Look what I found at the Holiday Inn in New Jersey:
A jump rope! Amazing, right?! So fun.
Jump ropes bring me right back to elementary school where my friends and I would jump rope to the teddy bear song during recess. Sometimes we would attempt to double-dutch. It wasn’t pretty, but it was still pretty awesome. My proudest jump rope moment occurred during my most dreaded day of the year: track and field day.
As a chubby, uncoordinated kid who was neither athletic nor competitive it was the worst. I loathed track and field day, an annual event where all the area parochial schools would gather to compete in running, jumping, and throwing events. I signed up for the fewest and easiest events possible. I couldn’t long jump, high jump, sprint, or shut put. I’d probably kill myself trying to do hurdles. But, jump rope?! Heck yeah. It was my saving grace. One year (fourth grade, perhaps?) I won third place in jump rope. THIRD PLACE. I was overjoyed!! New best day of my life! Who cares that it was a white ribbon and probably only 4 or 5 other people competed. I won a ribbon at track and field day. And that is all that matters.
Therefore, jump rope will always and forever hold a special place in my heart.
Looking back I find it hilarious that I despised track and field day so much. Now-a-days I would love to get an afternoon off from work to exercise and run around with my friends in the sun. Let’s bring these competitions to corporate America!
Man oh man, I have come a long way.
Now back to present day, where I have been in Vineland, NJ all week for work. When I am travelling for work and eating out for all my meals – side note: I had the best Philly cheese steak yesterday – a good workout is an absolute must, so hotel gyms are very important to me. Hotel breakfasts are also very important to me, but that is an entirely different blog post.
Hotel gyms can be pretty hit and miss.Sometimes they are phenomenal (the Hampton Inn in Buffalo, NY) and sometimes they are terrible (the Drury Inn in Nashville, TN). I can at least count on having a low quality treadmill and some free weights in a small, sweaty room. That is ok. I can work with that… temporarily.
The Holiday Inn in Vineland falls on the mid-to-lower end of the spectrum; however it has a jump rope – a rare hotel gym amenity – so it gets bonus points. This gym is providing me with the essentials I need to get a good workout, helping me to burn off those delicious doughnuts the Logistics Manager brought in for the team today.
I actually did have a great workout so I thought I would share it with you. Here it is:
A pictorial reference of the strength training circuit:
The great thing about this workout is that it can be modified to do without any weights or equipment. If a jump rope is not available to you, you can easily substitute that part of the workout with a combination of jumping jacks and star jumps. This can also be done pretty much anywhere:
- Your gym – the fully loaded version or the dumpy hotel version
- Your living room – assuming you don’t have people living below you, which is the reason I do not own a jump rope at this time
- Your hotel room – if you don’t feel like venturing to the hotel gym to get sweaty with all the middle-aged business men
- Outside – to enjoy a workout and some fresh spring air
I added in 15 minutes of interval running on the treadmill (2.5 minutes at 7.0 mph, ten rounds of 30 seconds at 9.0 mph + 30 seconds at 5.0 mph, 2.5 minutes at 7.0 mph) between the warm up and the circuit. Like I mentioned, I ate a delicious cheese steak and doughnut so the intervals were pretty necessary. Even without the additional running it was a great cardio workout. The combination of the exercises, minimal rest between moves, and the jump rope kept my heart rate up between zones 2 and 3 the entire time.
Feel free to ask if you have any questions about the workout. If you do it, let me know how it goes!
PS – HAPPY MAY DAY!