On Board An Aeroplane Exercise

Those travelling on aircraft can experience side effects different to those experienced from other modes of transport. This is due to the humidity in the cabin, time zone changes, blood circulation and motion sickness, and all of these symptoms are exacerbated for passengers travelling on long haul flights. Some simple exercises can help relieve these symptoms, particularly those associated with poor circulation, which can be harmful on longer flights. Placing your arms on the armrests provided, and stretching your legs out parallel, try gently raising and lowering your feet to the most possible, holding them mid-air if possible, doing the whole exercise continually for about two or three minutes. This type of exercise might be difficult if there is restricted footroom. If so, another thing you can do is to cross your feet, and rotate the upper foot in a 180-degree circle - backwards and forwards, swapping around after three to four minutes. To help circulation on the full length of your leg, 'knee hugs' can be useful - which involves leaning forward slightly, and lifting your leg a few inches by holding underneath each knee, repeating about ten to fifteen times. If you experience numb hands or fingers, a tennis ball or stress ball can help, and can be squeezed in and out alternately between other exercises. Throughout your flight, you should try to stand up regularly in the cabin, whether you need to use the toilet or not, and try to move as much as possible - even wiggling fingers and toes. All of these type of exercises should be done at least once every hour, and you should aim to do these more if you are above retirement age, have diabetes, or any known circulation problem.