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10 Cockpit Exercises

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Extended physical stagnation, particularly during long flights, is detrimental to health, causing restricted blood flow and increasing the risk of clots.
  • The article provides eight simple, seated exercises designed to combat stagnation, improve circulation, and reduce stiffness.
  • These exercises target various body parts, including ankles, feet, neck, knees, shoulders, core, and arms, and for pilots, require ensuring aircraft control (autopilot or copilot) while performing them.
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Extended physical stagnation is not good for your body. It restricts blood flow and can lead to clots. Fortunately, you can take action and create circulation in your body, even while flying on long cross-country flights when you can’t get up and walk around. The following exercises can easily be performed while you’re seated, but they require you to take your feet off the rudder pedals and your hands off the yoke, so make sure you have an autopilot or a copilot who can keep the airplane under control while you get your blood flowing.

1. Ankle circles
Pull your feet off the rudder pedals and make 10 circles with your toes in each direction. Repeat five times.

Pia Bergqvist

Pia Bergqvist joined FLYING in December 2010. A passionate aviator, Pia started flying in 1999 and quickly obtained her single- and multi-engine commercial, instrument and instructor ratings. After a decade of working in general aviation, Pia has accumulated almost 3,000 hours of flight time in nearly 40 different types of aircraft.

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