5 Road-Trip Recovery Tips
We recently went on a road trip to Orlando area from Northern VA…yes we drove! Total of 30 hours of drive time plus another 3-4 hours of local commuting for the event I attended.
As much as this is a lot of driving it is not exactly new for us since we have family in NJ and NC, so we have always been road trip family since the kids were little. Although battle tested, for much of the time I definitely did not use recovery methods to recover. We would do weekend trips, get back late on ta Sunday than straight to the Monday cycle…go-go-go
So, over the last few years as I have gotten to understand myself better, what works, what doesn’t and methods that will help even with micro-rest moments to get a brief power down, settle the mind and relax the muscles a little.
Pre-Trip & During Trip Tactics:
- Mobility: with a systemic tight low back issue this is critical to drive comfortably during the drive, so before we leave, pitstops and upon arrive doing all kinds of hip mobility work. POST: if you can get a Cup Therapy (akak Cupping) Session I highly recommend it! I recently had my first session with Jenna Loewer from OnPOInte Wellness (Episode 58 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rest-and-recovery-podcast/id1500324641?i=1000522522084 ) is a recent activity & we did an IG Live Wellness Wednesday last week. You can still catch it in my Instagram feed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7akAsfMUeo
- Chiropractor: I try to schedule a session before I leave, but I DEFINITELY set one up the day after my return. This helps ensure my body is optimally aligned knowing I will be in a fixed seated position for a long time. I seem to handle this less and less as I get older. The benefit of chiropractic is helping ensure the nerves are align so less likely to have hip impingement from sitting and a common issue is sciatic pain. If you have had this pain, you know how uncomfortable that can get!
- Infrared Sauna: this is a great way to reduce the stress of the trip, loosen up the muscles and help repair the mitochondria, helps with circulation to aid repair and recovery of muscles and ligaments Clearlight (Episode 20 with Dr. Raleigh Duncan)
Benefits to Infrared Sauna such as relieving muscle tension, destress, aid in sleep among others.
- Red Light: another great relaxing method (passive recovery) is BioLight red light to sit in front of the red light listen to some calming tunes and just veg for 10 minutes. Helps rebuild mitochondria, improve oxygen (reduced from stress/strain of the drive) Listen to Episode 67 with Mike Belkowski of BioLight
- Breathwork: this one can be used throughout. I don’t know about you, but my breathing definitely gets off when I drive, stress of the drive, sometime the stress of my thoughts as I ponder things going in life at that time. I find I end of holding my breath and not realize it, my posture will deteriorate over time from sitting and lose my form putting pressure on my lower back and lungs reducing the level of oxygen intake.
Breathwork information :
www.performancethroughhealth.com
Word of Caution:
PLEASE BE CAREFUL _ Night driving can obviously be a little more dangerous visually but also easier to get tired. Drowsy driving stats show this is equally as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol we just often don’t view it that way. So, please be safe on the roads and if you feel off pull over for a few minutes, or if you can switch drivers. I had to do that during this last trip. I know the desire to get to the end destination sooner than later…but in ONE PIECE PLEASE!!
So if you find yourself losing focus, the oncoming headlights mess with you or just tired…ask your co-pilot to drive even for just an hour or so. To giver yourself a break frm the visual strain. I experienced this on our last trip with still 2+ hours and knew I needed to stop. I have included some articles for reference and yes they are SCARED STRAIGHT pieces. In the grand scheme getting somewhere 15 minutes faster will not amount to anything compared to the consequences.
Additional Resources:
Time shifter app see your smart phone app store
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180918082041.htm
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17385401/
https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drowsy-driving
