Stay fit on your next vacation or work trip with this 30-minute hotel room workout.
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If you’re like me, going on vacation is either a week-long pass on exercise or it gives you anxiety trying to figure out how to stay strong and fit while staying in a hotel and eating out daily.
You can’t pack weights unless you plan on paying a fortune for baggage fees. You can’t pack a treadmill or an elliptical. And, you don’t want to be jumping all over in your room and disturbing the people below you.
But, you can pack resistance bands. They’re lightweight and compact; perfect for traveling. And resistance bands are a great way to build strength and get in a good workout while on vacation.
I designed this 30-minute hotel room workout to be low impact, still get your heart rate up, and also build some muscle while you’re at it. This is full-body workout. Now, there’s no excuse to not get in a workout while on vacation.
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What You Need to Get Started
This workout literally requires two things, and one of them is free. The first is an interval timer app. The one I use is IntervalTimer — yep, that’s the whole name.
The app is user-friendly, allows you to play music while you workout, and has a nice large display and alerts to let you know when an interval begins or is over.
The other things you are going to need is a set of resistance bands. I purchased this set on Amazon for around $10. Of course, I couldn’t resist the pink set. It comes with 5 different bands that range in resistance and are color-coded.
This set comes with a handy mesh bag that you can store your resistance bands in and travel with.
Setting Up Your Interval Timer
I’m going to walk you through how to set up your interval timer for this hotel room workout.
To create a new workout, click the plus button on the first screen. This will bring you to a new screen labeled “Add Routine”.
From here, you are going to name your workout, first. You can name it Hotel Room Workout or 30-Minute Interval Workout, or whatever you want.
Next, you are going to toggle the switch just below the name from Simple to Complex. Now, leave the Warm-Up Interval at 10 seconds. I have not included a warm-up with this exercise. But, I highly recommend you spend 3-5 minutes moving around. Swing your arms, bend your legs, and get your blood flowing.
Move down to Interval Cycle #1. Click on the little arrow next to where it shows the number of sets. Change this to 20. On the same screen, toggle the first interval from low to high. Our first interval after the 10-second warm-up (preparation period) will be a work interval.
Next, staying on the same screen, change the duration of the high-intensity interval to 20 seconds. Then, change the low-intensity interval to 10-seconds.
You are welcome to change the colors associated with the high and low intervals as well as the sound if you like.
Hit the back button in the upper left corner. Back on the previous screen, click the green plus sign that says ‘Add New Cycle’ two times for a total of 3 interval cycles in this workout.
Now, change the two interval cycles you just created to match the first one. They should each have 20 sets, start with a high interval, have the duration of the high-intensity interval set to 20 seconds, and the duration of the low-intensity interval set to 10 seconds.
Go back again. This time, click on Rest Time. It has a yellow dot next to it. This is the time you will be resting between interval cycles. Change this to 30 seconds. If you think you will need a longer rest, you are welcome to go up to a minute between interval cycles.
Finally, change the Cool Down time to 3-5 minutes. This is up to you. More stretching is never a bad thing. This part is done on your own, but I will provide some stretching ideas you can try at the end of this post.
With 3 minutes of cool down, this workout comes in at 34:10. It’s quick and get’s your body warm, working, and burning calories.
30-Minute Hotel Room Workout
This workout is a full-body workout and is set up like Tabata style training. You will do 20 minutes of work (an exercise) followed by 10 seconds of rest. Then, you will move on to a new exercise. After that, you will repeat the two exercises once more. This workout has an ABAB style format.
You will complete 5 different groups of 2 exercise in an ABAB format in the first interval cycle and then take a 30-second rest. Then you will move onto interval cycle #2, which has different exercises. After that, you will take another 30-second break before moving onto interval cycle #3, which is a repeat of interval cycle #1.
This workout is challenging, but it moves fast and it’s low impact. Feel free to modify the movements if needed. Remember, the goal is to finish. You get there however you need to, in good form.
Workout Structure
20-seconds of work followed by 10-seconds of rest in ABAB format.
The first interval cycle is all about strength. Still, your heart rate will get up pretty high with these short rest periods. The second interval cycle is all about low impact cardio. And them the third interval cycle is a repeat of interval cycle #1.
Check out the GIFs below for instructions on how to perform each of these exercises. And don’t forget to grab your Printable Copy of this workout below the exercise instructions.
Interval Cycle #1
- Resistance Band Deadlift
- Alternating Reverse Lunge
- Tricep Dips on a bed or chair
- Incline pushups on a bed or chair
- Resistance Band Clamshell, left
- Resistance Band Clamshell, right
- Inchworm
- Resistance Band Pull-Apart
- Flutter Kicks
- Russian Twist
Rest for 30 seconds
Interval Cycle #2
- High Knee March
- Side Step Skaters
- Corkscrew
- Static Squat + Punches
- Knee Thrust, left
- Knee Thrust, right
- Plank with Alternating Toe Tap
- Crab Walk Side to Side
- Alternating Plank Extension
- Alternating Uppercuts
Rest for 30 seconds
Interval Cycle #3
- Repeat Interval Cycle #1
How to Perform Each Exercise
**I have to apologize for my grumpy-ass face in these short GIF instructionals. I swear, I’m normally a happy bubbly person. Apparently, when I workout, I have some mean RBF.
Resistance Band Deadlift
Alternating Reverse Lunge
Tricep Dips
Incline Pushups
Resistance Band Clamshell
Inchworm
Resistance Band Pull-Apart
Flutter Kicks
Russian Twist
High Knee March
Side Step Skaters
Corkscrew
Static Squat + Punches
Knee Thrust
Plank with Alternating Toe Tap
Crab Walk Side to Side
Alternating Plank Extension
Alternating Uppercuts
Printable Hotel Room Workout
Snag the printable version of this full-body workout below for FREE. Fold it up and put it in your baggage before you head out on vacation.
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