As you grow older, your joints become more sensitive and may experience pain even with minimal activity. Many people stop exercising when the joints start acting up. Eventually they gain unhealthy weight which adds pressure to the joints making the situation even worse. You can also experience joint pains even at a young age due to strain, illness or your lifestyle. Joint pains should not keep you from working out. You may alter a few things here and there, but still remain active. Here are some tips to help you along:
Spend Time in Warm up
When generally fit and pain free, many people tend to skip the warm up. For the sake of your joints, you must warm up thoroughly before getting into your workout routine. Joints ache more when the tendons and muscles are stiff. Spend at least 10 minutes in light exercises to get your blood flowing and warm up the muscles. This may include stretching, jogging and so on.
Change your Routine
Take some pressure off the aching joints by mixing up your workouts. A regular routine can cause overuse of certain muscles and joints, further aggravating the pain. Once you change your routine, you allow a different set of joints to take the pressure while giving the others a break. Alternate between lower and upper body workouts. For instance, you can have your upper body workout while seated then have the lower body workout while lying on your back. Experiment with many different forms of workout such as jogging, swimming, yoga, stretching and so on. With time, you will find a routine that offers least strain and does not cause any extra pain to your joints.
Reduce range of Movement
You can follow your usual workout routine but decrease the motion range to one that is friendly to your joints. If you have knee pains for instance, do not let your knees bend below 90 degrees. For the shoulders, avoid overhead motions. Listen to your body and keep your motion range within allowable limits.
Swimming
You don’t have to know the difference between butterfly and freestyle stroke. Water exercise is god for your joints even if you’re not an expert swimmer. Use a floating tube if you must. Being in water gives you the advantage of being ‘weightless’, a welcome break for your joints. The water not only reduces the impact on joints, it also provides resistance that strengthen muscles that support the joints.
Go on; splash your way to fitness and reduced joint pains. These are some of the tips that will help you exercise safely even with joint pains. Listen to your body every step of the way to ensure that you don’t go overboard and injure your joints. If you’re dealing with persistent joint pains, maybe you have an underlying health issue that requires to be examined keenly. Consult your doctor for a proper diagnosis.