218. Gary Brecka Shares Top Airplane Travel Health Hacks - Move, Breathe, Hydrate

Thanksgiving through New Year’s creates a perfect storm for immune system failure: packed airports where everyone touches the same surfaces, recycled air in metal tubes with potentially sick passengers, and circadian rhythms destroyed by time zone chaos that leaves you dragging for days. However, with these non-negotiable’s that I share in this video, you’ll show up as the best version of yourself, instead of hoping you survive the trip! Join the Ultimate Human VIP community for Gary Brecka's proven wellness protocols! https://bit.ly/4ai0Xwg Thank you to our partners H2TABS: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4hMNdgg BODYHEALTH: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: http://bit.ly/4e5IjsV BAJA GOLD: "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3WSBqUa COLD LIFE: THE ULTIMATE HUMAN PLUNGE: https://bit.ly/4eULUKp WHOOP: JOIN AND GET 1 FREE MONTH!: https://bit.ly/3VQ0nzW AION: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4h6KHAD A-GAME: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: http://bit.ly/4kek1ij CARAWAY: “ULTIMATE” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3Q1VmkC HEALF: 10% OFF YOUR ORDER: https://bit.ly/41HJg6S BIOPTIMIZERS: “ULTIMATE” FOR 15% OFF: https://bit.ly/4inFfd7 RHO NUTRITION: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: https://bit.ly/44fFza0 GOPUFF: GET YOUR FAVORITE SNACK!: https://bit.ly/4obIFDC GENETIC METHYLATION TEST (UK ONLY): https://bit.ly/48QJJrk GENETIC TEST (USA ONLY): ⁠https://bit.ly/3Yg1Uk9 Watch the “Ultimate Human Podcast” every Tuesday & Thursday at 9AM EST: YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPQYX8 Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3RQftU0 Connect with Gary Brecka Instagram: https://bit.ly/3RPpnFs TikTok: https://bit.ly/4coJ8fo X: https://bit.ly/3Opc8tf Facebook: https://bit.ly/464VA1H LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4hH7Ri2 Website: https://bit.ly/4eLDbdU Merch: https://bit.ly/4aBpOM1 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/47ejrws Ask Gary: https://bit.ly/3PEAJuG Timestamps 00:00 Intro of Show 02:33 What Happens to Your Body during Flight? 03:40 Preparing Your Body before Travel 05:00 Non-Negotiable’s to Feeling Sharp while Traveling 10:00 What to Do After Landing 13:45 Join The Ultimate Human VIP Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not provide medical advice. It is not intended for diagnosing or treating any health condition. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional before making health or wellness decisions. Gary Brecka is the owner of Ultimate Human, LLC which operates The Ultimate Human podcast and promotes certain third-party products used by Gary Brecka in his personal health and wellness protocols and daily life and for which Ultimate Human LLC and / or Gary Brecka directly or indirectly holds an economic interest or receives compensation. Accordingly, statements made by Gary Brecka and others (including on The Ultimate Human podcast) may be considered promotional in nature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Gary Brecka?

  If you're like most people listening to this, you've got travel coming up and chances are it's happening during the most brutal stretch of the year for your immune system. Thanksgiving through New Year's is when everyone's flying somewhere. You're going to be on planes. You're going to be around sick people. Your body is going to be under stress, which means you're dealing with hacked airports, recycled air on long flights and time zones that wreck your circadian rhythm. Most people treat travel like something that just happens to them. They show up, they suffer through it, and then they hope they don't get wrecked. But you're not most people. So today, I'm going to walk you through some of my favorite things that I use to protect myself when I travel. These are moves I make before, during, and after every flight to land feeling my best. And if you implement even half of what I'm about to share, you're going to feel the difference immediately.

• 0:44Gary Brecka?

  Travel doesn't have to wreck you. You don't have to choose between seeing family and feeling good. You just need a plan. You're going to start to land clearer. You're going to have more energy and you're going to show up for your family. And most importantly, you're going to protect your immune system during the time of year when most people are getting hit the hardest. These are the non-negotiables that keep me feeling sharp and strong no matter how long the flight.

• 1:18Gary Brecka?

  You're about to get on a plane. Maybe it's next week, maybe it's next month. But if you're like most people listening to this, you've got travel coming up and chances are it's happening during the most brutal stretch of the year for your immune system. Thanksgiving through New Year's is when everyone's flying somewhere, which means you're dealing with hacked airports, recycled air on long flights, sleep schedules that get completely thrown off, and time zones that wreck your circadian rhythm. Add to that everyone around you coughing and sneezing while touching at the same armrests and bathroom doors and security bins you're about to touch. So here's what most people do. They hope for the best. They pack some hand sanitizers, maybe pop a vitamin C, and they pray that they don't get sick. And then they do.

• 2:00Gary Brecka?

  So they spend half their trip feeling like garbage, not exactly the version of yourself you want to show up as. But it doesn't have to be that way. Travel doesn't have to wreck you. You don't have to choose between seeing family and feeling good. You just need a plan, a set of non-negotiables that protect your body, your energy, and your immune system, no matter how long the flight, how many layovers, or how chaotic the holiday season gets. So today, I'm going to walk you through some of my favorite things that I use to protect myself when I travel. These are moves I make before, during, and after every flight to land feeling my best. And if you implement even half of one I'm about to share, you're going to feel the difference immediately. So let's start with what's actually happening to your body when you travel.

• 2:44Gary Brecka?

  Once you understand what's working against you, the tips I'm about to share will make complete sense. When you step onto a plane, you're entering one of the most stressful environments you can put your body in. I'm talking about physiological stress, not emotional stress, the kind that actually impacts your cells even when you don't feel it right away. First, you've got altitude. Commercial planes are pressurized to about 6,000 to sometimes 8,000 feet, which means less oxygen getting into your bloodstream. The body has to work harder to do everything it normally does with ease. That's stress on your cardiovascular system, stress on your brain, and more importantly, stress on your mitochondria. Then there's dehydration. The air inside an airplane has about 10% to 20% humidity.

• 3:27Gary Brecka?

  For context, the Sahara Desert sits around 25%. You're literally in a drier environment than a desert, and your body is losing moisture with every breath you take. Dehydration slows down every system in your body, including your immune system. Add to that, you're sitting for hours. Your circulation slows down. Blood pools in your legs. Oxygen delivery drops. Waste products aren't getting cleared the way that they should. And when your lymphatic system, which is a huge part of your immune defense, isn't moving, you're not detoxing. You're not circulating immune cells efficiently, and you're setting yourself up to get sick. And then there's probably the biggest factor. Everyone else on that plane. You're breathing recycled air with hundreds of other people in an enclosed metal tube.

• 4:11Gary Brecka?

  Trust me, I travel more than anyone you've ever met. And if someone three rows up is fighting off a cold, you're getting exposed. That's just the reality. Now here's the good news. Your immune system is incredibly powerful when you give it what it needs, but it can't do its job when you're dehydrated, sitting still, eating garbage, and stressing your body for six to eight hours straight. So what we're about to do is simple. We're going to remove the stressors and give your body exactly what it needs to stay strong. Preparing your body for travel starts before you even go to the airport. If you wait until you're at the gate to start thinking about your health, you've already lost half the battle. So here's what I do to set myself up for success. First, I eat a real meal before I leave for the airport. And when I say real, I mean nutrient-dense whole foods.

• 4:56Gary Brecka?

  Quality protein, healthy fats, some vegetables. This is not the time for grabbing something quick or convenient. Your body is about to go through a lot and you want to give it the fuel it needs to handle stress. If I'm flying domestic, anything under four or five hours, I'm not going to eat on the plane at all. I'll eat before I board and after I land. Fasting on airplanes is a superpower. When you eat, especially at altitude, your body has to divert blood flow to your gut to digest that food. That means less blood going to your brain, less oxygen getting where it needs to go, and more stress on a system that's already working harder than normal. Digestion is one of the most energy-intensive things your body does. And when you're in a low-oxygen, dehydrated environment,

• 5:41Gary Brecka?

  it's the last thing you want to be spending energy on. So I fast on domestic flights. Any flight less than five hours. It keeps blood flow in my brain, keeps my energy stable, and it keeps my body focused on protecting itself, not breaking down a mediocre sandwich that you got in the airport. Now, if you've got a long-haul flight, international, eight-plus hours, that's different. You will need to eat. But if you do, make it count. Bring your food with you if you can. Raw nuts, grass-fed jerky, something clean that's not loaded with seed oils and processed garbage. Most of what they're serving on airplanes is going to make you feel worse, not better. The other thing I do before I fly is I hydrate. And that means adding minerals and electrolytes to your water. I use a mineral salt called Baja Gold

• 6:25Gary Brecka?

  and an absolute must-have when traveling on an airplane to combat

• 6:30Gary Brecka?

  Static electricity, dry air, low barometric pressure, increased radiation, and additional toxicity bombarding your body from other passengers is something called H2 tab. These are hydrogen-rich water tablets that are made out of elemental magnesium. You drop this tablet into water, it effervesces into hydrogen gas. It helps with something called microvascular circulation, which is the part of the circulatory system that your heart is not responsible for. Remember, when you're sitting and you're static, blood pools in the lower portion of your legs. You might have heard of something called a deep vein thrombosis that we get from sitting for prolonged periods of time. So I use hydrogen tablets and electrolytes to combat the deficiency in electrolytes

• 7:15Gary Brecka?

  and the need for increased circulation. I also take something called perfect amino, which is all nine of the essential amino acids. And this actually gives my body the basic raw material it needs to do its job without breaking a fast. So you can use all three of those before you board a flight. Baja Gold Sea Salt, Perfect Aminos, and Hydrogen Tablets, so that you don't break a fast and you also improve circulation, give your body the amino acids it needs, and most importantly, give it all 91 of the essential minerals. Your body is about to lose a ton of moisture, so you want to start ahead of the curve. All right, now you're on the plane. This is where most people just sit back, zone out, and their body just takes the hit. This is also where you have the most control.

• 7:59Gary Brecka?

  These are the non-negotiables that keep me feeling sharp and strong no matter how long the flight. Back to hydration. Hydration is everything. I'm sipping water every single hour while I'm in the air, not chugging a bottle all at once, sipping consistently. You want your body to stay hydrated, and when you take in large boluses of water, you will urinate most of that water out. Your body can only absorb so much water at a time. So steady hydration is what keeps your cells functioning. And again, I'm not drinking plain water. I'm adding minerals, electrolytes, and hydrogen gas. Here's the rule. If you're not getting up to use the bathroom at least once during the flight, you are definitely not drinking enough. I know it's inconvenient. But dehydration is one of the fastest ways to crash your immune system and it is

• 8:44Gary Brecka?

  completely avoidable. Every hour I'm standing up, I'm doing about 10 air squats right there in the aisle, or I'll walk to the back of the plane, or find one of those alcoves, and I'll just do 10 slow air squats, nothing crazy, and I'll remind myself to take 10 intentional deep breaths. These do not have to be loud, obnoxious breaths that draw attention to yourself. They can be as simple as just closing your eyes while you're standing,

• 9:12Gary Brecka?

  taking a long, really obnoxiously deep breath in through your nose, and then

• 9:19Gary Brecka?

  out through a straw. Exercise those auxiliary muscles of respiration. Get oxygen deep down into the lows of your lungs. When we're sitting on aircraft, our respiratory rate becomes more shallow. We breathe only with the apex of our lungs and not with the lows of our lungs, where the massive amount of capacity is. These are easy tricks to actually take the edge off of travel. When you sit still for hours, your lymphatic system shuts down. That's the system responsible for clearing waste and moving your immune cells around your body. It doesn't have a pump like your heart does. It relies on movement. 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

• 10:04Gary Brecka?

  blocking glasses on every flight, especially if I'm flying at night or trying to sleep. The lighting on airplanes is terrible for your circadian rhythm. It's bright, it's heavy blue spectrum, and it's telling your brain it's the middle of the day even when it's not. If you want any chance of adjusting to a new time zone, or just feeling rested when you land, you've got to protect your eyes from the artificial light. These are not readers, these are blue light blockers. So skip the alcohol. Drinking alcohol at altitude on a plane can hit harder than usual, not because it doubles in strength, but because the lower oxygen and dry air amplify the effects and the dehydration that alcohol exerts on the body. Alcohol also really contributes to dehydration by weakening your immune system, and it adds stress to the body that's already working.

• 10:50Gary Brecka?

  Harder to adapt to that environment. If you want to land feeling sharp and strong, it's best to skip alcohol altogether. So now you've landed. Most people think the work is done. They grab their bags, head to the hotel, and then they collapse. Or even worse, they go to the bar and they have a drink before they collapse. But what you do in the first few hours after you land is just as important as what you did in the airplane. This is where you either lock in the feeling of feeling great, or everything falls apart. So first thing, get natural sunlight. I don't care if you're tired, I don't care if it's cold outside. As soon as possible after you land, get outside and just get natural light into your eyes. This is how you reset your circadian rhythm. Your body needs to know the time zone that it's in, and the only way that it knows is through natural light.

• 11:35Gary Brecka?

  Sunlight in the morning tells your brain that it's time to be awake and time to be alert. It starts the cortisol rhythm that's going to carry you throughout the day. And it's also going to set you up for a good night's sleep that night. If you skip this step, you're going to be dragging for days. And all it takes is 10 or 15 minutes outside, no sunglasses, just let that light into your eyes. It's one of the most powerful things you can do to be jet lagged and feel like yourself again. Keep drinking water, keep adding electrolytes, keep adding hydrogen tablets to those water, and give your body what it needs to recover. Another thing I do, first thing when I arrive to a hotel room, is I will either lay on the floor of the hotel and put my legs up on the bed, or I will get onto the bed, scoot my butt as close as I can to the wall,

• 12:20Gary Brecka?

  and get my feet above my heart for about 10 minutes. Let that old pooled tired blood out, let it drain out of your extremities, and go back into circulation and get fresh new oxygen. Go for a walk, hit the hotel gym for a quick circuit workout. Do some body weight exercises right there in your room. It doesn't need to be super intense, but just enough to get your blood flowing, get your lymphatic system moving, and help your body clear out the stress from travel. 20 minutes of movement can completely change how you feel for the rest of the entire day. If you do these three things, sunlight, hydration, and movement, you're gonna land clear, not crushed. You're going to show up. Is the version of yourself that people actually want to be around during the holidays.

• 13:04Gary Brecka?

  And you're going to protect your immune system so you can enjoy your trip instead of spending it sick in bed. The holidays are coming up. You're going to be on planes. You're going to be around sick people. Your body is going to be under stress. That's not going to change, but what you do with it matters. Most people treat travel like something that just happens to them. They show up, they suffer through it, and then they hope they don't get wrecked. But you're not most people. You're listening to this because you understand that your health is not random. It's not luck. It's the result of the decisions you make every single day, and those decisions compound. So if you enjoyed this episode and you're ready to go deeper, I want to tell you about my VIP community. When you join my VIP community, you get access to my 10-month course, Becoming the Ultimate Human.

• 13:48Gary Brecka?

  It's a $1,700 value, and I'm giving it away to my VIPs for free. There's an entire month-long module on travel where we go way deeper than what we covered today. I go over my specific protocols for jet lag, immune system strengthening, and strategies we don't even touch on here. Plus, there's modules on dialing in your morning routines, your sleep, your nutrition, all of it. The best part is that you're surrounded by people that are on the same journey, a community of like-minded people that are pushing for the same results. If that sounds like something you want to be a part of, click the link below in the show notes and join me in the VIP community. Everything we just walked you through are not complicated biohacks that require lab or special equipment. This is simple stuff.

• 14:30Gary Brecka?

  Fasting on flights, drinking water with minerals and hydrogen gas, standing up and moving every hour, getting sunlight when you land, getting your feet above your heart. These are insanely cheap and easy to implement. And don't forget, you don't have to be perfect, but if you just take three or four of these strategies and you actually implement them, you're going to feel a massive difference in the impact of travel. You're going to start to land clearer. You're going to have more energy. You're going to show up better for the people you're traveling with, and you're going to show up for your family that you're traveling to see. And most importantly, you're going to protect your immune system during the time of year when most people are getting hit the hardest. So here's my challenge to you. Pick your next trip and commit to running

• 15:10Gary Brecka?

  This protocol fast on the flight hydrate with mineral salts amino acids and hydrogen gas and just do it once and feel the difference. I promise you you'll never travel the same way again. Your body is capable of incredible things when you just give it the raw material it needs to do its job. Don't let travel be the thing that takes you out. Your health is worth more than that. Land clear, not crushed. That's the win and that's just science.