A parking lot workout uses the painted lines, open space, and benches of an ordinary hotel parking lot to build sprint and bodyweight sessions that beat most gym workouts — with zero equipment. Between you and me, I do not really like the hotel gym. I like working out outside, and the parking lot behind a Hampton Inn or Best Western is one of my favorite places to train. In this Physical Friday I share suicide sprints, the beep test, down-ladders, and burpee box jumps.
Listen now: press play in the player above and follow along.
Suicide sprints are my go-to. Start at one of the concrete islands, sprint to the first parking line and back, then two lines and back, then three, four, five, and six, then run all the way through. Time one full suicide, then use a one-to-one work-to-rest ratio — if it takes a minute, rest a minute — and either set a number of rounds or do as many as you can in thirty minutes.
The beep test, also called the 20-meter multistage fitness test, is a shuttle run used by schools, colleges, and sports teams worldwide to estimate VO2 max. You run 20 meters back and forth, keeping pace with recorded beeps that come faster at each of 21 levels. When you can no longer reach the line before the beep, the test is over. Play the audio through your headphones, mark 20 meters in the parking lot, and follow the beeps.
Pick two parking lines a couple of spaces apart and one exercise for each end — say burpees on one side and push-ups on the other. Do ten burpees, run across, do ten push-ups, run back, then nine and nine, eight and eight, all the way down to one. It is simple to remember, needs zero equipment and no clock, and if it is not enough you climb the ladder back up from one to ten.
A burpee box jump combines two movements: you drop down and do a full burpee, then instead of a small hop you finish the rep by jumping up onto a bench or box. Parking lots and nearby parks often have a bench, which makes them easy to add. One of my favorite circuits is ten burpee box jumps, twenty push-ups, thirty squats, then a run around the entire parking lot, repeated five times.
Fresh air, no crowds, no fees, and nothing broken. The hotel gym is often cramped, expensive, or both, and the parking lot gives you measured lines for sprints, big open space, and usually a bench. I will use the gym if I am bored, want variety, or am somewhere unsafe — but most mornings I head straight down to the parking lot, get the workout in, and get on with my day.
Because the beep test gives you a hard number you can retest anywhere. If you scored level 14 in a Hampton Inn parking lot in Oklahoma, you can measure off 20 meters at a hotel in North Carolina weeks later and see whether you are improving. Write the workout, the score, and the location in your journal, your phone, or an app — the named, repeatable test is what makes progress visible.
Here are the parking lot workouts from this episode, exactly as I do them behind the hotel with nothing but running shoes and a clock.
I go through pacing, the rest ratios, and how to size the sprints to your lot in the episode, so press play in the player above.
Honestly, I do not like going to any gym, hotel or otherwise. I like being outside. The hotel parking lot has fresh air, room to move, painted lines that measure distance for you, and it is never crowded at 5:30 in the morning. I save the gym for bad weather, boredom, or unsafe areas. I explain how I scan a lot on check-in and plan the morning session in the episode, so press play in the player above.
Every lot is pre-marked with evenly spaced lines and broken up by little concrete islands — usually six or seven spaces between them. Those lines become the turnaround points for suicide sprints and the stations for down-ladder circuits, and the islands mark your start and finish. No cones, no measuring tape, no thinking required. I walk through setting up a session in any lot in the episode — press play above.
It is short, it is brutal, and it gives you a single number that means the same thing everywhere. The standard test has 21 levels and most people never see the top ones — the beeps simply outrun you, and because it is standardized, your score in Oklahoma is directly comparable to your score in North Carolina a month later. I share how I run it off a video in my headphones in the episode, so press play above.
Mix the formats. Sprint days, ladder days, beep test days, deck of cards on a hotel towel with sprints for the jokers, benches for box jumps and step-ups. Same lot, completely different workout every morning. The variety is the point — it keeps you interested enough to keep showing up. I rattle off a half-dozen combinations in the episode, so press play above and steal whichever ones you like.
The parking lot asks nothing of you — no fee, no membership, no working treadmill — and gives you everything you need: lines, space, fresh air, and usually a bench. No excuses.
Tomorrow morning, take your running shoes and a hotel towel downstairs, pick a format, and get it done before breakfast. Press play in the player above and I will give you the full menu.
Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen — the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay in the game for life. Watch and listen to every Physical Friday episode from Tom Rowland.
suicide sprints · beep test · 20-meter multistage fitness test · VO2 max · down-ladder workouts · burpee box jumps · deck of cards workout · Hampton Inn · Best Western · outdoor training · travel fitness
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series where I share the workouts, nutrition, and mindset that keep guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen strong, durable, and in the game for life.
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