Everybody loves to travel and see places during their free time, especially in their long-awaited vacation. However, during those flights forth and back, we often feel exhausted and sleepy that we slump in our seats and try to sleep.
Not when you are feeling pain, though. These pains and aches are quite common that most of us leave them be and live with it. This even gets worse if you have done a strenuous activity like swimming or hiking right before you take that flight home. However, there are ways for you to avoid having to experience excruciating pain in-flight.
Here are some of them.
Schedule your flight if possible
To avoid having to deal with extra stress during your trips, it’s a good idea to schedule your flight strategically. Please take note that you will be doing in-seat light exercise, so it’s generally a good thing to get a flight schedule that does not have a lot of passengers.
It’s also a good thing if you schedule a flight that does not require you to wake up early in the morning. Waking up early in the morning while feeling mentally and physically tired can worsen your body pains.
Do In-seat exercises
Doing exercises that involve your ankles and legs are optimal for your seating position. Do ankle circles, knee extensions, and glute squeezes and holding them for at least 10 seconds is equal to that of a mini-workout.
If you are one of those people who always slouch in their seats, you will feel the worst of it later. This is especially true to your neck joints. Also, even if you have only spent a short time on that flight, you will still feel the pain later if you don’t do in-seat exercises.
To avoid these pains, turn your head to look over your shoulder three to five times every thirty minutes or so. After that, look up or down and tilt it from left to right. Roll your head a couple of times, and you should be good.
If, however, you are constantly feeling pain in your lower back, this is mainly because of sitting for a long time. Sitting is not something found in nature, as humans are supposed to squat.
To avoid this, trainers recommend people to sit in a chair without back support or with an exercise ball to keep an active core. However, this is impossible when you are on an aeroplane. What you can do is that every hour or so, you can get up from your seat and walk around the area. This will relieve stress from your lower back as it is continually building tension every time you sit on a chair.
If you are concerned about your arms, you can deal with your triceps by lifting your elbow above your arms, pulling the elbow at the side and stretching as hard as possible. You can also extend your arm across in front of you and pull it with your other arm. For your abdominal muscles, you can reach both of your arms overhead and stretch back.
Keep a good posture
Most airplanes can be uncomfortable and tight. This is especially true if you are not in the business class or first class. To avoid aches after the flight, keep your posture good to prevent building stress in your muscles.
What you can do is to keep your legs at a right angle when you sit, while keeping your feet flat on the ground. Doing this will reduce the stress to your lower back, easing the pain.
Also, avoid keeping one of your legs tucked under you. This squishes the tissues in the knee and hip area and will shorten your muscles. After a short time, you will feel numbness in that area, and that means you will feel pain once you unfold them. However, if you can’t help it, you can do a light stretching after the flight. Do a backward bend ten times by placing your hands on your hips and pull the head and shoulders behind the pelvis.
Other body pain prevention tips
Always travel light. The less baggage you carry, the less sore you will have after the flight is over. If you can’t help it, use a luggage cart to reduce the stress on your body. Also, trying to work during the flight will make you more stressful during the trip and will worsen the pains you will experience afterwards.
If available, always pick the aisle seat so you can move around more during the flight. This would give you extra space to move around and stretch your body to reduce the build-up of stress that will lead to that excruciating pain that you always deal with after sitting for so long.
Takeaway
All of us have experienced body pain, no matter the gender and age. Most of us have been accustomed to it, thinking that this is always how it should be during our travels. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. With these tips, you can kiss that pain away. To know more about muscle pains and how to remedy them, visit https://bodyfocuschiropractic.com.au/ for more info.

Author

Northern girl Laura is the epitome of a true entrepreneur. Laura’s spirit for adventure and passion for people blaze through House of Coco. She founded House of Coco in 2014 and has grown it in to an internationally recognised brand whilst having a lot of fun along the way. Travel is in her DNA and she is a true visionary and a global citizen.

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