Your Body Is Your Best Travel Companion (Here’s How to Pack It Well)
Before you go anywhere — a two-week adventure abroad or a Saturday hike along the Patapsco River — your body is already packed. It’s the one piece of luggage you can’t leave behind. And how well you’ve prepared it determines whether you’re surviving the experience or actually enjoying it.
I’ve been teaching movement for 40 years, and what I’ve noticed is that most people don’t think about physical preparation until something hurts. The lower back ache after a long flight. The knee that complains on the second mile of a trail. The hip that seizes up after a bike ride. These aren’t random failures — they’re signals that your body needed more support than it had.
It Starts Before You Even Leave: The Sitting Problem
Here’s something that connects almost everyone I teach: too much sitting. At a desk, in a car, on a plane. And the biggest issue isn’t just that we sit too much; it’s how we sit.
Most people sit in lumbar flexion; a rounded lower back that puts sustained pressure on the discs and compresses the spine in exactly the direction it doesn’t want to be compressed for hours at a time. That dull lower back ache you feel when you finally stand up after a long flight or a full day at your desk? That’s lumbar flexion doing its damage.
The work we do in class directly addresses this. Core stabilization — training your transverse abdominis to support your spine — gives your lower back the internal scaffolding it needs to resist that slump. Mobility work restores the range of motion that chronic sitting steals. And learning how your spine actually works means you start catching yourself in that slouch before the ache sets in.
If you fly regularly or sit at a desk all day, this isn’t optional maintenance. It’s how you protect your back for the long haul. I always give more specific flying tips in my pre-retreat meetings.
What Your Favorite Activities Actually Demand
When I ask students what they do outside of class, the answers are all over the map — and I love that. But every activity makes specific demands on the body, and most people don’t realize how directly the work we do in class supports the things they love.
Hiking and trail running along your favorite river or anywhere with uneven terrain requires ankle stability, hip strength — especially gluteus medius for side-to-side stabilization — and the kind of balance that keeps your knees tracking safely on descents. One of my students Kathleen, runs regularly, and the balance and hip work we do is a big part of why her knees stay happy. She also loves my health tips in my twice monthly emails. You can join at the bottom of this page.
Cycling — whether it’s weekend rides or those beautiful inn-to-inn cycling trips like my student Charlene — demands hip mobility, core endurance, and spinal stability through sustained postures. The forward-leaning position on a bike compresses the same structures that desk sitting does, just from a different angle. Strong, mobile hips and an engaged core make the difference between riding comfortably and paying for it afterward.
Even something as specific as running the Disney Princess Half Marathon — which my student Kimberly enjoyed — benefits from the stabilization, hip strengthening, and mobility work we do every week. Runners are often strong in the forward-and-back plane but underdeveloped in lateral stability, which is exactly what glute med work addresses.
When Travel Gets Adventurous
And then there’s the stuff nobody warns you about. Climbing a sand dune in the Sahara, where every step slides and your core has to work overtime to keep you upright. Getting on a camel, which tips dramatically forward and then dramatically back when it stands — your hips and core absorb that shift, or you white-knuckle the whole experience. Navigating ancient staircases where every step is a different height.
Steven came back from gorilla trekking in Uganda and told me he wouldn’t have been able to do it without the work we do in class. Hours on uneven jungle terrain at altitude — that’s core strength, hip stability, balance, and endurance, all at once. The same principles apply in a four-by-four jeep on a safari.
I’ve also seen what consistent class work can do for people dealing with neuropathy. Through mobilization, nerve flossing, and building strength at range of motion, Robin has almost eliminated neuropathy she’d been dealing with for over a decade. Another with the same condition has seen significant balance improvements. These results come from consistent, specific practice over time — and they translate directly to whether someone can confidently walk a cobblestone street or feel their footing on a nature trail.
What This Really Comes Down To
Whether you’re training for a half marathon, planning a cycling trip through wine country, hiking the Patapsco this weekend, trying to get through a transatlantic flight without your lower back staging a revolt, or preparing for the adventure of a lifetime — the foundation is the same. Core stability. Hip strength and mobility. Balance. Range of motion.
The work we do in class isn’t ultimately about looking good or hitting fitness goals. It’s about preparing your body to say yes — to the hike, the ride, the long travel day, the moments that become the stories you tell for years.
Warmly,
Samira
P.S. If you’ve ever had a moment during an activity where you thought “thank goodness I’ve been going to class” — or “I really wish I had been” — I’d love to hear it. Those stories make my day. For my students, tell me in class! For my readers, reach out.
