5 Crucial Tips for Traveling with Spine Pain

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If y'all are like me, you may have interest and joy in traveling. It is fun to visit new places or go visit old friends in other parts of the country. However, traveling can also present numerous challenges, especially when you or a patient are experiencing spine pain. I know personally that I deal with spine pain when I travel, especially long distances (like my flights overseas for mission work). I've also received numerous questions in my career about the best way to manage pain during travel because often a patient books the trip before they develop pain and now must manage that throughout the duration of the trip.

Today, I have decided to share some of my most crucial patient education points when it comes to helping your patients (or you) manage spine pain during any kind of travel whether that be by car or by plane (my favorite way to travel, although I'm sure I'm writing to some folks who love a good road trip too!). I hope that this not only helps you but also provides you with some relevant and impactful educational prompts for your patients as well. 

Make Sure Your Seat is in a Good Position. Super simple, yet often difficult. I always educate my patients and remind myself that car seats, plane seats, etc are horribly designed. They are usually bucket style seats to some degree and reverse nearly every natural curve of our spine. They don't support where we need it and over-exaggerate support where we don't need it. So, start by trying to slide the chair back so you can sit a little more forward with your feet on the floor and a comfortable distance from any pedals.

Use a Lumbar Roll. An actual lumbar roll. I've found that the seats that the advertised built-in lumbar (back) support is not really nearly adequate to provide the necessary postural support for your spine. Using an external low back foam roll or half foam roll support can greatly help maintain good upright posture when traveling and help manage any pain. This goes for autos or airplanes.

Flip your car headrest backward. I used to get neck pain and headache onset fairly quickly on a road trip and that had to do with the fact that our headrests kick our head way way more forward than it actually needs to be which in turn creates more stress on the neck tissues and can lead to headache, pain onset or increase in pain. I've found and my patients have reported that this simple fix can really help get your head back over your shoulders and keep your spine in a good, less painful position.

Use an angle seat wedge. My mom actually discovered this as we were talking about how to manage her back pain. She had planned a multi week road trip and, after discussing it together, decided to buy a travel seat wedge. This helps take out some of that "bucket" angle and again allows you to sit more upright as well as have better placement for your back support. Bonus: they are not super expensive! It was an experiment, but it totally worked and greatly assisted her travels and now doesn't travel without it.

Get up and move/stretch. Whether driving or flying, it is crucial if you are dealing with spine pain to get up and move and stretch. Maintaining a poor static position is a sure fire way to increase or worsen any spine pain. If I am driving, I stretch/move every time I stop for gas or a potty break (which there are many when you road trip with 6 kids). I will even stretch when I am waiting at an airport gait. It induces some funny looks sometimes, but it is totally worth it to feel better. And then, also make it a point to walk the aisle of an airplane every 20-30 min. My patients and I have had good results with that plan - also keeps the blood flowing well.

So, those are my 5 key patient education points for traveling with spine pain. It focuses a lot on finding a way to keep the spine in a good postural position and avoiding static positions that increase pain by getting up, stretching, and moving around. And as you can probably tell, I practice these myself because, I am not immune to spine pain just because I am a PT and neither are you. I hope you find these tips helpful and plan to use them in your patient interactions.

Jason.

***Check out my book "Rehab the World" written for Physical Therapists and other rehab professionals to encourage us in our workplace and prepare us to serve those around us. If you like, please leave a review and spread the word!!*** 

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