Today, I was on a different flight than usual and didn’t need to be out the door to the airport until 6:30am. Bliss! To a consultant, that’s like the equivalent of sleeping till noon on a weekend 🙂 Of course, for me, that meant something more than just extra sleep (and is it really extra when you’re working till midnight anyway?) – it meant that if I planned carefully, I could hit the gym for a very quick workout before heading out.
My gym opens at 5:45am, so I was going to have to time this carefully. I made sure I was 100% packed the night before, and had my Monday outfit already ironed and hanging on my closet door. I showered the night before, and while I’ve lately gotten in the habit of doing my nailes on Monday mornings before I dash out the door, I did them the night before. No extraneous stuff in the morning!
I was at the gym at 5:40am, doing wall pushups outside the door as I waited for the employee to open up the gym. Once inside, it was tabata time! First, I did bicep curls – both arms simultaneously, 8 pounds each. About halfway through, I traded down to 5 pounders – but boy, that was still enough to keep my heart pumping and make me sweat!
Next, the most important equipment at my apartment gym: the assisted pullup machine. A lot of hardcore exercise programs emphasize pullups, but my hotel gym doesn’t have an assisted pullup machine or even a bar from which to do pullups… and the shower bar doesn’t seem too sturdy (yes, I’ve checked it out). So home is my only time to do pullups! If anyone has any other improv suggestions for pullups, I’m all ears.
And man, do I need work on pullups! In order to get through the set (10 intervals of 20 secs on, 10 off – usually managing about 10-13 reps per set), I had to set the assistance to be pretty high – level 17, which meant I was only “pulling up” about 32 pounds of my body weight. Weak sauce! I definitely need to work on this or there’s no way I’ll ever be able to give either P90X or Crossfit a go in January.
Finally, I finished off my workout with a two arm dumbbell bent over row – 8 pounds in each hand. I think I probably could have gone up to more weight (and will give it a try next time) to really kick my butt, but it still gave me a good burn. And with about 100 reps across all the sets, light is okay!
After those three sets, that was unfortunately I had time for. Time to dash back upstairs to get ready! Everything was going without a hitch until it came time to grab my stuff and head out the door. I had three library books to return, while also juggling my rollerboard and my laptop bag. Since I’d be settling into a cab in just a few minutes, I didn’t sling the strap over my shoulder, but instead attempted to just loop the handles over my forearm and carry the books in the same arm, while pulling my rollerboard behind me. No go – in fact, I couldn’t pick up my laptop bag without using two hands! I ended up slinging the shoulder strap on after all, but couldn’t believe how sore I was to not be able to hold three (hardcover) library books and a laptop bag.
I’ll say it again: tabatas rock!
***Anyone in the DC area interested in joining me for a mini meetup to watch the Biggest Loser season finale tomorrow night? Drop me a line at laura at 50by25 dot com and I’ll provide details.***
Get a Kindle – if you travel a lot and like reading, it will IMMEDIATELY pay itself back (only $140 now for the wifi version, $180 or so for 3G).
Re: pullups: yes, definitely you need a solid bar (there sometimes is something in a hotel gym that you can use, but not always – but it is a good transitional thing to use something like a squat bar at waist height, body diagonal, so that you’re getting an assist that way instead). If you do pushups and some chest and shoulder stuff, that is much better than nothing…