S06E115 Hotel and Travel Workouts

In this casual episode of Botox and Burpees, Dr. Sam Rhee shares insights and experiences on maintaining fitness while traveling. Drawing from 14 years of CrossFit experience, he offers practical advice on balancing workouts with the challenges of travel.

The episode includes tips on adapting gym workouts, being open to new fitness opportunities, and four specific travel-friendly WODs (Workouts of the Day): an adapted Outlast WOD, a go-to Tabata workout, the intense 'Hotel Hell', and the classic 'Cindy'. The host also emphasizes the importance of being kind to oneself and adapting workouts to suit the limitations of travel. Listeners are encouraged to share their own travel workout experiences.

#TravelFit #AdventureWorkout #HotelGym #FitnessOnTheGo #CrossFitTravel #TravelerFitness #WorkoutAnywhere #StayActive #ExploreAndExercise #BotoxAndBurpees

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TRANSCRIPT S06E115 Hotel and Travel Workouts

[00:00:00]

Hi, welcome to another episode of Botox and Burpees. This is a pretty casual episode. It's me talking about hotel and travel WODs. Um, If you've been traveling, you know that it's pretty hard sometimes to exercise.

So let's talk a little bit about what it's like to travel and then to also try to exercise at the same time. Um, I know that over the past 14 years of CrossFit. Um, I have traveled quite a bit and I've also tried to work out at the same time. Um, I've, uh, there are a couple workouts that I really like, which I'll talk about, and then I'll also give some advice about, uh, some tips and tricks I've learned about working out.

While you're on the road? Um, probably the first thing I would say is I try not to be too hard on myself when I'm traveling. Usually I am not at my physical peak, um, with jet lag, lack of sleep, all the [00:01:00] activities I'm usually doing if I'm on vacation or if I'm working abroad. And so I think the biggest thing really is to give yourself grace when you're working out, uh, abroad.

Don't. Don't try to do too much. Um, don't almost die like I did. Uh, when I was, uh, on a recent trip, I did a really heavy workout at the hotel gym, and then we went snorkeling and I. Basically almost drowned. My legs were so tired from the workout and I didn't realize just how wiped I was, that I was dog paddling and sucking water through my snorkel, like nobody's business.

And if it wasn't for another boat that was pretty close, it would've been scary. So, make sure that when you do work out, you're not killing yourself in the process. It's really just to make sure you're, not maximizing your fitness, but just maintaining your fitness. Other tips I would say is try to be open to new opportunities [00:02:00] when you're traveling.

If you can go to a nearby CrossFit gym, that's great. I've done that quite a bit. Some gyms are great, some are not so great. It's always an interesting experience. It's a little scary, I have to admit, going to a new gym. I remember going to one in Dubai. I almost, uh, literally left the neighborhood.

I I got dropped off by the Uber and it was a kind of sketchy little sort of auto repair, district and I didn't even know if I should go into the building. It was so sketchy. And then I ended up going, no one was nice. I still thought about leaving. I ended up staying and I got a good workout in.

So at the end of the day, just roll with it, see what you can get out of it. I think, at the end of the day. I was glad that I did that, and you probably will too. You can try, different things. On this last trip I did some mat Pilates classes with my daughter, which weren't, one of them wasn't so bad, one of 'em was really bad.

Um, I would just say don't [00:03:00] try anything really unusual or something overly strenuous where you could be injured. Um, you know, but if they have some sort of hotel offering, um, in the morning, you might just try it. Maybe it's a yoga class, maybe it's some sort of, uh, other body weight type of motion class.

Um, maybe it's meditation, like, you know, be open and, uh, you never know. You might find something that you might really like. Um, the other thing is, is that when you do work out at hotel gyms or non CrossFit gyms, just be aware that you might get some stares. You might like that you might not.

Some people, um, have asked me what I'm doing. Others really don't like when someone looks crazy working out in the gym, when they're working out and doing their treadmill or, you know, whatever. Um. I would say don't drop dumbbells. Don't be noisy. Um, no grunting. Uh, just be mindful for others. I'm always really careful to try to pick [00:04:00] workouts where I'm not taking over like 15 areas. And um, and then I also try to really make sure I clean up, wipe everything down 'cause I'm usually sweating all over the place. Uh, so, if you are uh, a good citizen, probably you'll, you'll do just fine. So, um, let's talk about the four workouts that I did while I was on vacation over the holidays.

You know, you could probably, if you've CrossFit for a while, adapt any workout to what you do, like where you are. And, um, sooner or later you kind of figure out whatever you want to do, you can always Google and figure out something that sort of fits your needs. Um, so the first workout I'm gonna talk about was actually an outlast WOD.

It was one that, was recently programmed at our gym, Outlast Fitness. Um, and it was. A very simple workout. It was five to six sets, five double dumbbell dead lifts,

four double Dumbbell hang cleans, three double dumbbell [00:05:00] shoulder to overhead, and that whole complex needed to be unbroken. So five dead lifts,

four hang cleans,

three shoulder to Overheads, and then it was, uh, one minute machine of choice. So I adapted this because actually the hotel I was at had a lifting platform and I said, you know what? Let me just use a barbell instead for this. Um, probably a mistake because barbell was so rusty, it barely turned. It was like breaking my wrist as I was doing it. Um, so I went very light.

Uh, I went 95 pounds and then, there were some people on the machines, like there was actually a concept two rower and some treadmills and a, a bike. But instead I just, you know, did a couple burpees in place because, you know, I didn't wanna keep running over to the machine five or six times and interrupt people.

So it was totally fine and it got me a quick workout. I didn't, it was an untimed workout, so I didn't have to do it for time. I just [00:06:00] did it as I felt and. Got me through that day, right? So if you want, take any workout that, is at your gym, fit it to what you think you want to do and what's available, and that probably will work just fine.

The second workout I'm gonna talk about is one that I almost always do when I travel. It's a go-to, workout. I can only do it once when I travel. If you ask me to do it a second time during the week, I will not do it. But I will always do it at least once if I'm traveling somewhere and it's a Tabata. Tabatas are definitely great workouts.

They add some urgency to your workout when you don't feel very motivated. And if you know what a Tabata is, it's basically 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, and you just populate it with a bunch of movements that you want. So a typical Tabata for me has five movements. I'll do, for example, hang dumbbell snatches for one, burpees for two, pushups for three, situps for four, [00:07:00] and maybe like a dumbbell thruster or shoulder press with dumbbells for five. So if you do eight rounds of that, it's two minutes and 30 seconds for that total cycle. If you do five movements and you repeat that eight times, you'll get a total workout of about 20 minutes, which is more than enough, like you might not think

20 on 10 seconds is much, but when you get to round three or four, you're, you're dying. Like it's a lot. And the great thing about a Tabata is that you are moving at your own pace, but it's only for 20 seconds. So you do feel like you can push the intensity each time and you can substitute any movement you want.

I've done jump rope, I've done lunges. I usually try to put some sort of dumbbell stuff because usually hotels have dumbbells, but you could do straight body weight if you want. So pretty much anything you want, you could put in there and into a Tabata setting and it would work great for you.

If you wanna make it really horrible, you could do six [00:08:00] movements, and eight cycles would get you 24 minutes. I've tried that. That is too much for me. Usually 20 minutes is enough. But maybe you're feeling awesome on a particular day and you wanna really push it. So I always try to put a core movement in a shoulder movement, a head to toe, like, um, full body, like a thruster or goblet squat type movement.

And some sort of, press movement. So, uh, whatever works for you, have at it. You can be super creative. Like I said, just don't ask me to do it twice. In a week.

The next workout I'm gonna talk about, I've only done a couple times when I'm traveling just because it's so crazy bad. And this is hotel hell.

Um, you probably might know it if you're an og CrossFitter, uh, Chris Spealer and Jason Khalipa did it in 2011. I will include the YouTube link in the notes because it is such an awesome video. They're literally in a hotel gym like [00:09:00] Holiday Inn or something with a bunch of, um, treadmills and, you know, stuff like that.

And they, they do this workout and Khalipa basically just gets destroyed. The Rx version is a hundred squat clean thrusters. So clusters, right? Um, every minute on the minute, starting with the first minute at minute zero five burpees. So the RX is 2 35 dumbbells, or 25 dumbbells for the women.

And this is no joke, like the worst. Um, you'll do like the first two or three minutes and get a, a ton of reps out, like maybe 20 to 30 or four, you know, even 40. And you'll feel like, okay, I can get this done super fast. And then you'll hit a wall somewhere and just. Every, every minute just you start doing fewer thrusters and doing more burpees, and it just feels like you're going downhill quick.

Um, for me, I modified this one. I [00:10:00] usually, uh, I did do it as written. Um, back in, I actually wrote it down, it was very funny, in 2022, and that was 1847. And that was probably one of the worst travel workouts I've ever done in my life. And also people were staring at me because it was not, um. I looked like I looked a sight for sure.

Um, this time I modified it. I did, uh, three burpees instead of five, and I did thrusters not hang clean thrusters. So it was a little bit easier. And I got this finished around 11 minutes. Still pretty rough. Um, but I really felt like when I was done that I got some real fitnessing in and I could go about the rest of my day, you know, doing my tours or whatever and, and not feel like I didn't put some effort in. So, um, definitely check that, uh, video out. I think, uh, hotel hell is definitely great. Uh, if you want, some pain in a quick, in a quick sub 20 type of workout. [00:11:00] Alright, the last one, um, I'm gonna talk about is Cindy.

Um, I actually recorded a quick video when I was traveling this past couple weeks, um, as soon as I was done doing the workout. So I will include that video right now and here you go. You can watch that me talking about Cindy as soon as I was, uh, as soon as I was done with it.

Hi everyone. The next workout is one that I just did. It is of course the classic Cindy 20 minute amrap five pullups, 10 pushups, 15 air squats. Uh, this one you can do anywhere. Obviously you don't need anything other than a pull-up bar. Uh, fortunately I am at a hotel gym that has, a pull up bar, which is actually part of their lift cage.

Uh, fortunately there wasn't anyone around using the lift cage, so I was able to just sit here in the middle of the cage and do my pull up, uh, pushups, air [00:12:00] squats, it is pretty shoulder heavy, so you may obviously sub whatever you want instead, of the movements that are listed, sometimes I will sub v ups.

For pullups or for the pushups, depending on how my shoulder feels. Uh, today I felt pretty good. So I just did five strict pullups and then the 10 pushups as well as the 15 air squats. Um, I always start slow, especially since I usually don't warm up and I did, uh, 14 rounds. Um, it got real slow somewhere in the, uh, 10 to 15 minute range.

Even though I'm pretty decent at pull-ups for the most part. I usually, think of the air squats as the rest part of it, and I always try to make sure that my pullup form and, uh, pushup form are good. I always try to think about touching my chest and my thighs down together, as well as coming back up. So I'm not trying to flex my hips [00:13:00] on the pushups or, try to shimmy the pull-ups, as, uh, many of us do when we get tired.

Coach Bobby always says it's all right to use a little bit of body English, uh, up at the top. I try not to only because I know if I start using a little body English a little becomes a lot after a certain amount of time for me.

Most people will find a decent pace for this one and stick with it.

Obviously, it's very easy to go out too hot. I know it's just the beginning of the year, but it's never too early to think about Murph in a couple months. It's always a nice one to knock out. Doesn't take up much space. And like I said, you can sub in anything else you want. If you wanna do lunges instead of air squats.

If you want to do, um, step up, whatever works for you. I think, uh, it's a great simple workout. Knock it out in 20 minutes. And then if you feel like you have to do anything else, go for it. I think it just sh goes to show that with CrossFit, you don't really need weights. A lot of times when I go to a hotel, I feel pissed off if they don't have dumbbells or at least something.

And this is something that you [00:14:00] literally don't need anything. And, uh, sometimes when you travel, that's, that's exactly what you need.

Okay, so those are the travel WODs and hotel WODs in a nutshell. Um, I have been in places literally where I had nothing but my hotel floor and I still was able to get a workout. I've also been in places where there's a lot of fancy stuff. Um, I feel like the longer you've crossfitted, the more you feel confident that you'll be able to get a workout if you really want to.

Just about anywhere like. Anywhere. It doesn't matter where you are. Um, I know a lot of you have awesome travel WODS and have a lot of experiences traveling and doing workouts, so please share yours with me. Um, I'd like to hear about your experiences traveling and working out. Um, please message me on Instagram @BotoxAndBurpeesPodcast, or leave a comment on my YouTube channel [00:15:00] @BotoxAndBurpees. Uh, look forward to hearing from you in terms of what you like to do when you travel. Um, other than just drink a lot of frozen margaritas. And, uh, thanks very much. Until next time.