Move to Help Prevent Joint Pain
Keep joints healthy by keeping them moving. The more you move, the less stiffness you'll have. Whether you're reading, working, or watching TV, change positions often. Take breaks from your desk or your chair and move around.
Joint Pain and Arthritis
With overuse or injury, cartilage on the end of the joints can break down, causing a narrowing of the joint space and the bones to rub together. Painful bony growths, or spurs, may form. This can lead to swelling, stiffness, and possibly osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis. Another type of arthritis is rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease characterized by extreme inflammation.
Protect Your Body and Your Joints
Injury can damage joints. So protecting your joints your whole life is important. Wear protective gear like elbow and knee pads when taking part in high-risk activities like skating. If your joints are already aching, consider wearing braces when playing tennis or golf.
Healthy Weight for Healthy Joints
Joints hurting? Lose just a few pounds and you'll take some strain off your hips, knees, and back. Extra pounds add to the load placed on these joints, increasing the risk of cartilage breakdown. Even a little weight loss can help. Every pound you lose takes four pounds of pressure off your knees.
Don't Stretch Before Exercise
Many arthritis experts believe that stretching is the most important type of exercise. Try to stretch daily but at least three times a week. However, it's important that you don't stretch cold muscles. Do a light warm up before stretching to loosen up the joints and the ligaments, and tendons around them.
Low-Impact Exercise for Joints
What exercise is good? To protect your joints, your best choices are low-impact options like walking, bicycling and swimming. That's because high-impact, pounding, and jarring exercise can increase your risk of joint injuries and may slowly cause cartilage damage. Light weight-lifting exercises should also be included. But if you already have arthritis, first speak with your doctor.
Strengthen Muscles Around Joints
Stronger muscles around joints mean less stress on those joints. Research shows that having weak thigh muscles increases your risk of knee osteoarthritis, for example. Even small increases in muscle strength can reduce that risk. Avoid rapid and repetitive motions of affected joints.
