Do you travel frequently? And, are you frustrated by how all this travel affects your exercise routine?

If so, then here are some suggestions:

First, pick up the book Fitness For Travelers - The Ultimate Workout Guide For The Road by Suzanne Schlosberg, in cooperation with the American Council on Exercise (www.ACEFitness.org). Schlosberg is a health and fitness writer and a frequent contributor to Shape magazine. But her most impressive credential (in my opinion) is that she has cycled across the country....twice!

I really like this book. It's comprehensive enough (191 pages) to cover lots of material, yet small enough to fit into a briefcase or purse. Schlosberg offers practical suggestions to typical obstacles such as:

• Not enough time to exercise: Possible solutions include exercising first thing in the morning, doing your work-related reading while riding an exercise bike, and, simply not cramming so much work into each day. Plan your day so that there is time for exercise.

• Jet lag: Jet lag can really make you feel lethargic. Here, the strategy is to plan your flights so that you arrive in your destination city in the early evening, if at all possible. Other strategies that help, according to Schlosberg, are to drink enough water, and to not start your trip sleep-deprived.

HOTELS WITH FITNESS CENTERS

According to Schlosberg, approximately 56% of US hotels now have fitness facilities; 79% for hotels with 250 or more rooms (Editorial note:  These stats were from 2002).

In 2006, Athletic-Minded Traveler released a list of the top hotel-based fitness centers.  They visited more than 3000 hotels and conducted anonymous tours.  Selection criteria included fitness size, equipment, work-out options (eg., lap pool, sport court, etc.), and atmosphere.  Their Top 10 selections are listed below:

1. Houstonian (Houston)
2. Park Hyatt at Bellevue (Philadelphia)
3. Four Seasons (San Francisco)
4. Embassy Suites Lakefront (Chicago)
5. Venetian (Las Vegas)
6. Bellevue Club (Bellevue, WA)
7. Inn at Ponte Vedra (Ponte Vedra Beach, FL)
8. Grand Hotel (Minneapolis)
9. JW Marriott (Orlando)
10. Ritz Carlton Boston Common (Boston)

As a follow-up to their best-selling book The Athletic-Minded Traveler, Jim Kaese and Paul Huddle launched www.AthleticMindedTraveler.com. On this web site, you can find health clubs, fitness-oriented hotels, running routes, etc., in various US cities.

The relatively new site FitHotelDirectory.com provides a database of roughly 100 hotels in the US that have fitness centers (as of December 2007).  Obviously, that's not a very large database.  The site charges each hotel $299/yr to post its info on the site.

THERE'S NO GYM IN MY HOTEL!

What do you do if your hotel doesn't have a fitness room? This should never be an excuse for not exercising.  If the hotel has a pool, you can do laps....assuming it is big enough. Or, consider using the pool for aquatic exercises. For example, running in chest-deep water is a tremendous work-out. You can also do Tai-Chi, or more vigorous martial arts moves in a pool.

If you find yourself in a hotel with no facilities, then grab the yellow pages: according to a marketing study by The Active Network, there were 29,096 health clubs in the US in 2006. Many health clubs now allow individual visits from non-members for a small fee.  Several outstanding web sites for finding health clubs are listed at the end of this review.

Work Out In Your Hotel Room

If you don't feel like commuting to an unknown gym, work out in your room.  Here are some suggestions:

• Bring some exercise gear with you (see below), such as a jump rope, springs, or exercise bands. Even without exercise gear, you can always do push-ups, crunches, squats, and flexibility and stretching exercises in your room.

• Do you have a back-pack? You can stuff bottles of water or heavy books inside it to increase the load when you do squats or push-ups.

• For dips, you could use the seats of 2 chairs, or even the edge of the bed for this, too.

• For weights, ask the kitchen for some empty plastic jugs. You can fill them with water. If it's a gallon jug with a handle, you can use this as a dumbell. For smaller bottles, stuff several of them into a plastic bag with handles to create enough weight. One liter of water weighs 2.2 lbs. One gallon of water weighs 8.3 lbs.

• Ask the hotel concierge if they can provide a personal trainer. The trainer can bring some work-out gear and/or give you a personal session.

• If you like running on a track, find out if there is a high school or college campus near by.

• Finally, you can always walk. You can walk outside, or, in your hotel, you can walk the stairs. In the airport, walk up and down your concourse until your flight begins boarding.

FITNESS GEAR FOR TRAVELERS

Bringing some fitness gear with you may help motivate you when you may not feel like exercising. Schlosberg lists some gear that any traveler can bring with them:

• quick-dry clothing, and your running shoes, or other shoes you workout in
• a small gym bag for sweaty clothes
• fitness bands
• a pedometer
• a portable music device like an iPod
• a lock

Lebert Fitness markets a really cool product that enables you to do a wide variety of resistance exercises: it's called the "Lebert Buddy System." Even though it is designed to be used by 2 people, it's possible that you could anchor it to a doorknob and use it to perform exercises that can't be achieved with simple resistance bands. (If you use it alone, just make sure it doesn't slip off the doorknob or anchor point!) This simple nylon band with handles allows you to perform dozens of exercises.  And, it's small enough to throw in your luggage.  To see a 9-minute video on this, go to: YouTube.com. 

WEB SITES FOR FITNESS-MINDED TRAVELERS

•www.24HourFitness.com has a nifty map of the US showing the locations of their clubs in 16 states, most of which are west of the Mississippi.

•www.HealthClubs.com is a web site maintained by IHRSA. This web site has a club-finder feature, though it only lists clubs that participate in the IHRSA Passport Program.

•If you want to find a place to swim, even if it's in a hotel or public park, then check out www.SwimmersGuide.com. This site has a mind-boggling database of swimming pools around the world.

•www.YMCA.net is the web site for the YMCA.

• American Council on Exercise (ACE): www.ACEFitness.org.
• Get Active America (supported by IHRSA): www.GetActiveAmerica.com.
  

In summary, there's absolutely no excuse for not exercising while on the road. All you need is some imagination and a little planning. Just remember to not pack your daily schedule so full that you have to cheat yourself on sleep to find the time to exercise.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Books for Travelers

•Schlosberg's Fitness For Travelers - The Ultimate Workout Guide For The Road provides exercise routines for aquatic exercise, climbing the hotel stairs, and even rope jumping. It contains dozens of photos showing various exercises. It was published in 2002 by Houghton Mifflin (www.HoughtonMifflinBooks.com).

•Eating On The Run by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD, packs a ton of information on hotels and fast-food franchises into 216 pages.

•Get With The Program Guide To Fast Food & Family Restaurants is written by Bob Greene, an exercise physiologist and Oprah Winfrey's personal trainer. This book contains detailed information on fast food franchises in the US and is small enough to keep in your briefcase or purse.

These and other books are reviewed in our Book Reviews section.

Readers may also be interested in these reviews:

• Exercise Motivation
• How To Choose A Gym
• Neighborhood Exercise

PERSONALIZED FITNESS and WELLNESS COUNSELING

If you'd like some help designing your personal fitness program, or have questions regarding exercise, or simply want some regular motivation, sign-up for our Fitness Counseling Service. It may be the best investment in your health that you'll ever make.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stan Reents, PharmD, is a former healthcare professional. He holds Personal Trainer and Lifestyle Counselor certifications from the American Council on Exercise and has been certified as a tennis coach by USTA. He is the author of Sport and Exercise Pharmacology (published by Human Kinetics).  He can be reached at: Editor@athleteinme.com.