Good health is important to all Good Sam members. But with age, many must adapt to chronic health issues such as arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure that can affect the quality of your life and travel. Adding a few healthy habits to your daily routine can go a long way toward minimizing the impact of such conditions, helping you stay healthy, and improving your overall quality of life.
Healthy eating and exercise are the cornerstones of maintaining optimum fitness. Long hours spent driving or as a passenger can lead to joint stiffness and pain. One of the advantages of RV living, however, is having choices. You can decide how far to travel each day and how active to be. While you’re enroute to the next destination, a ten minute walk at a rest stop will rest cramped muscles and increase energy levels.
RVers also have the choice to avoid fast food where meals high in salt, sodium and fat jeopardize our control of diabetes and other conditions. Even in a compact RV kitchen, it’s easy to steam vegetables, cook rice and serve lean meat. Snacks can mean raisins, fruit or “gorp” (the hiker’s mix of nuts, dried fruits and chocolate chunks.)
Exercise should be a staple in every RVers’ daily routine. It not only raises energy, controls weight and helps maintain overall health, but it also improves sleep and combats fatigue and depression. An additional benefit is that activity slows the progression of disease.
RV Exercises Designed for Small Spaces: Did you know it’s better to exercise consistently five minutes each day than to attempt a 20–minute workout that quickly gets lost in the shuffle.
- Stretch your arms to the sky, then bend at the waist and lower your head between your knees for a few seconds.
- Draw circles on the floor with each leg a few times, like a ballet dancer.
- Lie on your back. Straighten your legs and raise them up as high as possible for a few minutes.
While these tips and exercises provide a higher chance of longevity, unfortunately, every individual is vulnerable to having the onset of unexpected health issues. And because Good Sam members are frequent travelers, you’re more likely to be away from home when you get sick or have an accident.
Because of this, the Good Sam Club has developed a medical and travel assistance plan with members in mind. Formerly known as Emergency Assistance Plus or EA+, Good Sam TravelAssist provides benefits tailored to members, whether they’re RVing in their home state or sightseeing halfway around the world including: assistance with transferring insurance information, replacing lost and stolen prescriptions, RV and other vehicle return, and many more important benefits.
With small preventative measures and Good Sam TravelAssist in your life, you can enjoy the RV lifestyle to the fullest knowing you’re taking care of yourself and your loved ones too.
Learn More About Good Sam TravelAssist
Barry Ulrich
Often forgotten/not mentioned is hydration. You gotta drink water while traveling. And you must hydrate when exercising, as well!
David Ginsburg
The concept of doing exercises on the road is a geat one, & you’re to be commended for promoting it.
However, 2 of the 3 exercises shown can cause more harm than good – I’m a Personal Trainer & Group Fitness Instrcutor, specializing in Seniors exercises, & in Remedial work.
The spinal flexion stretch has the participant rounding his back, instead of keeping neutral spine. This stretch can cause anterior disc herniation, & should be avoided.There is NO benefit to spinal hyperflexion for seniors – only downside.
Item 3 is a supine (lying face up0 abdominal exercise with STRAIGHT legs – which puts major loading on the lumbar spine (lower back) & is major contra-indicated exercise for senior populations.
Instead, the senior should use the mat to stabilize his spine, keep neutral spine – a small space between his back & the mat – engage core, breathe, & then do heel slides or heel drops.
Please ensure all exercises posted are safe for seniors!
With thanks & regards,
David
Good Sam says: Thank you for taking the time to share the risks of these exercises.
Terry Chase
A good brisk walk never hurts either, just so u keep moving for several brisk mins.
Del
A great daily exercise that we all have room for in our coaches are push ups. They work several upper body muscles and even some core muscles. If you have bad wrists or they are sore trying to do push up purchase some inexpensive push up handles at any large store like Walmart or Target, they alleviate the strain on the wrists, easy to pack and are light weight.
lee Hoffman
bending at waist to toes is not a good idea for those of us with osteopenian and especially those with osteoporosis. Vertibrae stress fractures can be the result.
Robert
If you like to do curls tie a gallon container of water to each end of your hiking stick and do your curls, presses etc That is only 12 pounds but better than nothing. Why be cramped? Step out the door and the whole world opens up for you
Ron Wardle
With truckers seemingly becoming less & less professional, you can’t rely on them to ‘flash’ you once you have cleared them enough to pull back into
their lane anymore. If they do, I always make it a point to flash my clearance lights, 2 pause 2 pause 2, just to make sure they see them & to let them know the assistance was appreciated.
Unfortunately fellow RVers don’t very often ‘flash’ when we pass either.
Little courtesies on the road make for safer & more enjoyable travel.
Just my two cents worth!!!
Take care – Ron