Painfree AND drugfree travel.
More specifically, how to do 33 hours, 74,727 steps, and countless rides over the span of three days at Disney with two kids, bookended by two flights and a two hour commute from the airport both ways. (Complete sidebar: I don't use a step/calorie counter, food log thingy and pretty sure I'm the only one in the running world without a Garmin, stopwatch, HR monitor, LoJack, etc. All that counting and monitoring stresses me out. One more thing to keep track of, who needs that? Plus how accurate is it really? Does the fitbit take into account distance traveled when whisked through darkened space mountain? When we were shaken all about, not by the hokey pokey, but Star Tours, did the fitbit count each jerk as a step? How does one compare? Has anyone actually counted his/her steps all day? But the hubs is a faithful fitbit wearer and assures me it is somewhat accurate. It was interesting to quantify how much walking one does in a 13 hour Disney day. Moving on...)
I do some traveling, not a ton. Some for business, some for pleasure. In the past year, two road trips (Denver and Chicago) and two plane trips (Jamaica and Los Angeles). I faithfully bring my little bottle of ibuprofen, yet haven’t taken
any over the counter meds for pain in quite some time, or prescription for that matter. I’ll pop an ibuprofen or two the morning after a few drinks every so often, none for pain though.
Traveling can be tough on the bod, different beds, possibly different cars, inactivity while sitting in the car/plane/airport, different eating habits, carrying bags/kids, little to no access to a reformer. It takes its toll. Here’s the Limitless Pilates guide to preventing most joint/muscle pain while traveling:
--Use a backpack instead of a messenger bag or over the shoulder satchel. A backpack helps to evenly distribute weight and minimizes pulling/tugging on one side of the body.
--Put your little people to work, if age appropriate. It keeps them from running off. They aren’t as fast if you weigh them down with a luggage bag or two. If she does wander, she’s easier to find. She’ll likely be banging the rolly bag into something, a pole, another person, the wall, or even off a curb.
--Mobilize the spine, fascia, muscles. If you feel comfortable
enough in the airport for a little pike to plank (with hands/elbows on a chair/table/luggage bag and feet on the floor), take advantage of some down time to move your parts. For those of you who aren’t excited about bending over in public, you can point your tush to a corner/wall or just wait.
--Balls, big surprise that my trusty yellow balls are on the list. You can use them in the car, on the plane, and in the hotel or wherever you end up. (For the germ-sensitive travelers, put a towel down in hotels. Also my feet were newly showered in this picture. There wasn’t a chair without wheels in the room and this was the only spot where there was enough space. So I put my foot prints on the furniture.)
--Take a walk, get outside (weather permitting), move around. Chances are you’re traveling somewhere to be outside. Unless you’re visiting family, very familiar with vacations centered around visiting family. Hopefully they live somewhere conducive to getting outside for a walk.
--And, last but not least, you can visit the Limitless Pilates website for mat exercises that can be performed anywhere with or without a mat. You can do five minutes or 45 minutes of Pilates. Any little bit will help.
Safe travels, friends!