Exercise is important to anyone’s wellbeing, but it becomes crucial when you have arthritis. With the right kind of workout, you can strengthen your muscles and improve your flexibility, but you have to be especially careful about your joint wellness, so what are the best exercises to do and how do you go about doing them?
Firstly, a stationary bike can be your new best workout buddy, whether you’ve had surgery or not. By using one of these, you can particularly strengthen your quadriceps muscle, as well as your lower extremities, without adding too much pressure to your joints. A stationary bike is also a great tool to utilise when exercising because you can vary the intensity of the exercise by changing the resistance on the bike, and this helps to promote strength and conditioning. You can swap an upright bike for a recumbent bike if you’re having lower back pain, and it is also recommended that you use an elliptical trainer if you have trouble with your hips and knees.
If a stationary bike doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, swimming is a great exercise for promoting flexibility and cardiovascular fitness, as well as providing strengthening to a certain degree and maintaining the range of motion of your joints. However, no matter what your cup of tea is, weight training is important for anyone with arthritis as it improves the muscle strength around your joints which helps to stabilise the joint and alleviate pain. Straight leg raises and isometric quad sets are particularly helpful, and strength training is important in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, as well as the incidence of falls and subsequent fractures.
Before doing any exercise, make sure you warm up properly by stretching and doing some light activities. You might like to use moist heat on your sore extremity before exercise and ice immediately after the exercise, as this will help to reduce acute pain and inflammation. Finally, if all else fails, remember that it’s important to stay active generally and not to slow down. If you have any specific questions regarding a particular activity or exercise after a total joint replacement, you should consult an orthopaedic surgeon.
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