Exercise is really important even if you are healthy but the importance of exercise increases greatly when you have arthritis. If you choose to rely only on medicines for combating your problem, you might be fighting a losing battle. Arthritis, as you may well know, affects your joints and makes movement really painful. But with exercise, you can actually fight back!
Ideally, you should hire a personal trainer who specializes in dealing with arthritic clients. Remember that not exercises are for you, and working out without professional guidance can aggravate your condition. A trainer can develop an effective exercise plan which consists of only those exercises which will help you live a normal life. Moderate exercise on a regular basis can help you gain more stamina, strengthen muscles and increase flexibility of joints.
So then, what are the best exercises for you to consider? As an arthritic, you can incorporate three different exercises in your fitness training regimen.
1. Flexibility exercises: gentle stretching can be really helpful in easing your joints. It is a great way to get rid of stiffness in your joints and get ready for more exercise. Nowadays more and more trainers are advising the benefits of doing stretching exercises in a swimming pool. This can help you derive the benefits of hydrodynamics.
For improving your range of motion, you can try exercises such as tai-chi or yoga. Tai chi is really effective if you have knee osteoarthritis.
2. Resistance exercises: these exercises are conventionally known as strength training workouts. Your aim here is to increase muscular strength in order to reduce the stress on your joints. Stronger muscles can also protect your joints from injury and help you do your daily activities normally.
These exercises can be isometric as well as isotonic. Isometric exercises aim to strengthen your muscles without you having to move the joints. Isotonic exercises on the other hand, need you to flex your joints as you workout. When done under professional guidance, both types can be beneficial. However, isometric exercises are safer if you have acute joint pain.
3. Aerobic exercises: these exercises can give you the normal life that you so strongly desire. Arthritis restricts you from around like a fit person, but aerobic exercises can help overcome such restriction. These are basically cardiovascular exercises such as swimming or cycling.
By including cardio exercises in your fitness training schedule, you can make your heart, lungs and muscles work in tandem to help you live better. Do aerobics to get to your target heart rate zone (optimal rate at which your heart should beat). This should not take you more than 30 minutes of workouts to achieve. However, go slow when you have just started out and increase the duration as you progress.
A combination of these three types of exercises can help you in your fight against arthritis. Your personal trainer is the best person to know how much of each exercise you should do and so, she can devise fitness training plan accordingly. Follow the plan and prevent arthritis from taking over your life. All the best!
