Fitness on the Fly

Anxiety, stress, and restlessness are common complaints for air travelers. And the psychological drawbacks are just the start. The bodily tolls of repeated flights can extend to dehydration, sleep disturbance, and even deep-vein thrombosis – a medical condition in which blood clots form in the legs because of prolonged immobility. So what’s a frequent flier to do?Recognizing that physical and psychological complications exist with flying, some airlines are combating the unavoidable aggravators with in-flight fitness options. This June, Song, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, introduced the On the Fly exercise kit. Designed by gym owner David Barton, this compact carry-on enables travelers to keep their workout schedules active whether shuttling the Eastern corridor or taking longer trips to the West Coast. For a mere $8, passengers get a small padded ball, a piece of blue rubber tubing, and an illustrated instruction manual in which a faux-hawked hipster and a mini-skirted woman demonstrate bicep curls, leg lifts, and other resistance exercises.“This is awesome if you want an actual workout,” said Abigail Sweitzer, a personal trainer at New York Health and Racquet Club who is developing an airplane exercise program of her own.Mr. Barton’s easy-to-follow, seven-part routine does its best to take into account the limited mobility of coach by restricting movement so that elbows stay close to the body and legs never fully extend. But is a rigorous workout what most passengers are looking for?As Ms. Sweitzer noted of the typical air commuter, “As much as they’re flying a red-eye at 6 a.m…this is not what the average Joe is going to need.”Michele Peperone, one of the owners of Stretch, a Chelsea fitness studio specializing in yoga and Pilates, agrees. “I would lean more to the twisting and stretching,” she said.JetBlue Airways went exactly in that direction with the introduction of “Flying Pilates” in March of this year. (This follow-up to the airline’s successful “Airplane Yoga” (2002) was created with the health-club chain Crunch Fitness.) Easily accessed from the back seat-pock et, the two-sided instructional card details four different exercises: a leg stretch, a spinal twist, an arm movement, and a back curve.According to Ms. Peperone, however, the move from yoga to Pilates is actually a step backwards.“It takes a lot more modifications to translate Pilates to an airplane seat,” she said. “They’re really just using the back of the seat as the mat.”Proper form for a Pilates spinal twist, for example, requires that the arms reach away from the body and the legs extend. A correlative yoga move can be much more contained, with one hand near the hip and the other on the knee. 696 828 892 839Ultimately, travelers might do better to download Jet-Blue’s still-accessible yoga PDF online (www.jetblue.com/pdf/yoga_card.pdf)or consider purchasing a more comprehensive guide. Two noteworthy choices are Rachel Lehmann-Haupt and Bess Abrahams’ book “Airplane Yoga” (Penguin, 2003; $13) and Carol Dickman’s audiotape “In-Flight Yoga” (Yoga Enterprises, Inc., 1997; $11.95).The former provides more than 40 movements, postures, and/or breathing techniques to take ticket-holders through the initial security line, onto the plane, and afterwards to the baggage claim. Jonathan Fields, co-director of Sonic Yoga in Hell’s Kitchen, sees the manual as “reasonably straightforward” but confesses that the writers may be more open-minded about doing lunges in the aisles than most people.“Any aberrant behavior, you may get a tap on the shoulder saying please take your seat immediately,” he said.For a less theatrical alternative, Ms. Dickman’s audiotape spends quite a bit of time just on getting connected to the breath as a way to calm nerves.“If breathing can get you through childbirth, it can get you through anything,” said Ms. Sweitzer.The ensuing regimen for “In-Flight Yoga” is drawn from Kripalu, a form that’s been known to incorporate the chair (thereby making seated adjustments irrelevant). Interestingly, the idea of the audio tape came from Ms. Dickman’s volunteer work as a yoga teacher at the Jewish Guild for the Blind.As to the future of in-flight fitness, it inevitably lies with video. Mr. Barton currently has a video component for “On the Fly” in the works, and major airlines such as Lufthansa and Northwest already screen instructional tapes overhead for longer international flights.Lufthansa’s “Flyrobics” (2000) is a 10-minute routine in which the 3-D animated trainer, “Toni,” instructs passengers in simple calisthenics and aerobics. Similarly streamlined, Northwest’s seven minute “Airobics” (1998) has a multicultural quartet of stewardesses demonstrating head rolls, hand stretches, and leg lifts. The problem is that the first movement is actually out-of-date.“360-degree neck rolls are considered dangerous and are contraindicated by the A.C.S.M.,” said Mr. Fields, who is accredited by the American College of Sports Medicine as well as a certified yoga instructor.But the videos have one distinct advantage: They give travelers the permission to exercise without self-consciousness.“No one will wonder what you’re doing when you’re with the video,” said Mr. Fields. Better yet, they’re free.

Fitness on the Fly

Fitness on the Fly

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