Part 11 - Bruise free Backpacking
Next to the common cold, the thing most likely to send you off to your GP is a complaint about your back. Between carrying monster sized packs across Europe and spending the rest of our time working in service industry or office jobs, your back is likely to take a pounding day after day. Back pain is so common in fact that almost 75% of us will have an experience of disabling pain at some point in our life. This month’s article will focus on how to reduce the strain on our backs felt during travel and how to prevent it.
Packing up everything we own and jetting off to another place for weeks, months or years, is one of the best things about backpacking, however, no one want to be stuck halfway around the world with what seems like a house strapped to your back in serious pain.
Certainly there’s no way your going to travel without all the comforts of home and you certainly don’t want to miss out on all the cool things you’ve collected and the great presents you got at that local market. However there has to be a limit on the amount of weight we allow ourselves to carry. The first step should be to go to a reputable outdoor and backpacking retailer and get properly measured and fitted for a quality pack. Purchasing something off the net or borrowing a friends old pack may be the easiest option but this item will not only be holding all of you belongings for quite some time but it should fit properly to your body, so you shouldn’t cut corners on choosing the right pack. Also consider all the purchases you make while travelling and realise that while the cool things you find while travelling may be ok to drag around for a few days, unless you have a place to safely leave them or the funds to ship them off home, they will be with you for quite a long time.
If you are planning on a long backpacking trip then spend as much time planning for your health as you would your travel itinerary. The endurance and strength that you will need to hike to everything you want to see and have a great time will not just appear once you get off the plane; it must be built up over months prior to your trip. Building a solid foundation of not only muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance and overall strength (with special importance to be placed on your upper and lower back along with your abdominal core muscles) should be done with proper research and professional guidance.
If you work a job that requires a lot of sitting or time in front of a computer then it is very likely that you are already making the task of improvement worse. Sitting in an office chair all day can put strain on your back. While it isn’t so much the sitting, but the slouching and bending over closer to the monitor that get your alignment out of whack. Both abdominal and back muscles are important in achieving good posture, as they work to balance the body in a straight position. Most people who sit at a desk all day end up with rounded shoulders, tight hip flexor muscles, and weak abs and lower back muscles.
To counteract all the damage we may be doing at work and to prepare for our journeys we should organise an attack plan. To work on your cardiovascular endurance you’ll need to get active, whether it’s time on a cross-trainer or treadmill at a gym or just a regular bicycle ride you’ll feel the benefits immediately and when you’re out hiking in Peru, or shopping in Milan, you’ll last longer than most and feel better the next day. To increase muscular endurance and strength consider getting involved with sports and staying as active as possible. In addition you shouldn’t overlook the benefits or resistance and weight training to give you the extra boost you’ll want while on the road. If you’re hitting the gym, consider rowing and pulling motions to strengthen both your upper and lower back, along with movements to strengthen the front and sides of your abdominals. Weight bearing exercises such as squats will build strength in your legs allowing you to motor around all those great cities in Europe and still have plenty of energy for the pub at the end of the day.
No one wants to have their health get in the way of a good time when they’re travelling, but it is a reality that we all should consider. However with good preparation and planning before we travel, you’ll be able to get the most out of your time spent seeing this wonderful planet.
If there are any topics on nutrition and fitness you’d like to see addressed or any questions you have please contact me at Healthy.Living@St-Christophers.co.uk.
James McDonald is a St. Christopher’s Manager and fully certified personal trainer in Edinburgh, and can be reached for any questions on Health and Fitness or for Personal Training consultation in Edinburgh.
