Reduce Arthritis Pain With These 5 Exercises
Reduce Arthritis Pain With These 5 Exercises
By Lisa Byrne, B.S Exercise Sciences | Certified Pilates Instructor
NABBW’s Boomer Women\’s Fitness Expert
All this talk about functional fitness, but first, what\’s even functional living?
Functional living is being able to move how you want, when you want. You don\’t want to be limited to one direction, or avoiding this move or that move. Stiff and achey joints can slow you down so much that you don\’t even want to exercise.
But remember, the health of every joint matters. That means your large joints like hips and knees, space between your ribs, vertebrae, and even your elbows and ankles. If you\’re bogged down in pain in any of these joints, you need exercise/movement.
Movement through exercising is more than just the muscle/joint connection. Movement positively affects your tendons, ligaments, and fascia that hold your muscles, bones, and body together. The health of this connective tissue is your best ally to reducing pain.
A specific activity to arthritis pain reduction is resistance band exercises. Bands are portable, versatile, and extremely easy to use. Their weight can be measured in ounces, yet their capability to help decrease pain is easily appraised at how good you feel after.
Think about it like this: if arthritis threatens to immobilize you, resistance bands keep you lubricated; strengthened around your joints; much looser and lighter. Resistance bands provide strengthening on both the effort and the return from that effort. They don\’t let you miss a beat. Bands are like balm to your joints. Motion is lotion when it comes to feeling better.
That tissue around your joints want to keep moving. It wants to feel oxygenated and flowing with a good supply of blood and nutrients. Bands will give you exactly this. They\’ll also help you reduce stress on those joints by teaching your body to see non-linear movements which can \’smarten\’ your body. Why? Because they train your range of motion with many combinations not just front and back, side to side.
Range of motion exercises will decrease your stiffness and increase your ability to move with less pain throughout the day. This is where functional fitness comes in. Everyday your range of motion is queried.
Are you going to be able to reach up there? Oh, how about bending behind the sofa to get that remote you dropped? Movement is non-linear, so train your body to see these movements. With a good functional fitness program that uses resistance bands you can be on your way to reducing your arthritis pain.
In today\’s video I\’ll show you your basic lesson in getting set up with your pair of resistance bands:
- How to best grip them
- Getting a good stance
- Being comfortable in your workout
Then I\’ll show you a quick workout with 5 band exercises.
Grab your bands and get started!
Lisa Byrne is the owner and chief creative officer at Pilates for Sport, LLC in Bucks County, Pa. She has her B.S in Exercise Physiology and is a Certified Pilates Instructor. Lisa has operated her fully equipped Pilates studio since 1999 and has been in the Health and Fitness Industry for 23 years. The studio space is home to private sessions, small group training, and the outdoor circuit buffet, sure to get anyone grooving. Visitors to the movement studio span the range and include average Boomers looking for diversity; young people with Asperger’s-Autism; hard core athletes looking to ‘loosen up’; and those in need of chronic pain management through movement. Learn more about Lisa on her site, Move More Today.
