The Go-Anywhere Workout

Sometimes you’re on the road, traveling, visiting relatives, on vacation, etc… and you need a workout that can go anywhere. This one’s for you.

While there are many ways to carry a workout with you (TRX, adjustable weights, bands, etc), I want to focus on one piece of equipment that everyone has: your body. Bodyweight exercises can be performed in parks, parking lots, and, heck, parking spaces. You can do them at home, in a hotel room, or on a stoop.

This is a quick, 30-minute(ish) workout meant for people on the move.

To work the most muscle and/or burn the most fat, you’ll want to focus on compound, multi-joint movements. A significant amount of our musculature attaches to the shoulders, hips, and core, and so those should be our focus.

Bodyweight Core

Almost all the exercises listed in my Complete Core article can be done with just your bodyweight, and I recommend it here. A plank, a superman, and a set of Russian twists should serve as a suitable core circuit. I recommend performing the exercises back to back for as long as you can on a timer (up to 90 seconds each). I also recommend performing the core circuit once at the beginning and once at the end of the workout. If you want to extend the workout to 45(ish) minutes, do another circuit in the middle.

The plank is a great way to strengthen and stabilize your core. On your elbows (and the balls of your feet; or, possibly, your knees), lift your head and chest, engage your whole core, and…stay there. With good posture and purposeful core engagement, you’re already doing the exercise, now you just have to maintain that for as long as you can. If you’re hitting 90 seconds or longer, I recommend advancing the plank by incorporating more instability. 

To perform a superman: lie face-down on a mat or flat surface, and lift your chest, head, and arms off the ground. Engage your lower back muscles (erector spinae) and the muscles between your shoulder blades. Using your glutes and hip muscles, lift your legs off the ground, as well. Much like a plank, all you have to do now is maintain this position!

Russian twists are also pretty simple. Lie flat down on the floor. Now, lift your upper and lower body and balance on your tailbone. Your core may already activate just holding this position and that’s fine. I have had several clients start advancing this exercise by merely holding the starting position for as long as they can. When possible, however, you will begin to rotate from one side to the other, using your hands to mark rotations if you desire. Again, it’s important to focus on the movement as a rotational one so as to cue the appropriate core muscles.

Lower Body Exercises

The great thing about lower body exercises is that they demand a lot of muscular strength and energy, making them perfect for a quick, efficient workout. The muscles around the hips are the largest in the body, meaning they demand the most metabolically. Plus, lower body strength remains important from age one until age one hundred. Key to our go-anywhere workout are the squat, lunge, and hip raise.

The fundamental lower body exercise is the squat, exercise emperor. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart(ish), and with toes turned slightly out. (The stance may need adjustment based on your personal needs.) Now, with your core engaged and chest up, start the movement from the hip, hinging your weight backwards and downward, lowering yourself in a sitting motion. Anchor your weight in your heels and lead the movement with your hips to avoid unnecessary pressure on your knees. At the bottom of the movement, pause for a very brief moment, then press yourself through your heels back to a standing position.

Another strong lower body exercise using bodyweight is the lunge. To do the lunge, stand with feet at a comfortable stance. Take a long stride forward, planting your weight in your heel, and lower yourself toward the ground. When your thigh intersects your hip at around ninety degrees, pause, then push yourself back to the starting position.

As an easy modification, lunges can be upgraded to walking lunges. After you reach the bottom of the motion and pause, push through your heel to step forward, and then lunge with the opposite leg.

Lastly, to strengthen the posterior chain, I recommend hip raises/bridges. Lying on your back, position your feet outside of hip-width. Pushing through your heels, lift your pelvis upward. When your hips are fully extended, pause with your muscles engaged, then lower yourself back to the starting position.

Upper Body

Without equipment, your best option for upper body exercises is the push-up and its many variants. The good news is: they’re easy to learn.

The basic push-up starts in a planked position (facing down, core engaged, chest up, posture aligned), with hands placed outside of shoulder width, palms down. By focusing on shoulder control, we can also incorporate the muscles supporting our shoulders and scapula—retract your shoulder blades (pull your shoulders away from your ears), and squeeze your shoulder blades together as you slowly lower yourself to the bottom of the motion. As you push yourself back to the starting position, focus on engaging your pectoral muscles. Voila!

To emphasize triceps activity, place your hands closer together in a diamond-like shape. To make the exercise more difficult, put your feet on an elevated surface and perform declined push-ups. If you want to incorporate more full-body and core activity, spiderman or walking push-ups are the way to go.

BONUS: Pull-Ups?

If you have access to an appropriately-sized tree limb or other stable bar-like structure, you may be able to perform pull-ups. Stand beneath the bar or bar-like structure, engage your core, and lift your chest. Look up at the bar and grab it with hands shoulder-width or farther apart. Retract your shoulder blades, brace yourself, and pull your collarbone toward the bar. Pause briefly at the top of the motion and slowly reset.

Bodyweight Cardio

The easiest bodyweight cardio is running. With only a pair of sneakers and an app, you can clock a run just about anywhere. Other forms of bodyweight cardio include jumping jacks, general plyometrics, swimming, biking, etc. Since we’re not specifically talking about plyometrics in this article, I recommend either running or jumping jacks. For the purposes of the below workout, feel free to substitute “jumping jacks” for jumping rope, jump squats, plyometrics, etc. You can also skip this part if you’ve already gone running today. I don’t advise skipping the cardio component if you haven’t, however, as it’s pretty easy to “forget” about running after the main workout is finished.

A quick workout!

To keep things challenging, I’ve assembled a high intensity bodyweight exercise below. You can take this with you anywhere!

Plank, 30-90 seconds

Superman, 30-90 seconds

Russian twist, 30-90 seconds

Squats, 20 reps

Push-ups, 20 reps

Lunges, 20 reps

Hip raises, 20 reps

Jumping Jacks, 20 reps

(pause, water, catch breath; ~30-60 seconds)

Squats, 20 reps

Push-ups, 20 reps

Lunges, 20 reps

Hip raises, 20 reps

Jumping Jacks, 20 reps

(pause, water, catch breath; ~30-60 seconds)

Plank, 30-90 seconds

Superman, 30-90 seconds

Russian twist, 30-90 seconds

Stretch, 5 minutes.

As always: safety first, practice good technique, and don’t give up. You can do it!