Did you know this about arthritis?

Exercise therapy reduces arthritis related pain

There are over 100 types of arthritis

Arthritis may cause other lifestyle diseases to develop

Arthritis can be diagnosed under children as young as 1 year old

In this article we talk about what exercises to do for arthritic pain. We take a closer look at what arthritis is and how exercise therapy can benefit those diagnosed with it. Additionally, we consider the signs and symptoms to look out for and other health conditions that can be related to arthritis.

What benefits can you expect from exercise therapy when diagnosed with arthritis?

• Decreased fear avoidance
• Decreased pain
• Decreased joint inflammation
• Improved mobility
• Improved muscle activation & strength
• Improved functionality
• Improved mood and cognitive well-being
• Improved quality of daily life

What is arthritis?

Let’s break it down. The ‘’arthr’” within arthritis is a medical prefix which means ‘joint’. The “ïtis” is a medical suffix referring to inflammation. So, in simpler terms arthritis is inflammation within the joints. As mentioned above, there are different types of arthritis, and this is because the root cause of inflammation in the joint differs with each type.

Osteoarthritis (OA) and Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are the 2 most common types of arthritis. OA refers to degenerative changes within the joint leading to inflammation. While RA refers to when the inflammation of the joint is due to an auto-immune condition causing your own body’s degeneration of the joint structures. In essence your body is fighting against itself.

Joints most commonly affected by OA : Asymmertical Joints

• Hips
• Knees
• Hands
• Feet
• Cervial
• Lumbar spine

Joints most commonly affected by RA: Symmetrical Joints

• Hands
• Feet

What effect does exercise therapy have on arthritis and your joints?

As mentioned above:

• Decreased fear avoidance
• Decreased joint pain
• Decreased joint inflammation
• Improved mobility
• Improved muscle activation & strength
• Improved functionality
• Improved mood and cognitive well-being
• Improved quality of daily life

But it also reduces the amount of medication taken, improves overall ability to do daily activities such as walking and most of all improves quality of life.

When diagnosed with arthritis, the first thing people tend to do is decrease the movement of the affected joints due the pain experienced. Unfortunately, this is not the best choice to make because a decrease in joint movement can lead to more problems and eventually more pain. Why is this? Well, less movement equals weaker muscles which in turn lead to more pain.

On the other hand, the opinion of “no pain- no gain” cannot be applied to exercise therapy when working with arthritis. To make the picture a bit clearer, people diagnosed with arthritis will benefit from regular, monitored and controlled exercise therapy – the happy middle spot between no movement and too much or incorrect movement.

But how can I exercise with arthritic pain? 

Most people cannot imagine to start exercise therapy with a joint that is painful. Sometimes we think of movement and pain as the same thing. But when exercise is implemented in a clinical manner, siginifcant results can be achieved. The exercises must be patient and symptom specific with a lot of attention to exercise technique. We can also look at the type of pain that is being experienced on a daily basis to decide what therapy will be best. Arthritic pain can be divided into  2 categories: Acute & Chronic.

Acute arthritic pain: 

Pain that is experienced within a recent time period. It is experienced due to weakened muscles and fear avoidance. In other words, when you try to exercise or load the painful joint the surrounding muscles are not strong enough to provide stability causing the joint itself to be overloaded and that is when you experience the pain. The human body has a natural protective mechanism and protects the injured or affected joint by making you feel unstable and weak. This happens so that you avoid using and loading that joint out of fear of experiencing the pain.

Chronic arthritic pain: 

Pain that is experienced over a more prolonged period of time – normally daily pain for over 3 months. This pain is experienced due to a total and sustained increase in the following: inflamamtion, less mobility, weak muscles, less stability in the joints. This all together does not allow the joints to perform activities of daily living in a normal fashion and over time leads to pain and pathology in other joints. Quality of life is normally severly affected once arthritic pain becomes chronic.

THE GOOD NEWS?

Exercise therapy can relieve both acute and chronic arthritic pain

 

Research has shown that regular, correctly loaded, and monitored exercise therapy can decrease acute and chronic arthritic pain. Research also shows that acute arthritic pain can reduce quicker than chronic pain in the same number of exercise sessions. Overall, exercise therapy not only assists in decreasing the pain but it can also increase the strength and size of your muscles while lessening the amount of fat mass in your body. Due to this improvement in the strength: weight ratio there will be less, and more manageable loads placed on the joints. Which in turn leads to even less pain. There are different types of exercise therapy that can be used for arthritis. This includes land-based and water-based exercises.

 

Land-based exercise for arthritis 

Land-based exercise therapy is used with arthritis patients who have slight to moderate joint degeneration and inflammation. The main focus areas here are to strengthen the muscles surrounding the affected joint, to prevent loss of range of motion and ultimately functionality. Resistance exercise and load bearing therapy are both effective in increasing muscle strength and joint bone integrity. The biggest factor to monitor and regulate is the amount of load / resistance being placed on the joint during the exercises. When the load is too high for the joint and surrounding muscle to sustain it can cause more pain or lead to another injury, but when the load is too little the muscles and bones will not be stimulated enough to increase their strength and integrity.

 

 

Water-based exercise for arthritis

Hydrotherapy is used when the arthritic patients have severe joint degeneration and inflammation, and so much so that land based exercises are not improving symptoms or is too painful to do . There are two factors that make hydrotherapy effective in decreasing the symptoms of arthritis.

1. Non-weight bearing muscle strengthening

Due to the buoyancy of the water, it allows the muscles surrounding the affected joints to increase in strength while a decreased load is placed on the joint itself.

2. Heated water healing qualities

The heated water can assist with muscle healing and relaxation. The warm temperature allows for increased blood flow to the muscles and organs. Exercise therapy applied within warm water can decrease pain, improve flexibility, increase strength, and improve joint integrity and health.

 

Signs & symptoms of arthritis

• Joint stiffness especially in the mornings
• Painful joints
• Swelling around joints
• Muscle weakness
• Body fatigue
• Loss of joint function 

Diseases that can be related to arthritis

• Gout
• Lyme disease
• Fibromyalgia
• Lupus