Working away from home can cause real disruptions to your workout routine. Even if you are staying in a hotel with a gym on site, there is all the uncertainty that comes from not knowing the equipment or, in the case of many hotel gyms, finding it is far too small to serve the people who want to use it.
All too often the advertised ‘state of the art gym’ turns out to be a tiny room in the basement with just a few hand weights and a very worn-out static cycle.
The best way to cope with this is to plan for a new routine to suit your surroundings. Accept that you will not be able to follow your usual fitness programme and see it as a chance to try something new. Quite often, a break from routine is a chance for niggling injuries to repair or for previously neglected muscle groups to be discovered and exercised.
One of the best spaces I have discovered recently is a roof top on a hotel in London. The surface is an artificial one and there are several benches scattered across the roof top. The area is big enough for a jogging warm up, and then a circuit of burpees, tricep dips, squats, press-ups, step-ups and a heap of other exercises offers a fantastic workout. And it is all carried out with a view across the capital.
Finding a local park is also the solution to the lack of gym facility. On your first day of your work trip put your running kit on or go for a walk and explore the local area. You will usually find a space that immediately offers exercise potential. Here are just a few ideas.
A grassy area can be used for a circuit including shuttle runs, lunges, deep squats, press-ups, star jumps.
A bench can be utilised for step-ups, two-footed jumps, tri cep dips or press-ups at an angle.
A climbing frame in a playground can provide a bar for pull-ups or obstacles to jump over.
The same climbing frame can be used for an all over work out as you climb up the side and down for a number of repetitions.
A quiet patch of grass provides the perfect place for a yoga session.
Many cities and towns have outdoor gym equipment in some parks. While these can sometimes be worn or vandalised, there are also some really good ones, so this is an option worth looking at. 
Designing and using a circuit using the environment around you is a fun way to keep up with your exercise and offer your body a different and rewarding challenge.
