When you have moderate to severe arthritis, simple tasks are no longer considered that simple. This makes doing even the most basic exercises feel like climbing Everest. However, it’s known that exercise helps with arthritis pain management. So there’s the issue: if your arthritis pain is so bad you can’t exercise, how are you supposed to exercise to help your arthritis pain? You start small with daily movements for arthritis relief that help arthritis pain management. Simple movements soon turn into big movements, and eventually, you’re back on your softball team or surfing on the weekends just like you did before you had arthritis.
Understanding Arthritis and the Importance of Movement
There are over 100 different conditions that are characterized by joint pain and inflammation. The most common types are osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). According to the Mayo Clinic, exercise can help alleviate a lot of the symptoms of arthritis by giving you certain benefits. These benefits could be:
- Increase in strength and flexibility
- Reduced joint pain
- Combats fatigue
- Improve bone strength
- Improves balance
- Overall enhanced well-being
Regular movements you can do to help can go a long way in helping you see these benefits.
What the Science Says about Movement and Arthritis Relief
Enhancing Joint Lubrication
Your joints are surrounded by a lubricant called synovial fluid. This fluid helps prevent bone-on-bone grinding when you move your arms, stretch your fingers, walk, or really do anything that gets your body moving. Your body creates more of this fluid with regular movement. Your arthritis diagnosis plays a part because this disease hinders production of synovial fluid. Exercise and movement help promote production and directly combat your arthritis.
Reducing Inflammation
The Journal of Clinical Medicine published a finding that states regular physical activity reduces inflammation and improves joint function with osteoarthritis. Inflammation is one of the single biggest causes of joint pain in arthritis sufferers. Finding any and all ways to reduce inflammation is a surefire way to reduce pain.
Strengthening Muscles Around joints.
Your muscles support and protect your joints. The stronger your muscles are, the easier job they have at doing just that. Building your muscles can help ease the load on your joints. Additionally, strength training exercises can help you lose weight. Less weight also helps your joints require less effort to support your body. However, strength training is typically the final step, as it is also the hardest to perform with moderate to severe arthritis.
Practical Daily Movements for Arthritis Relief
So before you head to the gym for your strength training, start slow and incorporate some of these easy daily movements for arthritis relief into your routine. No expensive gym membership or huge time commitment. Just do them whenever you have an extra second between daily tasks.
- Jog Your Feet: Simple jogging in place helps stretch your feet and strengthen your knees
- Bounce: Simply bouncing can strengthen your leg muscles and support your hips and knees
- Wrist Circles: Rotating your wrist in circles to maintain flexibility
- Leg Extensions: While sitting in a chair, slowly extend one leg at a time to strengthen your thighs
- Ankle Rolls: While seated, lift your feet in the air and rotate your ankles to improve circulation
- Shoulder shrugs: Raise your shoulders towards your ears to relieve tension
Expert Recommendations
Conclusion
It may not feel like it at first, but incorporating daily movements for arthritis relief into your routine can have a profound impact on your arthritis pain management and improve your health. For some, it won’t be easy to start. The pain of arthritis can be debilitating. You’ll believe that there’s no possible way to even get off the couch some days. That exerting any energy is exacerbating the pain and making things worse. It’s not. Over time, if you can keep it consistent, you’ll find the pain is getting better. You’ll find that you can do exercises and movements for longer periods of time. You may even find that some of these are getting too easy. That the pain is simply gone now. This is important to remember.
Don’t let your arthritis win. It will be a constant battle. There is no known cure for arthritis. If you decide you don’t have to do the exercises anymore, you’ll soon find that the pain is back. That it’s getting worse again. So even when you’re pain-free, you’re not arthritis-free. Keep at the exercises. Make sure they’re part of your daily routine, and soon you’ll be leading and living a pain-free life.
For more information about living pain free with arthritis check us out at arthritisfreeliving.com.
