Whether you are travelling to your next sporting event or you’re making that dreaded Monday morning commute to work, travelling is part and parcel of our daily lives and can add significant stress to your day.
Traveling certainly can be a challenge, but fear not! Here at ithlete, we’ve gathered steps you can take to reduce the hassle of getting you and your family around and keep your heart rate variability (HRV) from taking that dip during travelling we know a lot of you suffer!
Make a list of what you need to buy, pack and do before any travel occurs
The tendency to think about your upcoming trip while at the same time forgetting what you need to bring can set in a lot earlier than you think. It’s a simple step but make a list of you need to pack/bring and anything else that needs to be checked off on your ‘travel to do list’ well in advance of travelling. Doing this when you are calm and fresh will certainly help keep pre travel stress at bay. Its worth keeping this list with you throughout the whole of your traveling preparation and even take it with you when you travel to your next event just in case you get attacked by those “did I remember to…” moments while en route. And of course don’t forget to pack your ithlete Finger Sensor!
Get Plenty of Rest
Rushing to get everything done before you travel can leave you exhausted. This does fall into the ‘easier said than done’ category but don’t travel tired. Navigating through those unfamiliar airports and motorways is a lot more difficult when you’re not fresh and well rested.
We know from previous posts that sleep and HRV are intrinsically linked; good sleep promotes HRV. If you haven’t already taken a look at our tips for a good nights sleep post earlier this year then we highly recommend it! Not only will these tips help you breeze through those tricky airports or motorways but will boost your HRV!
Stay Hydrated and Well Fed
Travelling can leave you astray from your daily routine and the stresses it brings can often make it easy to forget to hydrate. Make sure you carry a water bottle on you at all times that you can refill on your travels.
If you read our recent nutrition and HRV post, stress can lead us to unhealthy snacks we otherwise wouldn’t eat. However tempted you may be, avoid those fast food courts at airports and motorway service stations and prepare food to take before you travel.
Monitor your Stress With ithlete
Make sure you monitor your stress whether through travel, training or work with ithlete. A feature of ithlete Pro is the fully configurable timeline chart for HRV, resting heart rate, training load and subjective data enabling better insight into which lifestyle factors impact performance and recovery most. Additionally, ithlete is the only app that enables you to record subjective feelings of stress, fatigue, mood and your diet and sleep quality which allows you to discover which factors affect not only your training recovery, but also your overall health!
Haven’t got ithlete Pro? You can sign up to your two-week free trial here