The Best Exercises To Help You Manage Arthritis
There are several ways that exercise can help people who suffer from arthritis. It keeps your joints from stiffening and helps your weight stay down, which reduces the stress on your joints (and the pain that you will have). It is important that you choose the correct exercises for arthritis sufferers.
Walking and speed walking both will keep your joints from stiffening, without the pounding that comes with running. If you walk briskly, you can still get a cardiovascular benefit, but your knees, hips and ankles won't have the same amount of stress that they would with running. If you have been fairly sedentary, or if your joints have significant deterioration, this can still be a long-term exercise that will yield dividends for you.
Similar to walking, cycling allows you to get moving without banging on your knees, ankles and hips. If you are still fairly young, it is possible to get involved in cycling and have more people that are your own age in the group; the power walking group tends to skew a little bit older. Most cities and towns have cycling groups that offer weekly social and more intense rides, so you can easily find a group that will suit your needs -- and you'll have people keeping you accountable for maintaining your exercise habits.
Yoga is an outstanding form of exercise for just about anybody -- let alone an arthritis sufferer. The flexibility that yoga will give you will prevent your joints from developing the stiffness that would hit a sedentary person (arthritic or not). Also, the peace of mind that the meditative phases of yoga brings will help you reduce your inner stress. A flexible person is usually much calmer than a stiff, sore person -- and yoga can help.
If you can't run on the land, and you want something a little tougher than walking, then water running may be for you. Go down to your health club and hit the lap pool, but instead of swimming laps, jog them. Simulate the running gait so that you work the same muscles, but you'll be much more buoyant in water. The resistance of the water will definitely challenge you, but you'll have almost no impact on your joints -- a real plus for arthritis sufferers.
If you can jog or even run with arthritis, you are among the fortunate few. However, as long as you can maintain a running regimen, there are few exercise programs that will give you as much in terms of cardiovascular and muscular benefit. You can find running groups in most cities and towns, so you'll have buddies in your pace group who will call you and drag you out of bed for those early mornings.
The more frequently you can exercise, the less often you will experience the pain of arthritis. Exercise will not only make you stronger, but it will improve your overall outlook and enhance your mental focus. Be sure to talk to your physician about putting together the right exercise plan for your needs.
