Best Exercises for Travelers
Fitness for Travelers
Excited about going on vacation? While traveling is fun, simply getting to a vacation destination-whether by plane, train, bus or car-often involves extended periods of immobility. Hours of inactivity associated with air travel-first in the airport waiting lounge and then on the plane may leave you achy and sore before your vacation has even begun!
L. Leiber, from the Univ. of California, Berkeley is offering some great suggestions on how to combat the problem of travel related body stress.
Seated Exercises
What can you do when you find yourself in the captivity of an airport lounge? Try some of these exercises for improved posture.
Place feet flat on floor, parallel, a few inches apart.
Sit up on sit bones.
Tip pelvis to bring it vertical (neutral spine position).
Push your shoulders down, away from your ears.
Breathe in, then exhale. When you exhale, be sure to pull your abs in. Do this after every seated exercise.
Figure-4 Stretching. Place an ankle on top of the other knee. Hinge your hips forward. Keep your spine neural. Hold this position for fifteen to thirty seconds and feel a stretch on the outside of your hips. Do this on the other side too.
Seated twists. While keeping a tall posture reach to the back of your chair and hold without letting your knees or hips rotate. When you exhale, allow your body to go farther into the stretch. Do not perform this move if you have disk issues.
Shoulder Shrug and Roll. Inhale as you lift shoulders up toward ears. Exhale as you roll shoulders back and down, opening chest and letting shoulder blades come together. Continue sliding shoulders down the back, away from ears. Repeat 3-5 times.
Neck Stretch. With chin slightly tucked, let right ear drop toward right shoulder. Hold stretch for 3-4 breaths, letting weight of head stretch left side of neck. Gently release stretch and repeat on other side.
Rock the Baby. With right hand on left elbow and left hand on right elbow, hold folded arms out in front of chest. Draw right elbow as far as you can to the right to stretch outside of left shoulder. Draw left elbow as far as you can to the left to stretch outside of right shoulder. Repeat 2-3 times on each side.
When You Are Standing: Waiting to get passed security at the airport is the first of many times your will stand in line on your trip. Make the best use of your time with some of these exercises.
Footwork. Stand, feet side-by-side, two or three inches away from each other and balance your weight evenly. Raise your heels off the ground slowly and evenly. Repeat eight to ten repetitions.
Prancing in Place. Use same start position as in exercise above. Come up onto balls of feet. Lower one heel to floor while keeping other heel raised. Alternately press one heel up as other heel comes down to floor. Repeat 12-15 times.
Knee Lift. While keeping your hips parallel to the floor, raise your knee the femur is level with the ground. Be sure keep your spine relaxed. Balance like this for fifteen to thirty seconds. Put your foot back on the ground and repeat for the other leg.
Back-Curl. While standing upright begin curling forward one section of your spine at a time until you are bent over at the waist, arms hanging forward. Be sure to keep your knees slightly bent during this exercise. Come back up to a full standing position one vertebrae at a time. Repeat 3-5X.
