Unplug. Breathe. Row. Repeat: How to Stay Healthy in 2018

Predictions on trends from food to fashion and beyond are revealed as 2018 approaches, keeping us apprised of the next best “thing” to enhance, and ideally, lengthen, our lives. Here, we focus on wellness trends that we think are relevant to rowers.

Ingesting collagen protein powder or edible essential oils or paying attention to Planet Mercury are too out there for us. Two trends that make sense to us, however, are unplugging and breathwork.

Unplugging

Analog destinations are the new it spots, places where digital signals are not an option. That means disconnecting from e-mail, social media, and possibly, your phone entirely, to connect face to face. Gasp. We’ve gone from hotels and coffee shops knocking themselves out to bring us wireless connections everywhere to now offering WiFi-free zones to connect or disconnect, depending on your perspective.

Well+Good includes this as #18 in its Wellness Trends for 2018, a list of trends that has proven fairly accurate in the past. A hotel in Germany went so far as to install copper between the walls to block WiFi signals. It’s tough for rowers to be on their phones while rowing, so this may be a trend we embrace, if only from time to time. If you want to connect by disconnecting, we recommend our Cape Wildflowers trip, because the hiking in the Cederberg Mountains is remote and a bit bush. A tasting at the highest altitude vineyard in South Africa will keep us civilized . . . and well and good.

Breathwork

This trend, much like rowing, leaves us breathless. Seriously, breathwork sounds credible and fascinating, and goes beyond meditation. Basically, it involves a focus on breathing to create responses to boost immunity in the body. Perhaps in ten years we’ll be talking about the importance of breathwork the way we talk about fitness now. Scroll to #11 Breathwork in MindBodyGreen’s 2018 list of wellness trends, to read about the Wim Hof Method.

“. . . the Wim Hof Method has garnered media attention this year for its ability to give people superhuman self-healing powers. Hof is known as the Iceman because he holds the Guinness World Record for longest ice bath, running a marathon above the Arctic Circle without a shirt, and holding his breath for up to six minutes . . . Hof asks his clients to take 40 deep inhales and exhales, hold the breath, then take a long deep breath. During this time, a cascade of hormonal interactions occurs that, according to Hof, decrease inflammation and boost immunity.”

Cascading hormonal interactions sound a little scary to us but this trend sounds promising if there is any truth to it. Your call but we’re breathing easier already.