
After a pretty smooth and easy, but still kind of grueling, 10-hour plane trip from Seattle-Tacoma to Tokyo, the first thing that I always want to do is get some fresh air and some movement in. Indeed, sitting crammed on an airplane, then crammed on a subway car, then crammed into a hotel room is not the kind of freedom and activity that I feel I need every day, and after getting all the logistics out of the way and taking a beat to change clothes and shoes, moving the body not only makes sense, but it is a great way to start off a business trip.
However, aside from walking the spacious concrete blocks of the city, there isn't much in the way of outdoor activity when it comes to many cities in Japan. In my experience, with crowded sidewalks and city congestion, jogging or running through the city is not a usual sight, and most people in the city tend to stick to gyms and riverbanks to get their daily movement in. Lacking both on my first morning in Tokyo, I opted to use our small hotel gym. Although it was basic, it provided a great space for a quick and effective workout.
On the Go Workout Basics for Any Business Trip

The Hotel Metropolitan Marunochi Toyko is one of the few hotels in the area that I could find that both had a gym, and was in the less than $250/night range. The gym is relatively bare bones, with just three pieces of cardio equipment and some floor space, along with mats. There was a water cooler and a bottle of disinfecting spray, and around the corner there were several vending machines with everything from sports drinks to a tall can of beer.

I had already done a little research on the gym situation at this hotel, and I knew that I would likely run into similar situations on this trip, so I brought along my go-to equipment for business trip workouts: my bands. I brought three bands, two long and fairly light bands, and one smaller, heavier band. The lighter bands can be doubled or tripled-up to make them heavier, so this band combination provides a good range of weights, ranging from probably 5lbs all the way up to 30lbs of resistance.
With bands in hand and a mat on the floor, I set a timer on my watch for 30 minutes. In that 30 minutes, I decided to work from bottom to top, performing basic strength training excercises:
Legs:
Banded Squat
Good Morning
Deadlift
Banded Glute Bridge
Banded Calf Raise
Upper:
Shoulder Press
Lateral Raise
Upright Row
Bicep Curl
Tricep Overhead Extension
Hammer Curl
Fly
Abs:
Bicycle Crunch
Toe Taps
Russian Twist (holding water bottle)

I opted for 25 reps of each exercises and finished it in about 30 minutes. Since I had just gotten off the plane, and my body was not quite adjusted to everything, a high volume, lighter weight workout felt good, and provided a nice calorie burn to get the body going.
The great thing about the Hotel Metropolitan Marunochi Hotel is that the gym area overlooks the lobby of the hotel, so it is a cool feature. They also provide day passes for around 2,000 Yen ($16-ish dollars) for the gym next door, which I might try next time.
My experience at the Hotel Metropolitan Marunochi Hotel demonstrates that you can get a good and effective workout in any hotel gym, all you have to do is get creative and move!
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