Exploring Singapore Through the Eyes of Doctors Asha and James Pumarada and Family
Our family and I embarked upon our first trip overseas and decided to go to the beautiful country of Singapore. During our travels, I wanted to write a series of blog posts detailing the wonderful and exciting things that my family and I were able to experience while we were abroad. I also wanted to provide insight as a physical therapist into the many topics related to travel and what the body goes through when taking such a long trip. During our trip, we, like many other world travelers, began to experience many of the common aches and pains associated with long travel.
But unlike most, we knew, from our now 19+ years each in physical therapy, how to quickly alleviate travel pain and, in many cases, prevent it from even occurring. So for this blog series, we will detail one specific area of travel during each blog that we know can cause pain and how to deal with as quickly as possible before it becomes a long term problem.
Lower Back Pain, Airplane Seats, and Lifting Luggage
When traveling with a family of six on an airplane, I quickly realized the first area of pain associated with travel: back pain. It’s no secret that airplane seats aren’t the most comfortable. Now imagine having to sit on an airline seat for almost 24 hours! You can imagine the pains that can occur as a result, especially in the back area.
That leads me to my first physical therapy key for long travel: you must reduce the risk of lower back pain while sitting on uncomfortable airplane seats. Not only do you have to be comfortable, but your family and children should also be equipped with the tools they need to endure a long flight. That requires early preparation. Things such as seat cushions, neck pillows, and stuffed animals are a must-have as well as any electronic devices that you may wish to distract your kids from the long hours that they will spend sitting on an airplane going overseas. Lower back pain can creep up really quickly when sitting for a long time without engaging in any active movement. For both adults and children, I recommend that you get up every 35-40 minutes. Whether it is to go to the bathroom or to simply stretch out, the body was not meant to statically sit for any length of time without some sort of functional or active form of motion. Yes, the spine is very resilient, however, in our sitting in cramped economy class seats traveling over 16 hours where the cushions are used and uncomfortable will behoove you to get up and move around.
Once you finally get off the plane at your destination, the risks for back pain extend into the airport terminal as well. Lifting luggage off of conveyor belts is one of the biggest ways people injure their lower backs when traveling through airports. I always recommend that you lift any luggage using your legs and keeping your back straight. When possible always get help from one of your travel companions. Furthermore, once you have all your luggage and enter the customs area of any country, always enter with a smile. When you are visiting a new and exciting place it is always great to have a happy disposition, especially when security asks you if you are carrying any contraband or going to aide “a runaway panda in carrying out a sinister deed.”
If you have any further questions about what to buy, how to stretch, or how to lift, or if you’ve experienced back pain while traveling and need quick relief, just give me a call in the Elizabeth or Jersey City clinics to schedule an appointment and I can help you get rid of the pain immediately and give you more quick tips on how to prevent pain while traveling.
Dr. James Pumarada is a licensed Physical Therapist with over 19+ years of experience. He is a Sports Therapy Certified therapist, focusing on treating and training runners of all levels, and is one of the top Vestibular therapists in Elizabeth and Jersey City, specializing in the treatment of all dizziness, vertigo, and imbalance issues.
He is the co-owner of Complete Physical Rehabilitation, a Physical Therapy practice based in Elizabeth and Jersey City, NJ.