While traveling, your body will have a propensity to tighten up. Being stuck in more seated conditions and being pushed a bit outside your normal routine will make you feel differently than you’re accustomed to.
This is all a GOOD thing for your body, because sometimes when traveling, you can’t do all that you would normally like to make it feel good. You simply have to go with your routine being disrupted.
This is where meditating on those tight or discomforting spots can help you grow. In fact, it’s what I’ve been doing during my travels in New York City training at Marcelo’s and Renzo’s.
The Struggle of Public Transportation
I’ve had to spend a lot of time in airports, planes, and on public transportation. Within this has been a lot of walking and carrying bags. I’m obviously very particular about posture, positioning, movement mechanics, and alignment. This trip is teaching me so much because I don’t have the freedom to fidget and open up constantly. Instead, I have to sink, anchor, and ground in a sense of stillness.
This is something I did on the train rides. I literally turned my transit time into a standing meditation, which was especially helpful in observing my body and also to gain energy — as we all know, our rest cycles are disrupted when traveling. These standing meditations that focus on the body help reveal a lot INTERNALLY.
When I do have the chance to open my body up and train, it’s even more effective and revealing about my mind/body connection. S,ometimes you have to be opportunistic and use the bar on a subway as a way to decompress your spine and shoulders.
Next time you travel keep this in mind, but if your hips get quite tight, check out this video below:
Important Tips To Consider When Traveling
- Know your “hot spots,” or areas that get painful, tight, or irritated when you can’t give it the proper TLC
- Have a subsequent game plan or series of movements to use for these hot spots
- Also have a go-to routine to activate and prime your body that you can use in 5 to 15 minutes as a way to reset and prepare your body for when you do train
Final Considerations
Observe the sensations in your body. There is no need to be in such a hurry to fix them.
I know I am an extreme case as this is my craft, but we can all relate to not enjoying feeling a certain way. But the more we can simply observe that, we can then chart course from there in a more productive fashion.
This also takes the power away from the external world and places it back into your inner world. This is where our true power lies.
I cover more performance training tidbits with my ebook “The Foundations of Movement Autonomy, Vitality, and Performance” that will help you prepare, recover, and perform better on the mats
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