I flew to London on Virgin Atlantic today. The open bar area in the middle of the plane could easily accommodate an entire CrossFit garage gym… Hey, I can dream… (see my aspirational ‘photo’ below). One of the “advantages” of frequent travel is that it reminds us that flexibility can never be taken for granted. Mobility exercises have to be more regular after any extended sitting on airplanes, cars or trains. Learning from recurring back and shoulder injuries doing workouts the day after transatlantic flights taught me many useful lessons. They may be relevant even for less frequent travelers.
Cars and Airplanes are not Paleo
Noone can convince me otherwise. The human body is not designed to sit for 4-8 hours in a hunchback, rigid position, breathe recycled air, eat substandard food and produce anywhere close to optimal performance. But it’s a big world and we need to get around somehow. So the next best thing is to fix what gets broken as we are literally bent out of shape on these trips…
THINGS TO DO ON TRAVEL DAYS
Sometimes travel takes all day and by the time we reach a hotel we are tired, the hotel gym is subpar, we may have some extra jet lag and overall we’re not in peak state for a WOD. Yet I do believe every travel day could be a WOD day. This does not mean doing Murph or even Cindy. A short, 10 minute bodyweight drill at high intensity can do magic (remember the 7-minute burpees?) and keep muscles primed, metabolism pumping and most importantly prevent ‘Crossfitter-guilt’ of missing a workout. I have bad experience though doing weights in the hotel gym on arrival as it may worsen some of the muscle issues caused by the trip.
10-minute Daily Mobility Drills (DMD)
Travel amplifies flexibility, muscle and bone issues we already have. In my case back and shoulders. I made a list of mobility drills that address injury-prone areas. These drills should be done after every trip and preferably every day. After a while they become second nature.
My 10-minute DMD is the following:
– 1 minute Samson stretch
– 2 minute Burgener warmup (can even use hotel towels instead of a bar)
– 2 minute shoulder/back mobility with Lacrosse balls
– 2 minute hip socket stretch
– 2 minute arm/shoulder stretches (band or towel)
– 1 minute air squats and holds
10-Minute Bodyweight WOD
I like doing a max 10-minute bodyweight WOD after doing my daily mobility drill (see below). This combo can be done in 20 minutes.
WHAT TO DO AFTER A TRAVEL DAY AND BEFORE A PROPER WOD
Repeat Daily Mobility Drills (above)
Have a Good Warmup
This is obvious and all good boxes do them religiously: prepare the body for the specific torture about to ensue. Shoulders, back, quads and hamstrings for lifts, legs for sprints and so on. It is unlikely that we can overdo warmups and some boxes (e.g. CF Palo Alto, CF West Chester and others) adopted a standard, repeated warmup routine that addresses all major muscle groups.
Use Assistance Exercises especially for Lifts
Some of the boxes I visited (like Crossfit Balance) do a great job to also add assistance exercises for lifting days. This helps not to tire us out with warm-up weights while giving us an extra edge beyond warmup. This could be practicing snatch balance prior to a heavy snatch session, or romanian deadlift before power cleaning or handstand holds before toes to bar.
TRAVEL DAY WOD
– 8 hour flight from New York to London…
– Daily Mobility Drill
As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes:
– 10 double unders
– 10 pushups
– 10 situps
SCORE: 12 rounds
