Exercising with arthritis. Improve your stiffness and pain from arthritis.

You may be under the impression that exercise will aggravate your joint pain and stiffness from arthritis, that’s not the case. The lack of exercise actually can make your joints feel more painful and stiff. This happens because keeping your muscles and surrounding tissue strong is crucial to maintaining support for your bones. Not exercising weakens those supporting muscles, making your bones more prone to breaking.

Why exercise is essential.

Exercise can help you improve your health and fitness level without hurting or straining your joints. Along with your current arthritis treatment program, exercise can:

Help you maintain bone strength
Strengthen muscles around your joints
Give you more energy to get through the day
Sleep better through the night
Help control your weight
Make you feel better about yourself and improve your sense of well-being
Talk to your doctor about how exercise can fit into your current arthritis treatment plan. What types of exercises are best for you depends on your type of arthritis and which joints are involved. Your doctor, physical therapist or personal trainer can work with you to find the best exercise plan to give you the most benefit with the least aggravation of your joint pain.

Exercises for arthritis

Your doctor, physical therapist or personal trainer can recommend types of exercises best for you, which might include:

Range-of-motion exercises for arthritis: Range-of-motion exercises relieve stiffness and increase your ability to move your joints through their full range of motion. Range-of-motion exercises involve moving your joints through their normal range of movement, such as raising your arms over your head or rolling your shoulders forward and backward. These exercises can be done on a daily or at least every other day.

Strengthening exercises for arthritis: Strengthening exercises help you build strong muscles that help support and protect your joints. Weight training is an example of a strengthening exercise that can help you maintain your current muscle strength or increase it. Do your strengthening exercises at keast three times per week. Be sure to take and  extra day off if your joints are painful or if you notice any swelling.

Aerobic exercise for arthritis: Aerobic or endurance exercises help you overall. They  improve your cardiovascular health, help you control your weight and give you more stamina. This helps give you more stamina to make it through your day. Examples of aerobic exercises that are easier on your joints include walking, swimming and riding a bike. Try to do 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week.

Be to sure to consult with your physisan before you begin a new exercise routine.

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