Travel Can Be a Pain in the Neck: Mobility Tips from Dr. Adam Jacobs

According to AAA nearly 42 million Americans will take a holiday road trip this Thanksgiving and 3.6 million Americans will fly to their holiday destinations. That’s a lot of stiff joints and sore muscles! You wouldn’t run a marathon without training and warming up, right? (RIGHT?!) So put a little forethought into how you’ll take care of your body if you have a long trip ahead of you.

Most of us got the memo that “sitting is the new smoking”. Chronic sitting (especially with poor posture) causes tightness in the hips, pectorals and several muscles that internally rotate the shoulders. Those tight muscles can pull joints out of alignment and cause pain and stiffness in the back, neck and legs. Unless you’ve asked Santa for a pinched nerve, herniated disc or frozen shoulder this year, listen up!

For this post I enlisted the help of the Bay Area’s best chiropractor Dr. Adam Jacobs from SF Custom Chiropractic. For years I’ve partnered with Dr. Jacobs to care for my body and the bodies of my clients who need soft tissue work like ART and chiropractic. Dr. Jacobs was kind enough to share some practical tips, breathing drills and exercises you can do while traveling on a plane or in a car to stay limber and avoid common aches and pains.

Too busy to watch the videos below? Here are three quick and easy tips: get an aisle seat so you can get up more often, get one of those silly looking but awesome cervical neck pillows for sleeping and adjust your rear view mirror an inch higher to force you to sit up straight in the car.

Tips for Flying

Tips for Driving

What to Do When You Arrive