Gary Brecka shares five practices for staying sharp on long flights: sip water steadily rather than gulping, do ten slow squats every hour to keep circulation moving, take ten deep breaths to fully oxygenate your lungs, avoid prolonged sitting that stalls your lymphatic system, and wear blue-light-blocking glasses to protect your circadian rhythm from cabin lighting.
Chapters
These are the non-negotiables that keep me feeling sharp and strong no matter how long the flight. Hydration is everything. I'm sipping water, not chugging a bottle all at once. Your body can only absorb so much water at a time. Every hour I'm standing up, I'm doing about 10 air squats right there in the aisle, and I'll just do 10 slow air squats, and I'll remind myself to take 10 intentional deep breaths. Exercise those auxiliary muscles of respiration. Get oxygen deep down into the lobes of your lungs. These are easy tricks to actually take the edge off of travel. When you sit still for hours, your lymphatic system shuts down. So if you're not moving, you're not detoxing, you're not circulating, and you're setting yourself up to feel like garbage when you land. And don't forget to block the junk light. I'm wearing blue light blocking glasses on every flight. The lighting on airplanes is terrible for your circadian rhythm. If you want any chance of adjusting to a new time zone or just feeling rested when you land, you've gotta protect your eyes from the artificial light.