Avoid a painful journey

Whether it is a short daily commute or a long haul flight, traveling injured is never fun.

No matter what the area of injury, there is something about sitting in these vehicles that just sets off the pain and causes unrelenting discomfort. Sometimes you don’t even have to have a prior injury and when you get up out of the seat you just feel stiff and swollen.

So, you have to get creative and keep your body moving and well hydrated. Not only during travel but also when you get to your destination. You want to prevent any further irritation to your existing injury and deter other travel complications from arising.

I don’t know if many of you are aware but there is a thing called travel fatigue. Travel fatigue is different to jet lag. Travel fatigue can occur as a one-off result of long-distance travel or from a cumulative effect of many short distance trips. The demands of travel itself cause stress on the body. Logistics of the journey, cramped conditions, boredom, decreased physical activity, decreased or improper hydration, air quality and environmental factors cause this issue.

There is a lot more focus on air travel and its effects including jet lag, dehydration and circulation issues. But I think that we need to pay attention to the daily commuters. Driving, riding the bus and subway or taking the train for hours a day will have that cumulative effect on your body. Travel fatigue can apply to these situations as well.

What can we do to help our injuries and overall wellbeing during travel?

1. PLAN- take the stress out of travel and off your brain and body.

2. Plan your journey to include rest stops if possible. And if it’s not possible, make sure you can at least change positions during your journey. Make sure you bring all prescribed braces, crutches or other assistive devices to help offload, rest or position your injury correctly.

3. Plan to incorporate helpful movement or exercise before, during and after travel. Take a walk around the terminal, take the stairs up to the platform before your journey, do some standing balance, standing or seated stretching.  We all know and love ankle pumps when we are sitting during travel but again you can do stretching for both upper and lower body or just simple movement. Get fresh air when you can. Use the pool, hot tub, sea or ocean if it is available at your destination.

4. Plan your hydration. Include water, electrolytes and avoid diuretics like coffee and alcohol. You can also eat your water and electrolytes by including snacks like fruits and vegetables. And remember to replenish throughout your journey. Remember that you can begin to hydrate a week before your long journey.

5. Plan to rest. If you are injured the journey will have taken a lot out of you so give yourself some time to rest. Rest is important for recovery. Rest well before traveling. Get proper amounts of restful sleep before or attempt to catch up during travel. Protect your sleep. Rest your injury and use the prescribed protective devices that you have been given.

Reference:

Janse van Rensburg DC, van Rensburg AJ, Fowler PM,  Bender AM, et al. (2021). Managing Travel Fatigue and Jet Lag in Athletes: A Review and Consensus Statement. Sports Med. 51(10): 2029–2050. doi: 10.1007/s40279-021-01502-0.