As people grow older, they frequently complain that they have problems with joint pain, hip pain, back pain, neck pain, and other types of pain. They then go on to blame their pain solely on the fact that they are getting older. Sure their body may have been through a lot, but that does not mean that the pain cannot be prevented or fixed.
To fix anything in life, you just have to take the right steps.
Exercise for Joint Health
You know your body needs physical activity on a regular basis. You do not have to go climb a mountain or run an ultra-marathon, you just have to do things that challenge your current fitness abilities.
Exercise is important for maintaining a healthy body weight, keeping muscle tissue strong, and also for promoting joint health. When you exercise, the bones in your joints and the muscles around your joints are strengthened. It is important to have strong muscles surrounding your joints because they help support the joint. If the muscles are weak, unnecessary stress is placed on the joints. This can cause pain and increase the risk of injury.
Mobility Work to Eliminate Pain
Your mobility is basically how well your joints and soft tissues are able to move.
Every day, your body endures a variety of stresses and strains. Over time little things add up, causing soft tissue and joint restrictions. When your joints and soft tissues are not healthy, they are not able to move fluidly through a normal range of motion, causing pain and discomfort.
The pain and problems associated with these restrictions can be avoided and corrected. You just need to practice moving your body through the motions.
Here are two things you can do to improve your mobility
Stretching: Both static and dynamic stretching are beneficial to the soft tissues in your hip. If you need a stretch to try for your hips, get in to a full squat position.
Here’s how to do a full squat:
- Stand up straight.
- Place your heels so that they are positioned below your shoulders.
- Slowly push your hips down and back, like you are going to sit in a chair (focus on dropping your hips and your knees will automatically bend).
- As you squat down, you will need to lean your torso forward in order to keep your center of gravity over your feet.
- Go down until you reach the end of your range of motion and hold that position for a little while.
Squat Tips:
- Keep your chest up and put your arms in front for balance.
- When you go to stand up, push your hips back so you do not place unnecessary stress on your knees.
Rotational exercises: These exercises are particularly helpful if you have hip joint pain. They can be used to move each of your joints and their supporting tissues through their complete range of motion. Here is another one you can try for your hips…
Front to Back Leg Swing:
- Stand up straight.
- Lift one foot off of the ground and balance on one foot.
- Swing the leg that is not in contact with the floor back behind yourself, then swing it in front of yourself.
- Repeat this motion several times, and then switch legs.
Leg Swing Tips:
- Use your arms to balance, and hold onto something if you need to.
Eat Properly
Food is essentially a drug. Due to this simple fact, you can either use food to help yourself or to hurt yourself. When it comes to keeping your joints functioning well, it is important that you eat foods that contain fatty acids and anti-oxidants. Both anti-oxidants and fatty acids help to reduce inflammation. When you reduce inflammation, you also speed up the healing process which will help relieve joint pain.
In addition to eating foods that help reduce inflammation, you should also eat in a way that helps prevent inflammation in the first place. I am taking about eating to control your body weight. Maintaining a healthy body weight ensures that additional stresses are not placed on your joints. In the long run, this will help reduce the wear and tear caused by daily activities.
Bonus: Drink lots of Water
Other benefits of water have been stated before here on Fitness Tips for Life, here is another one to add to the collection. Drinking lots of water promotes joint health be ensuring that the muscle tissue around your joints have the proper fluids to function smoothly. It also helps the cartilage in your joints to perform optimally.
About the Author:
Dave is a trainer who focuses on sustainable methods of training. He maintains a personal website about hip pain, which can be found here.
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I find that for the first week or two that you start or restart serious exercise it is best to ramp yourself up. We all want to be instantly fit but you have to work up to it or you will never get there without giving up because of muscle soreness (Biggest Loser never shows this). I was thinking about this yesterday in the gym and how it is nice to push as hard as I can to make gains knowing that I will be in fantastic shape in a month but also knowing that day to day for the first week I will be making gains mostly in building mental toughness and improving my agility, balance, and joint strength.
