My fitness level improved a lot this summer, and I expected to keep this upward trend going. Then I decided to visit a friend in Thailand with my travel points…
The weather in Thailand is hot and humid
These are far from ideal walking circumstances for me. I have quite severe lymphatic edema and can’t handle temperatures above 27 degrees Celsius / 80.6 degrees Fahrenheit very well.
When I arrived at my friends house, after almost 24 hours of traveling, my feet were painfully swollen and I was exhausted. Next day felt like one big sweaty hot flush, even though I hardly walked and did shy away from the sun.
What to do when it’s too hot for hiking?
I had to come up with a consolidation plan for my current fitness level, couldn’t stand the thought of starting all over again in 5 weeks time when I will be returning to Holland.
Luckily my friend came up with a solution: Thai Massage!
There are 2 important ingredients for my progress in the past year:
Fascia therapy and lymphatic drainage on the one hand, and daily exercise on the other.
The weather in Thailand may be an extra challenge to work out consistently, but therapy-wise I am in heaven here!
There are very well-trained masseuses literally everywhere, even on one of our favorite food markets there is a massage point for 10 customers at a time.
Thai massage turns out to be an excellent therapy for me
With its focus on fascia tissue and lymphatic drainage, it boosts my circulation, diminishes the swelling in my lower body and relieves my pain.
For the price of one hour of fascia therapy in Holland, I can get as many as 10 to 12 Thai massages (including a tip for the masseuse every time of course). So I decided to take 3 to 4 massages per week for the time being.
After my third treatment past week, a total body massage this time, I noticed a big improvement already.
So maybe, instead of consolidating, I can even improve the state of my legs! There’s nothing wrong with dreaming, isn’t it?!
I also got my daily exercise covered : The compound where my friend lives has a swimming pool, that is hardly used outside the school holidays.
It’s never too hot for swimming!
Each morning before breakfast, I go for a swim now.
Nobody in the pool, but me. What a luxury!
A cool way of exercising, pun intended 😉
Other tips for working out in a tropical climate?
I would love to hear from you, do you have trouble working out in the heat? And how do you deal with exercise while traveling?
You’re making me envious, I would love to get massages like that! They would probably work wonders for my back as well.
Now that I returned from my trip, I got back to swimming. Lovely! That definitely is a great way to exercise in the heat. And when the temperatures are dropping, to work on my cold training. The water is 19C at the moment. Last year I managed to continue until the water temperature dropped below 17C. I hope to do a little bit better this year.
Doing my exercise routines during travelling posed a big challenge. In June I was camping in a tent and then I did alright. But being in hotels and apartments made it more difficult for some reason. Sometimes because the room wasn’t big enough to lie on the floor; sometimes because I had left my stuff in the car that was parked far away.
So I kept to a little routine of 5 minutes that I could do on the bed and considered all the walking I was doing during the day as my daily exercise. 🙂
Have a marvellous time and I hope your legs will recover even further.
xxx
I wish I could take my fantastic masseuse back to Holland with me, but that’s kind of selfish ofcourse, she has her life here… So I just make the most of it while I am here!
Since a few days, the temperature has dropped below 30 degrees Celcius and I have adjusted to a tropical climate, so I managed to do some walking on top of my morning swimming. That feels good!
Working out while traveling is a challenge indeed, good that you found a routine that worked for you!
Enjoy your back yard swimming at home, toi toi toi for low degree dips in the pool during winter…
Xxx