People with arthritis must exercise because it will increase their strength and flexibility, reduce joint pain, and will help combat fatigue. When painful and stiff joints bog you down, just the thought of swimming some laps or walking about the block might seem rather overwhelming. However, you do not have to swim as quickly as an Olympian would or run a marathon to help ease arthritis symptoms. Moderate exercise cannot just reduce your pain, but it can help you keep a healthy weight as well. When this disease threatens to keep you from moving, exercise keeps you mobile.
Why Exercise Is Crucial For Those with Arthritis
Exercise can help these people improve their fitness and health without hurting their joints. Together with your existing treatment program, arthritis exercise can help you:
- Make the muscles around the joints become stronger
- Maintain bone strength
- Improve your sleep
- Control your weight
- Get more energy to endure the day
- Improve the quality of your life
- Make your balance better
You might feel that exercise will worsen joint pain and joint stiffness, but this is not the case. In fact, a lack of exercise can aggravate both the pain and stiffness. That is because keeping the muscles and the tissue around these is important to maintain support for the bones. Not exercising makes those supporting muscles weak, which creates extra stress on the joints.
First Check with Your Arthritis Doctor
Talk to the medical professional about making exercise a part of your arthritis treatment plan. The matter of ideal exercises for you depends on not just your form of arthritis, but also on which body structures are involved. Your physical therapist or doctor can help you find the exercise schedule that provides you with the maximum benefit with the minimum aggravation of the joint pain.
The Key Is Not To Overdo It
You might just feel pain after exercising in the event you have been inactive for a while. Generally, if you are sore for over two hours after the exercise, then you were perhaps doing it too strenuously. Discuss with your medic about which kind of pain is standard and which one is an indication of something more severe.
If your condition is rheumatoid arthritis, then ask them whether you need to exercise during common or local flares. An option is to just work through your flares by performing a range of motion workouts and/or exercising in water.
