Flying to a distant place is fun and all, but suffering from back pain and swollen legs is not. Sadly, back pain and swollen legs are side effects of flying due to you sitting in a cramped-up space without much room for exercise. When we’re seated for long periods, such as when we’re on a long-haul flight, gravity forces the blood down our legs and makes it harder for it to go back to the heart. This leads to poor blood circulation, fluid retention, and lethally, blood clots.
To keep your legs and back as safe and free from pain as possible, we’ve come up with ten tips that are sure to keep you comfortable while flying.
1. Stay Hydrated
It might seem counterproductive to get rid of your swelling feet by ingesting more water, hydration actually helps flush out excess sodium from your body. Excess sodium is what causes swelling during flights. Make sure you’re drinking plenty of water before and during the flight so you’re traveling prepared.
Another plus to drinking lots of water? It makes you walk to the lavatory to relieve yourself, giving your legs and back a much-needed break from sitting down.
2. Avoid Salty Foods
And speaking of excess sodium, we highly recommend reducing your sodium intake before and during the flight. Excess sodium causes fluid retention—imagine eating lots of salt and walking into the airport bloated. Why, you’ll become even more bloated when you’re in the air!
3. Wear Compression Socks
Compression socks are special socks that apply pressure on your ankles and legs. They help improve the blood flow between your legs and heart. They also reduce swelling and pain by reducing fluid retention and inflammation in your legs and ankles.
On top of that, they keep your legs nice and toasty. Flights can be pretty cold, and you’ll want to keep warm as much as you can. They also come in lots of designs so you can fly in style.
4. Stretch Your Legs Once in a While
Sitting down for long periods puts aggravating pressure on our backs and legs. Humans are just simply not built to be sitting down for too long. As much as you can, you need to be relieving pressure by standing up and walking down the aisle if you can. You can head to the lavatory to freshen up, or maybe even find someone with an animal in tow so you can admire its cuteness. The main point is to keep moving!
5. Do a Seated Workout
If the flight is too full or you’re in a window seat with other people occupying the middle and aisle seat, you can always try doing seated workouts. Here are some ideas:
- Point and flex your toes.
- Rotate your feet to one side for a few seconds, then reverse.
- Keep your feet on the floor and tiptoe.
- Extend your legs and bend forward, trying to touch your toes.
- Clasp your hands under one leg and bring it up to your chest. Hold then switch.
6. Stow Bags in the Overhead Bin
Airplanes are already cramped enough with airlines shoving as many seats as they can. Don’t make everything cramped even more by storing your bag by your feet. Instead, you should make use of the overhead bins. This gives your legs much-needed space to move around and breathe. The more space your legs have to move, the less they will swell.
7. Keep Your Legs Straight
We know how uncomfortable it is to find a comfortable position on a flight, but contorting yourself like an octopus isn’t going to help. In fact, it might make things worse because you’ll be cutting off the blood supply to your limbs. For example, something as simple as crossing your right leg over your left knee will be a pain to fix as restoring blood flow takes extra long in the air! This is dangerous for those with hypertension as it can cause blood clots.
As much as possible, keep those legs straight.
8. Shift Sitting Positions Regularly
At the same time, you shouldn’t be staying put in the same position for too long. Even sitting down like normal will be uncomfortable after some time because of the seat pressing against the back of your legs. Wiggle your butt around and find another comfortable position, or stand up for a little bit to restore blood flow before sitting down again.
9. Elevate Your Feet
Elevating your legs and feet can help reduce swelling and back pain while flying. It improves blood flow and circulation.
Try using a foot hammock. This is a device that you can hang over your tray table and rest your feet on.
If you’ve got nobody sitting beside you, take advantage of it by swinging your legs over the empty seats. Raise the armrests to make things easier, and if you’re in the middle of the plane, you can even use all seats as a makeshift bed!
10. Wear Comfortable Footwear
If you can, you should wear footwear that is easy to slip in and out of. This will not only save you time at the x-ray section where you have to take off your footwear, but it will also allow you to be extra comfortable on the flight. You can do stretches, massage your feet, and do a couple of exercises a lot better if your feet are free of their confines.
Just remember to not take things too far. If your feet are smelly, give your feet a good scrub before the flight and wear socks that prevent foot odor. Don’t go bare all the way either—planes are rarely ever deep-cleaned, and you won’t be sure what kind of gunk you’d be stepping in, especially in the lavatories. That water you stepped on probably isn’t water.
