Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Eliminate Pain with these 3 Keys to Promoting Joint Health




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.

Related Blogs

  • Related Blogs on Back Pain
  • Related Blogs on Fitness
Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

How hard to push when starting exercise



I always worry about how people get started or restarted doing exercise. The trouble is that we are all excited to get started and run or workout and feel tired but the next day for a week wake up in excrutiating pain and do not want to ever go through that again.

I know this because I have done that too.

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.

Don’t get me wrong, I am working hard but my weight workouts are to failure with fewer sets so I am still a bit sore but not enough to slow me down at all. Excitement is great but overexertion will really hurt and if you pull something or get joint or back pain it can really set you back.

So if you are starting out, or are sore today remember that the pain goes away and you should not be sore day to day after the initial bit of pain. Get through it or just work your way up.

If you do get sore there are a few things you can do to get rid of that muscle soreness.

A warm bath is always nice. You can use a  heating pad alternating with ice on your muscles. Also I have taken aspirin in the past to just dull the pain, and finally stretching, stretch those muscles lots whether sore or not to get rid of the lactic acid buildup and to help your flexability.

Constistency is key. make sure you are getting some kind of exercise everyday even light walking or biking and if you are doing weight workouts make sure you are giving a day in between. I try to get at least two to three hard cardio workouts a week and two to four weight workouts a week as well.

Here is an article I wrote on starting Weightlifting http://www.fitnesstipsforlife.com/getting-started-weight-training.html

And here is another on starting exercise itself http://www.fitnesstipsforlife.com/building-up-in-cardio.html

I want to dive into more detail but sometimes that more you know the more confusing these things can be. Just get out and get some exercise, ok?

Related Blogs

  • Related Blogs on Agility
Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Ab Exercises for Back Pain



Ab Exercises for Back Pain

ab exercises for back pain

Although it may seem counterintuitive, people experiencing back pain should do Ab Exercises for Back Pain with their doctor’s permission. Some types of back pain, especially pain associated with sitting for long stretches, comes from not working out the back muscles enough. As long as there are no injuries, doing basic abdominal exercises is fine.

Yoga is a form of exercise that improves flexibility and balance through stretching and maintaining poses. Yoga also requires some strength, which is where it can help people with back pain. The poses that serve as an abdominal workout for yoga are poses that require the back to arch outward.

Yoga Type Ab Exercises for Back Pain

These Yoga poses can be done standing or lying flat. You simply arch your back outward so that your hands are reaching toward the back of your legs. Holding this pose for up to a minute will strengthen the back muscles and also help the abs.

Other ab exercises for back pain are leg lifts. This exercise, often used in traditional aerobics classes, has no impact but allows you to work your back. Begin by lying on the floor on your side. Put your arm out straight down the length of your torso toward your feet. Lift the top foot until your legs form as close to a 30-degree angle as you can get. Try to hold your leg in this position for a few seconds and then lower. Do several sets of these leg lifts before switching sides. The leg lift ab exercises for back pain should stretch the muscles of the back, helping to relieve pain, while also working on the oblique muscles.

Are Ab Exercises for Back Pain good for everyone?

While these ab exercises for back pain are low impact and will work for people with chronic or acute back pain, other forms of ab exercises are great as well. Crunches are basic, and they are easy to do with most types of back pain. Rather than not do the exercises, speak with your doctor about ways you can do the ab exercises you would like to do without sacrificing your health.

The best rule of thumb for doing ab exercises when you are having back pain is not to work through any intense pain. A bit of discomfort is one thing and is usually okay, but do not work through stabbing pain, for instance. That could be very dangerous. Pay attention to your body’s signals, and you’re likely to know when to stop working out your abs or and Back Pain Exercises because of back pain.

Ab Exercises for Back Pain
This is your opportunity to learn the “world-class” Back Pain relief secrets that only a handful of lucky people even knew existed a short time ago…including the “super-advanced” skill, know-how and techniques. It is called the Miracle Back Pain Cure.

Ab exercises for back pain are a great way to treat your problems so try them as soon as you can.

Related Blogs