A Simple & Effective Hotel Yoga Practice to Make Travel, Especially for Work, 10x Better
Over the past six years, there has been a LOT of work travel in my life. In the fall, I’m often in another state every few weeks.
In the summer, there’s an out-of-state event about once a month. All this time on the road has led me to develop a simple and effective “hotel” yoga practice.
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Work travel — any travel?? — can be STRESSFUL. And as I’ve learned to travel, I’ve also learned that I don’t want to take a break from yoga. I always try to take at least one class everywhere I go, location and schedule permitting.
If I have a long layover in one of these airports, I’ll try to pay a visit to their yoga space. But when the nearest studio is a forty-five minute drive from the hotel or the work day starts before seven and ends after nine, that ain’t gonna happen.
Enter: Hotel Yoga Practice
Its name is exactly what it is: yoga…in a hotel room or hotel gym. Nothing complicated there.
But this is a practice that I love and that I need. It continues to make me a better traveler and also better at my job.
Hotel Upavistha Konasana
At first, a hotel yoga practice honestly felt kind of dumb and just…fake. Is it REAL yoga if it’s not in a well-lit, heated studio? No teacher? No inspiring Buddha quotes?
Of course it’s real yoga.
But even though we might be taught that the practice space doesn’t actually matter, we’re nevertheless conditioned to think that “real” yoga can only happen in beautiful studios.
To be clear: I absolutely love practicing in these spaces. BUT. When they’re unavailable, you gotta get creative.
Permission to Do What You Can
- Whatever you can do? However long the practice? It counts as yoga.
- When I’m on work travel, my practice almost never looks like what I first thought yoga should look or feel like. This is OKAY.
- You don’t have to have a mat.
- Three years ago, I did lug my Manduka BlackMat Pro — it’s the best — to every destination, but it felt like a bag of rocks.
- Two years ago, I learned that a slightly fuzzier hotel towel sprinkled with a little bit of water can actually work as a mat.
- Last year, I finally realized that a) most hotels offer yoga mats (or have them in their little gyms), and b) finally invested in an excellent travel mat (this one folds or rolls nicely into a carry-on).
- There’s nothing glamorous…
- About the aforementioned hotel towel-mat or a few Sun As, Sun Bs, and two minutes in a hip-opener. But again, IT ALL COUNTS.
What if I only have 20 – 30 minutes for this hotel yoga practice?
That’s all you need!
- Child’s pose (Balasana) for 10 – 15 breaths
- Get grounded, forehead to earth. Soften shoulders, feel opening in the hips. Start to pay attention to your breath.
- Sun Salutations A & B (Surya Namaskar A & B) — 3 of each
- These build heat, linking breath and movement. They allow the body to start to open, and they build both strength and flexibility.
- Warrior 1 (Virabhadrasana I) to Warrior 2 (Virabhadrasana II) to Reverse Warrior to Extended Side Angle (Utthita Parsvakonasana), & then finally to Triangle Pose (Utthita Trikonasana) — 5 breaths in each pose, each side, then vinyasa
- This mini-sequence strengthens & tones legs and belly, opens side body and hips, gets to the hamstrings, and builds some heat.
- Boat Pose (Navasana) — 3 sets, 5 breaths each
- Strengthens & tones the belly & Mula Bandha (the root lock/pelvic floor).
- Butterfly Pose (Baddha Konasana) — 10 breaths
- Simple, effective hip opener.
- Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana) — 2 times, 10 breaths
- Simple, effective heart opener.
- Figure 4, from your back — 10 breaths, each side
- Simple, effective hip opener.
- From back, bend left knee toward chest and cross right ankle somewhere above left knee. Flex right foot. Reach around and through this “figure-4 shape” to hug the left hamstring, clasping hands, drawing left thigh toward the chest. Should feel opening/sensation in the outer-right hip. Breathe for 10 breaths then repeat on second side.
- Simple, effective hip opener.
- Rest (Savasana) — 2 minutes (or more if you have more)
- Take rest. Allllways take rest.
What if I want to take my hotel yoga up a notch?
There are lots of ways to do that, too! Check out this post on Yoga Strengthening Drills that could definitely happen in a hotel room.
Suggestions for how to have HAPPIER weeks?
Check out this post on just that: 3 Ways to Have Happier Weeks. Often, there is no yoga mat near, but there are still ways to practice mindfulness.
When home is far away, yoga helps me to feel a little more at home.
And the practice — which is really just learning to pay attention — encourages me try to glean some meaning, some value even, when travel feels monotonous or frustrating, as…LET’S BE HONEST…it often is.
Is this post on work travel & yoga helpful? Please comment & share!
Are there things that you do routinely while on travel for work to take care of yourself? Please comment below!
*A version of this post was first published as part of Inner Power‘s December 2015 newsletter.
