Coffee, tea, or exercise?
'People have left these sessions with their butt cheeks hurting!" The announcement came at the start of fitness entrepreneur David Barton's training class for Song airlines flight attendants. A large, floppy figure-eight-shape resistance band with plastic handles and a small yellow foam squeeze ball were the weapons of choice to assault abs, glutes, and assorted other muscles while seated on a plane. Starting this June, Song will sell an exercise pack including the band, ball, and an instruction booklet for $8 a pop; an in-air video is slated for fall.
"Straighten your back like you're up against a brick wall! Pull your bellybutton in like you're fitting into a tight pair of jeans!" shouted Barton. Placing the giant rubber band beneath one foot and then the other, he stretched each leg s-l-o-w-l-y while pulling back on the ever-tautening band. When the attendants completed the pulls, lunges, and curls, sweat was breaking out all over the room.
"This is not JetBlue yoga!" Barton declared, decrying that airline's "passive" approach. The crowd roared.
Call it the battle of the airline buns. In March, JetBlue Airways began placing in each seatback pocket a "Flying Pilates" card depicting four "core-strengthening moves, or relaxing without the aid of petite liquor bottles." It pairs up neatly with the airline's yoga card. Karen Alschuler, an urban planner in San Francisco who has traveled 500,000 miles plus over the past five years, thinks the yoga exercises are "fantastic." A regular user, she has given copies to her business partners.
At the same time, an increasing number of airlines--Northwest and China among them--now play in-cabin exercise videos. A new book, Airplane Yoga, by Rachel Lehmann-Haupt and Bess Abrahams is already in its fourth printing.
Why the surge of plane fitness? Song and JetBlue say it's for passenger well-being. But Oakland lawyer Gerald Sterns believes fear of legal liability is driving the trend. Hundreds of passengers have sued after developing potentially fatal cases of deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in the lower extremities that can travel into the lungs to cause a pulmonary embolism). DVT has also caused several deaths. Airlines should be "responsible for informing passengers of the physical impact of flight," says Diana Fairechild, an airline passenger activist.
The health issues are real, says R. Bradley Sack, director of the Johns Hopkins Hospital International Travel Medicine Service. "Every time you take a long-haul flight" --four hours or more--"you are at some risk" for DVT, explains Sack, who himself was hospitalized twice for the disorder. As you sit, cramped, for long hours, blood pools in the lower extremities, increasing the chance of a clot. Because the symptoms--usually leg pain, redness, and swelling--may not show up until a day or two after the flight, travelers may not realize until too late that staying immobile through a long flight was a bad idea.
The best defense: "Don't sit and vegetate." Drink water (not alcohol) to keep the blood from thinning from dehydration. And keep your blood pumping. Because of security concerns, some airlines may restrict strolls through the aisles. So an in-seat workout may be your best option. But should it be stretchy bands or yoga? It doesn't matter, Sack says. Just keep your leg muscles moving.
The Guide
To stimulate blood circulation as well as reduce stress, yoga instructor and Airplane Yoga coauthor Bess Abrahams recommends these onboard moves:
WALK. As you stroll about, alternate balancing yourself on the balls of your feet, then on your heels. You can also flex when standing or seated.
USE THE BARF BAG. Wring it out like a towel with your hands and wrists, while simultaneously scrunching your toes back and forth. (A magazine can stand in, though not U.S. News, of course.) Then shake your hands and feet out.
TWIST, DON'^T SHOUT With fingers interlaced and palms inverted, stretch arms overhead, then twist your upper body to each side. Can be done seated or standing. -Diane Cole
This story appears in the June 7, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.