Travel Wellness For Road Warriors And Commuters

Many of us today choose to live in the suburbs, far away from the cities. Yet, the urban sprawl has gotten so out of hand that living within the city limits may still mean a commute of over a half hour each way to your place of employment. You are the new road warriors, commuters who can easily tack an additional hour or two onto their work day just in travel time, and those extra travel hours can really take a toll on you.

Here are some tips to keep your mind and body in shape during your daily road commute:

***Enjoy a novel or learn something new while you commute--Although you can’t physically read a book or magazine while you drive, you can listen to books on CD. Most local libraries today have a section of books on CD.

You can entertain yourself with anything from fiction to biographies. In addition, there are many business or work related courses, mind/body books, spiritual, you name it, and you can probably find it on CD. While you commute, you can even use the time to learn a new language. Imaging how quickly the travel time will pass during the commute while you are brushing up on your French or Italian for that long-awaited trip to Europe.

If your library doesn’t have what you are looking for, go to Amazon online and you can probably pick up something used that interests you for very little money.

***Stretching--Depending on how long your commute is, sometimes your body just begs for a good stretch. Although you are prohibited from stretching every muscle in your body, sometimes just a good arm, shoulder, or neck stretch is enough to keep you feeling a little more limber and alert while you are on the road

Here are three simple exercises:

(1) Starting with your neck straight and your head at the 12 o’clock position, slowly tilt your head to the right so that it is even with your shoulder, hold to the count of 5 and then slowly bring it back up to the 12 o’clock position. Repeat for the left side. Do 5 of these exercises on each side.

(2) During your drive down a straight stretch of highway, hold your steering wheel firmly at the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions while twisting your torso slightly to each side while keeping your waist straight.

(3) While holding straight ahead onto the steering wheel, bring your shoulders up toward your ears and hold to the count of 4 and release. Do this exercise 5 or 10 times.