Arthritis Help in the form of exercise may sound strange if you are crippled up from arthritis and can hardly move. However, exercise is a very effective way to get relief from arthritis pain. Quite often, you may not feel like exercising because you think it could hurt rather than help. We are talking about light exercise and only what you are capable of. Your exercise might just be clenching a ball in your hand (if you have arthritis in your hands), and it will help you a lot.
I watched my Grandma's legs become crippled after she refused to walk or do any other exercises. As she got older, she contracted osteo-arthritis in her knees and would sit for hours without even bending her knees on the foot stool. When she finally stood up, her knees creaked and groaned, and eventually she couldn't stand or walk without a walking frame. She stopped walking to her letter-box to pick up her letters, and didn't even want to walk a few yards to reach the car.
In the meantime, I kept the arthritis in my knees under control (my Grandma's osteo-arthritis began 10 years after mine started from trauma to my knees after injuring them). I started lifting light weights at the gym, and walking reasonable distances, which kept my muscles strong, so they could help support my weight. You might be thinking it was easier for me because I was young, but I'm just giving these examples to demonstrate how much exercise can help.
Without exercise, your discomfort and pain can lead to functional loss and severe disability.
Exercise Programs Should Be Tailored Especially For You
The arthritis exercise program you select will depend on:
- Which of your joints have the arthritis, - The stability of your joints, - How much pain and inflammation you have, and - Whether or not you have had a joint replacement.
If the inflammation around your joints is severe, I recommend taking anti-inflammatory medication or a natural anti-inflammatory (like mangosteen juice) for a few days before attempting the exercise program.
In addition, I recommend that you speak to your physician before starting any arthritis exercise program. Your physician can assist you to find exercises that will benefit your joints, and avoid ones might inadvertently cause more damage. A skilled doctor or physical therapist can tailor make a program to fit your needs.
Exercise Program Helps Arthritis In Different Ways
Research also shows that an exercise program helps considerably in:
- Reducing stiffness, - Reducing the joint pain, and - Increasing the flexibility, strength and endurance. - When you exercise, weight reduction is made easier and you will achieve an improved sense of well being. If you have loss of mobility and chronic joint pain and you are overweight, you will benefit a lot by reducing your weight. When you reduce your weight, your joints will have less to support and cushion, and there will be less damage to the joints.
A rehabilitative plan for the symptoms of arthritis will also include proper nutrition, medications, relaxation, and rest. It will also include use of the joints correctly to decrease functional loss of mobility and conserve energy.
There are three types of appropriate exercise for your program:
1) Range of Motion Exercises where the joint is moved through the range it already has - this will either move you toward flexibility or maintain your existing flexibility.
2) Strengthening Exercises will increase or keep muscle strength of the muscles that support your affected joints. When doing this kind of exercise, you will use weights to make the muscles around your joints stronger. My physiotherapist said that I should aim to build my quadriceps muscles (the ones above the knee) up to be twice the size it was initially.
If I don't go to the gym for a few months, my knees start to ache and get a little stiff. When I go back to the gym and build up the quadriceps again, my knees stop aching.
3) Endurance or aerobic exercises will improve your improve your overall function, your cardiovascular fitness, and help control your weight.. Examples of aerobic exercise are aerobic classes, climbing stairs, cycling, indoor rowing, using a treadmill, cross-country skiing, walking up steep hills, and swimming.
If you have limited mobility, it's most likely that one of the health clubs or community centers nearby offers programs that you are capable of doing. Before starting an exercise program, I recommend you discuss your plans with your doctor and consult a qualified trainer or physical therapist.
In addition, you may want to use the following methods to decrease the initial discomfort when initially starting to exercise.
- Take a natural anti-inflammatory to reduce inflammation a few days before starting your exercise program.
You could apply heat to sore joints or increase the circulation with heat, as well as warming the joints before starting to exercise.
- With the range of motion exercises, you should stretch and warm up before doing them.
- Use light weights and short aerobic exercises and always start exercises slowly but especially with strength training.
Exercise Should Be Performed at Regular Intervals
Exercises should be performed at specific intervals. For example, range of motion exercises can be done daily. Ideally, they should be done at least every other day to improve and maintain your range.
Strengthening exercises should be performed every other day or 3 times a week to obtain full advantage of the muscle build up. Make sure you don't overtax your muscles and joints, by lifting too much. Sometimes you might feel like lifting heavier weights, but you may suffer stiffness the next day. So, it's better to lift light weights at first, and increase them gradually, as advised by your therapist or trainer.
Once you have built up muscle considerably, you could have a few weeks (or perhaps a few months) break from the strengthening exercises. Let your body be the guide. I can always tell when I need to go back to the gym.
Unless you have severe pain/swelling in your joints, aerobic endurance exercises can be done for 20 to 30 minutes three times a week. Once you get used to doing these kind of exercises, you will probably look forward to them, and want to do them each day.
If you experience pain that lasts more than one hour after exercising, then it is too strenuous. Stop exercising and consult your physician if you experience decreased range of motion, persistent fatigue, increased weakness, continued pain or increased joint swelling.
A comprehensive arthritis help program includes exercise, if you suffer from chronic joint pain and arthritis. If you follow a good exercise program and be consistent about it, you can greatly increase your mobility and flexibility, and decrease your pain considerably.
Julieanne van Zyl offers a free report giving Seven Easy Ways to Get Arthritis Help to relieve your pain.
