Soothing Your Travel Aches and Pains

Atypical business trip is bound to induce a physical ailment. Spend a day at a conference, lugging around a bag of program materials, and you've got Conference Shoulder. Or you might get a case of Trade Show Legs from standing on the show floor all day, meeting with customers. Just sleeping in a hotel room often brings Foreign Bed Pain. And all those aches can be further complicated by the Airplane Seat Lower Back you catch on the flight in.

When those conditions set in, all you probably want to do is climb in bed and go to sleep. But your first inclination—to do nothing—is also your worst. "Often people ignore their pain, and it doesn't go away," says Barbara Bancroft, one of nine licensed massage therapists at the Sheraton El Conquistador Resort and Country Club in Tucson, Arizona, which hosts many conferences and conventions. "Ignoring it only makes it worse."

So what should you do? Many hotels catering to business travelers now offer a slew of options to combat the physical stress of business travel. In addition to fitness and exercise centers, some properties offer full spas, staffed by professional massage therapists, nutritionists, yoga instructors, and other New Age relaxation experts.

Bancroft says she works with many business executives and salespeople, especially when the hotel is hosting a convention or large meeting. "The most common complaint that I hear is neck, back, and shoulder pain from driving in cars and flying in airplanes," she says. "If they're just looking to relax, I do a Swedish message with a medium amount of pressure." If clients comes straight from a long airplane ride, she'll give them a deeper massage, concentrating on the neck, shoulders, and back.

Easing that upper body tension is especially important if you need to have a clear head for an important sales meeting or presentation, says Diane D'Aversa, spa director at the Wyndham Palace Resort & Spa in the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. "You're cutting off circulation and oxygen to your brain."

But if you're staying in a hotel that doesn't offer such luxuries—or you don't want to shell out $40 to $85 for a massage—there are some activities you can do in your room. If you're just looking to relax, D'Aversa suggests lighting an aromatherapy candle, or taking a bath with scented salts or oils. Listening to relaxing music can also take your mind off of tense situations, says Noel Labak, a massage therapist at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers.

To give yourself your own minimassage, Labak suggests packing a golf ball. You can roll it around the floor under your foot, or lie down on top of it on the bed and use it to put pressure on a tense area of your back. Another way to soothe aching muscles is to take a hot bath or shower, or apply moist heat with a wet towel. (If there's a microwave in your room, Bancroft advises, use it to heat the towel.)

Stretching your muscles is also important. "Stretching is one of the wonderful ways our bodies release stress and tension," Bancroft says. Instead of just holding a position, though, stretch your body with full range of motion. Keep your muscles moving, but don't bounce; that risks tearing your muscles. As you stretch take deep, slow breaths from the diaphragm.

For more intense physical pain, Tommy Sheehan, a strength and conditioning coach at Columbia University, suggests a more rigorous exercise routine, but only if your body is accustomed to frequent exercise. Swimming laps in the hotel pool or jogging around the hotel grounds or a nearby park are both great aerobic workouts, but you can find other ways to exercise in your room. "You can always pack a jump rope," says Joanna Moehle, fitness supervisor at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. Or if you're a member at a gym, ask a trainer there to develop a workout you can do on the road.

Even without leaving your hotel room or using any equipment, you can give your body a substantial workout and relieve its travel tension. Sheehan suggests working through a circuit of simple exercises that use your body weight as resistance—in other words, he says, "things you probably did when you were in [gym class] when you were young."

First, warm up your muscles by vigorously marching in place for a few minutes, followed by five to ten minutes of stretches. Then rotate through a regimen of exercises, like push-ups or jumping jacks, that increase your heart rate and work different muscle groups. Do each exercise for 20 seconds, then rest for 20 seconds, and then do the next exercise. If you work out frequently at home, you can go through the circuit of exercises more than once; the whole routine can take as little as 15 minutes. But the exercises will help your trip—and help you survive that unfamiliar hotel mattress. "After a long day," Sheehan says, "you're going to be ready to sleep after that [workout]."