bench exercises

Hotel Gym Workouts - Bench Burner

As someone who travels 5-6 months out of the year for work,  I've seen the full spectrum of hotel gyms. 

I've been in a 6x6 room with just a treadmill and elliptical and I've also been in massive fitness centers with rowers, pools, medicine balls, spin bikes, sliders and resistance bands. 

Is it frustrating to be trapped at a hotel with a shitty gym for 2 weeks? Absolutely. But it's also a fun challenge to come up with creative workouts that use minimal equipment in unconventional ways. 

I'm lucky that I have some great friends/coworkers and when we join our fitness minds together, we can come up with some killer workouts! 

Now I actually look forward to developing these workouts. I write them up the night before so that I don't have to think about anything in the morning. Just need to get up and get it done. 

Here's one that Sabrina and I collaborated on in Annapolis - using just a bench for a total body workout! You don't even need weights to get in a major sweat - but there's always the option to add dumbbells if you want to many of these exercises.

  1. Hands Elevated Mountain Climbers (example)
  2. Hands Elevated Push-Up (example)
  3. Shoulders Elevated Hamstring Walk (example
  4. Feet Elevated Donkey Kick (example)
  5. Plyo Pushup to Plank Transfer (example)
  6. Hands Elevated Burpee (example)
  7. Bench Squat Sit Jumps (example)
  8. Split Squats (example) *add a hop at the top if you're feeling crazy (example)!
  9. Feet Elevated Push-Up (example)
  10. Feet Elevated Mountain Climbers (example)
  11. Step Ups (example
  12. Tricep Dips (example) *IT ME!
  13. Reverse Crunch (example)

There are a number of ways to structure the workout. Personally, I did each exercise for 10 reps and went through the circuit 4X. You could also do: 

Exercise #1 for :30, Rest :10 - Repeat 4X
Exercise #2 for :30, Rest :10 - Repeat 4X
Etc. through Exercise #13

Or: 

Exercise #1 for :30, Rest :10  
Exercise #2 for :30, Rest :10
Exercise #3 for :30, Rest :10
All the way through Exercise #13, then repeat 4X 

The options are endless! 

The hope is that one day I'll figure out how to photograph/film these workouts so that I don't have to use examples from the most random sources on the internet! But until then...this is the best I can do. 

If you want some more difficult bench exercises - watch this video from Men's Health that showcases 57 bench exercises! A lot of them are in this workout - but there are also a number that I was a little intimidated to attempt. 

What's your favorite exercise using the bench? Let me know in the comments!

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