Niki Lattarulo was on a flight last year when her back started bothering her, as it often does on a plane. The sports reporter and anchor realized she had a heating pad handy — packed for other anticipated needs — and whipped it out.
After seeing how much the heat relieved her back pain, “now every single flight I go on, I literally bring it,” said Lattarulo, 28.
On a recent trip to San Diego for March Madness games, as she pulled out the heating pad and a squishy pillow, she thought, “These people probably think I’m nuts.”
More likely, they might relate. Travel can be brutal on the back, between lifting luggage, cramming into small seats for hours and sleeping on unfamiliar surfaces.
“The unfortunate thing for this sort of pain is that it takes time” to reduce, says Mike Ren, a primary care physician at Baylor College of Medicine. “After a week, you might be all better — but you might be on vacation for a week.”
Doctors and physical therapists shared tips on how to prevent common back triggers or cope with the pain while traveling.
Preventive moves
Getting to new places takes time, and, unfortunately, much of that time is spent sitting. This is bad news for your back, experts agree. Most of our modes of transportation aren’t built for optimal back positions, or for us to stretch and move as frequently as we should.
But there are things travelers can do to keep the pain at bay. An important tip: Move as much as possible, even if it’s just standing up after 30 to 45 minutes of sitting on a plane.
Ren recommends positioning yourself as far back in a plane, train or car seat as you can to have the most lower-back support, aided by a small rolled-up blanket or travel pillow placed behind the back, if needed.
Heather Jeffcoat, a physical therapist and spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association, says people should keep their weight even on their sit bones, or if they shift their weight, do so equally.
If hip flexors are getting tight while sitting, Jeffcoat says, travelers can extend their legs in front and slide the heel of their hands from hip crease to midthigh to soften tension.
For another seated stretch (“destigmatize stretching on a plane,” Jeffcoat says), take the right ankle, put it on top of the left knee and push the right knee away from your body. Hold it for five to six slow, deep breaths before doing the same on the other side. Repeat every hour.
Travelers can also, if they have room, fold their body forward, putting their heads toward their knees and grabbing one calf at a time with both hands to open up back muscles that might start to get tight.
Passengers using electronic devices should be aware of strain from looking down. Jeffcoat recommends switching between a personal device and looking straight ahead at a seat-back screen if there is one on a plane.
On a car ride, for “posture breaks,” she suggests passengers look up to the sky after about every 20 minutes. They should take a few slow breaths, look forward and squeeze shoulder blades together for three seconds. Repeat that motion five or six times.
Sarah Wilson, a physical therapist and Pilates instructor in Missouri who has made videos about traveling without pain, says it’s important to avoid carrying heavy bags on one shoulder. She also advises hauling luggage off the baggage carousel in stages — moving a bag into a ready position first, then lifting it off the belt — with a neutral spine position.
On planes, she tells patients to watch for fellow travelers who are spreading out and encroaching on their space, causing them to lean away for hours.
“I always tell my patients, ‘Take your space; do not allow someone to take your space on a flight,’” she says. “That’s pushing you out of your neutral.”
Hanbing Zhou, an orthopedic spine surgeon at Hartford HealthCare Bone & Joint Institute, says that even before going on a trip, people should work on their core muscles to support their spines.
“Making your core stronger is going to, number one, hopefully prevent some of these low-back issues,” he says.
During the actual plane trip, though, he recommends that people sit in an aisle seat, if possible, to make it easier to get up. During a car trip, he says, it’s a good idea to stop every other hour to stretch and walk around. And, he says, drink water: Dehydration can lead to muscle stiffness and back pain.
Sound sleep
At a hotel or other lodging, the bed can be a problem.
“It doesn’t matter how good the hotel mattress [or] pillows are, it’s just never your own bed,” Zhou says.
Ren says he has been tempted to buy his own pillows on vacation but hasn’t gone that far. He says that if people know one hotel chain has a bed that works for them, it makes sense to stick with it.
Wilson says travelers should try to be in a neutral spine position when they sleep. For side sleepers, that can mean using a pillow between their legs.
“I just think you have to listen to your body and follow your body’s cues about what’s comfortable,” she says.
i’m sorry why have i never thought of this until now?? goodbye lower back pain on planes #fyp
♬ shes an icon shes a legend and she is the moment – kdrxmaflix
‘Motion is lotion’
You’ve tried every trick and still woke up with a backache. What next?
Don’t freeze, Wilson says. “Motion is lotion; that’s what helps prevent pain,” she says. “People get very fearful when they start to have pain and they stop moving.”
Ren likes toe touches and wall angels, like a snow angel with your back against the wall and feet and legs positioned about six inches away from the wall.
Jeffcoat recommends the cat-cow movement: On your hands and knees, look toward the ceiling while curving your back down and then bring your head to look down while arching your back like a cat. Move slowly and repeat five or six times, she said.
After those repetitions, she recommends stopping in the middle and looking toward each hip on the same side for a side bend.
She says activating the gluteal muscles with double or single-leg bridges — lying on your back with your feet on the floor, bottom lifted — is another good exercise.
Also good for activating those muscles, Jeffcoat says: the “fire hydrant” move, or lifting a leg to the right or left from a hands-and-knees position.
When to seek more help
Ren says that if someone is having numbness, tingling, trouble going to the bathroom or significant pain to the point where they can’t move much, that would be a sign of a serious problem that should prompt a visit to urgent care or an emergency room.
If the symptoms are not that severe, Ren says, a massage could help, as would ice or heat therapy and over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medicine.
The post Why does travel hurt my back, and how do I fix it? appeared first on Washington Post.
