Reformer pilates, twice a week
The one that stuck. Twice a week for nine months, in four different countries, and it is the only form of training I have never had to talk myself into.
Buy the grip socks. Every studio sells them at a markup at the desk and you will need them, because most studios will not let you on a reformer in bare feet.
Assisted stretching — the surprise
I booked it once, sceptically, because a hotel had it on the wellness menu. An hour of someone else moving my legs through ranges I cannot get to alone, and I walked out feeling like I had been let out of a jacket.
It is the single thing on this list I would rearrange a day for. It is also the one I cannot easily replicate at home, which is the whole argument for paying for it.
Cold, hot, and the rooms in between
Thermal circuits — hot pool, cold plunge, repeat — are genuinely good and genuinely overrated at the same time. They feel extraordinary for about three hours afterwards and I have never been able to point to a lasting effect.
Red light I am undecided on. I sat in the room, I enjoyed the room, and I cannot tell you it did anything. Where I cannot tell, I say so.
Hotel gyms are the real variable
A hotel gym with real weights changes what a trip looks like. Most have three treadmills and a rack of pink dumbbells, and the difference between that and a proper gym is the difference between training and pretending.
The stair-stepper at the Rosewood in Bangkok is the single piece of equipment I have chosen a hotel for.
