When you’re dealing with the irritation, inconvenience, and pain that inevitably comes with arthritis, exercise is probably the furthest thing from your mind. After all, exercise has the potential to lead to more pain from injuries, soreness, and general bodily strain. However, there are a handful of exercises that can help alleviate your arthritis pain, so don’t discount physical activity entirely! If your pain is too great, you can see a specialist that deals with arthritis pain in Jacksonville to alleviate your symptoms.
Exercise can help you build strength in the muscles around your joints, maintain bone strength, reenergize you, make you happier and more relaxed, and keep you at a healthy weight so you don’t put unnecessary strain on your joints. If you’re open to the idea of exercise as a solution to your arthritis pain in Jacksonville, here are a few ideas to get you started and keep you injury-free.
1) Range of Motion Exercises
Exercises that make you move your joints through their full range of motion can help you regain and maintain full mobility and, as a result, help you feel less stiff. For example, raise your arms above your head and rolling your shoulders around gently. As these exercises don’t tend to be exhausting, you can do them every other day, or even every day if you find that they’re helpful.
2) Aerobics
Aerobic exercise can help improve your endurance and stamina and control your weight. They can also keep your heart healthy and your energy levels high throughout the day. The dopamine and endorphins your brain will release can put you in a better mood, as well.
However, it’s important to keep your aerobic exercise low impact to avoid putting too much stress on your joints and making your arthritic pain worse in the end. Walking and cycling are great choices, and swimming works well if you’re looking for a way to exercise with the least amount of impact on your joints possible. The lower the impact, the lower the injury risks!
3) Strength Exercises
Regularly doing strength exercises can help you build up your muscle strength, which will improve the support and protection your muscles can provide for your joints. To build and maintain your muscle strength, try some lightweight training, but be aware of how your body reacts. You might be able to do your strength exercises every other day, but if your joints start getting swollen, stiff, or otherwise pained, be sure to take some time off.
4) Ultimately, Do What Works!
As long as you’re not putting too much stress on your joints and body, you don’t have to stick to just this list! Gentle exercise like yoga and tai chi can help ease the pain and strain of arthritis, while still providing the benefits of all the other exercises listed here.
Even if you can’t commit to a full-blown work out regime, any little amount of exercise you can do is better than none. Stretch, take walks, and move around as much as you find is comfortable.
