and a larger loop). Bands typically come in different colors and resistance levels, so you might purchase a few different “levels” to add flexibility to your routine. Bands are only a few bucks, fit almost anywhere and will enable you to perform a variety of exercises that would not be possible with body weight alone.

Jump Rope

The next piece of equipment is a jump rope. Most people already own one of these. I like the plastic jump ropes, but that is only a personal preference. Jump ropes can be coiled up and brought anywhere. What’s great about jump ropes is that the routine can be modified for any level of cardiovascular fitness, whether you want to skip-jump and then jog in place or perform 20 minutes of solid speed jumping!

Pull-up Bar

A pull-up bar is a more expensive tool but I’ve seen them on sale for as little as $10. These mount in a doorframe and some models even double as a foot-lock for sit-ups or handles for doing push-ups without straining your wrists. While you could improve your grip strength and hang onto your door’s frame with your fingertips, a pull-up bar distributes the load to ensure that you won’t tear the entire wall down and provides a variety of grip options as well. If you’re serious about building a strong back, this is something to add to your arsenal of portable equipment.

Medicine Ball

The final piece of equipment that you might consider is a medicine ball. These are more expensive than the other tools that I listed, and a little less portable (it’s not as easy to simply sling one around in a carry-on bag, and I’m not sure what the security screeners would think of one). They do, however, provide the opportunity to work your muscles in a unique fashion. I will describe one specific exercise that can be performed, the squat jump, but you can use medicine balls to enhance flexibility and train explosively to improve upper arm and chest strength in a variety of ways.

There is additional gear that you might consider simply out of preference. There are special handles you can use to perform push-ups, wraps and gloves if you’ll be training in a hostile environment such as your grandfather’s gravel driveway, and ankle and wrist weights in case you’re not satisfied with having a leisurely run around the neighborhood and prefer a torturous expedition instead. I also like the little annoying grip handles that work your forearms, because on long drives you can squeeze these ad nauseam until the children fall asleep.

While I’m sure you’re excited to hear about the exercises that I have to share with you, we’re not quite ready yet. Every house is built on a firm foundation and I want to make sure that our program gets a solid start. I’ll be sharing some “portable” exercises with you, but in order to lay a foundation, let’s discuss how to incorporate these movements into your program.

Designing a Program

When designing a program, I like to consider frequency, sets, repetitions, tempo, and duration. Intensity, or how heavy the weight is going to be, isn’t as critical for these routines because we are limited in the amount of external weight that we can load (hey, we’re “on the go” and don’t have access to a gym!). I also believe in a full warm-up (including about 10 minutes of cardio) prior to training, in addition to stretches both before and after your lifts.

Frequency

The first factor to consider is frequency. How often should you train? If you’re on the road for only a short week then a few short yet intense workouts may suffice. If you are taking an extended trip or simply wish to add variety to your routine, then frequency becomes more important. While I’d love to say, “Train each muscle every 7 days” or “alternate upper and lower body every other day,” it’s just not as simple as that. Every person is different. If you were going to be skiing on your trip then I’d only work legs once per week (if at all).

If you are doing rock climbing then you might skip your vertical upper body movements like military presses and pull-downs. If you train to failure every workout then once or twice per week is going to be adequate in order to allow recovery. If, on the other hand, you are taking a more planned approach, you might consider starting out light and working towards an intense workout. Brian Haycock’s “hypertrophy-specific” system does just that – you train your entire body three days per week, but you start purposefully light and gradually increase your workload until you are at the threshold of failure.

Sets

You are going to perform exactly three (3) sets of every exercise, right? Does that include warm-ups, or not? In reality, this is another factor that can vary greatly. If you are planning on performing these routines explosively (in a fashion similar to plyometrics) then you might have a single warm-up set followed by a single work set.

Plyometrics are extremely damaging to your muscle tissue and not much volume is necessary to stimulate growth. If you are training to climb a mile high cliff face, on the other hand, then muscular endurance is going to be a critical factor. You should train several sets, maybe as much as 8 – 10, in order to prepare your body for the huge workload it is going to face on the mountainside.

Reps

Perform exactly 4 reps for strength, 10 reps for mass, and 15 reps for endurance, right? By now, you know I’m not a fan of cookie-cutter programs. You deserve what works best for you, and I apologize, but I don’t have the exact formula that will determine this. Do you find that you fatigue quickly when bench pressing? You might need fewer reps than the norm – maybe 8 reps will suffice for hypertrophy. Do you find that your shoulders seem to keep going, if you can just bite your tongue to take the pain of that lactic acid burn that makes your upper arms start shaking? Then your shoulders might be built for endurance, and you might be surprised to find that an 8-rep set induces the same strength gains that 4 reps do for your chest. Learn your body and train based on the feedback that it provides.

Tempo

Tempo is going to be a crucial factor when performing these exercises. In many cases, we simply don’t have the external weight that we would in a true gym. Therefore, we need to make one of several modifications. If your goal is strength, then you should perform these exercises explosively. By exploding and forcing acceleration as you exercise, you are enabling your central nervous system to become extremely efficient at coordinating motor units – in other words, it learns to flip on the intramuscular nitro and this translates to strength gains.

If your goal is hypertrophy or mass, then time under tension is the key – think about the last time you tried to impress your friends by bench-pressing all of the plates in the gym. It probably took about 5 seconds before you finally set the bar back down (and said, “Hey, look, it moved, I swear!”) and you felt sore the next day (despite not even finishing the rep!). This is due to your time under tension – you only attempted one rep, but you contracted for a full five seconds during that rep! When the external loading (i.e. weight) is less than you are used to, slow down the tempo to force the muscle to contract longer.

All of the factors we discussed – sets, reps, tempo, etc. – will determine the duration of your workouts. I like to keep workouts less than an hour. This means the actual “work” part – I don’t include warm-ups and stretching, but I don’t like lifting longer than an hour. If you have other activities such as cardio, you might consider splitting your routine into a morning and an afternoon. Remember, when training, we are pursuing the training effect. It is the training you perform today but more importantly the recovery you allow yourself tomorrow that ultimately provides the training effect. If your workouts are too long, then split them over several days. What type of split? Whatever works best – upper and lower, push and pull, or vertical, horizontal, quads, and hips.

About the author:

Jeremy Likness is a Certified Fitness Trainer and Specialist in Performance Nutrition. He is no stranger to fat loss, having lost over 65 pounds himself. He is the author of your guide to achieving the body you've always dreamed of - the real secrets of losing fat, gaining muscle, and looking like a Greek god or goddess through the power of personal development. Visit his site at Become The Journey to download your copy today!

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