Are you wishing for pain free travel? Here are 3 tips to minimize back pain while traveling.
It’s all to easy to slump back in the airplane seat just to try and get a bit of comfort. We tell ourselves its not so bad, its only for a few hours. According to Statistica in 2018 Americans went on 463.6 million domestic business trips and that number is only increasing. That’s a lot of time in the air and it all adds up. When we look at our time spent traveling as a whole rather than individual occurrences its easy to see how those bad habits all add up to have a negative impact on our health. Creating healthy travel habits especially when we are traveling consistently for work is important for our overall health and well-being.
Sitting slumped over and bad posture can have some serious repercussions on our overall health. According to a great article on The Healthy some of the possible side effects of bad posture are headaches, spasms, tiredness and of course back pain. There have even been studies showing that bad posture can have a negative effect on your mental health. (https://www.thehealthy.com/osteoporosis/surprising-ways-bad-posture-can-affect-your-health/)
Business travel is a multi million-dollar industry and shows no signs of slowing down. That means there is a pretty good chance you will be heading on a business trip at some stage in your career. Here are 3 tips and items to help improve your posture and reduce back pain when you are on a plane. Whether you plan ahead or want to improve your posture on the fly we have an option for you.
Tip #1
Bring two tennis balls with you and place then in a bag. Put these behind you in the airplane seat between your middle and lower back. By placing these behind your back you will force yourself to sit upright throughout your flight.
Plus, if you move around a bit, it acts as a nice massager to help you relax during your flight. Move the balls up to behind your neck for part of your flight and move your head from right to left for a nice neck massage. Your neighbour might be looking at your wondering why you’re are shifting around in your seat so much but who cares? I’d rather leave my long-haul flight with zero back pain and feeling refreshed and relaxed wouldn’t you?
Tip #2
Use your water bottle to help you sit up straight. Place your reusable water bottle length ways down the center of your back. Reusable water bottles are much better than a plastic bottle (not only because they are better for the environment - #nosingleuseplastics) but because a reusable water bottle is often much sturdier and will give you better support. Once you have drank all the water in your plastic water bottle it loses all its structure and can easily get crushed behind your back resulting in even worse posture than you would have without.
Tip #3
For those that don’t have the space to bring extra items or just didn’t have the chance to plan ahead (don’t worry it happens to the best of us!) you can use a magazine to give yourself lumbar support. You will nearly always find a magazine stuffed into the pocket in front of your seat or invest a few dollars and get one from the shop before you hop on the flight, your back will thank you for it later! Roll up the magazine and use it in the same way as the water bottle above, placing it length ways down the middle of your back. This will force you to sit up straight and lift yourself from the chest and help reduce back pain during any long-haul flight.
Staying healthy while traveling take a lot of effort. Believe us, we know. That’s why we at Sanctifly want to help every frequent flyer to travel well by providing high quality travel wellness content along with helpful tips and hacks for healthier travel. Whether you are traveling for business or leisure don’t let your health and well being become a second thought. Download Sanctifly today for more travel wellness tips.