How to Keep Your Joints Healthy with These Simple Techniques
Healthy joints mean more activity, an active lifestyle, and good health. In other words, healthy joints indirectly make you healthy. You feel agile, energetic, and always on the move if you have healthy joints. If you move freely, walk, sprint, run, twist, turn, jump – you don’t have any trouble as long as your joints are healthy. Irrespective of whether your joints are healthy or not if you get confined to your spaces and lead a sedentary life, you will become more prone to joint issues. In addition, the natural aging process makes your joints weak – owing to which they are subjected to wear and tear. Even if it is the natural process that is causing your joints to deteriorate, you can still keep them healthy – if you take action. Let us try to understand how you can keep your joints in shape and ensure that they are healthy.
How to keep your joints healthy
We at impact ortho center recommend the following measures that help keep your joints strong and healthy:
The rule of thumb as far as joint health is concerned is action – set a goal to keep yourself active. Even if your job involves sitting at the desk for hours together then make sure that you change your position, take intermittent breaks and do some stretching activities. Follow this rule as much as possible. If you don’t move and keep yourself confined to your chair, bed or desk, then you will become prone to joint injuries. A sedentary lifestyle is a major reason for a majority of problems associated with your joints.
No matter how you work, where you stand and sit; or what sort of activities you do – always remember to keep your posture apt (perfect). Maintaining a correct posture while working at the desk, standing or sitting, moving or exercising helps in decreasing strain, stress, and pressure on your joints.
Wear proper shoes or footwear – especially when you have excess body weight or weak bones. Even in healthy youngsters – both males and females – not wearing proper footwear can lead to knee pain or hip pain.
Which Exercise is Good?
The best way to keep yourself in shape is the selection of good exercise. The task is not difficult though. You can go walking, gardening, cooking, swimming or bicycling. These are the right type of activities to adopt because they help in reducing the load on the joints and help in stretching your core muscles.
Maintain a Healthy Bodyweight
If you have even a pound of excess body weight, you are putting a 4-pound excess weight on your joints. Similarly, if you shed even half-pound body weight, you are reducing 4 pounds of excess weight (pressure) on your joints. Healthy body weight is therefore very important for healthy joints.
Don’t Stretch Your Muscles Immediately Before Exercise or Activity
There is no doubt – Stretching is good, but timing is important here. This means, don’t stretch your arms and legs muscles when they are cold – instead, do a light warm-up first. The best bet is to walk for at least 5 minutes before starting to stretch. This will loosen up your ligaments, joints, and tendons. To keep your joints healthy, you can do stretching at least three to four times a week or daily as well.
Always Set a Goal for Long-term
Plan to keep your joints healthy for a lifetime – this must be your goal always. To ensure this and make it a reality, you must keep the following in mind – Do some warm-up (walking) before stretching. Next, maintain healthy body weight through aerobic exercises and muscle strengthening training. This should be your exercise regimen. You should keep it in balance.
Joint Replacements No more!
Healthy joints reduce the chances of early onset of some degenerative joints conditions – such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. Many people nowadays report joint pain and inflammation associated with these common joint issues. Furthermore, as you age your joints begin to provide clues that they are under stress because they are subjected to wear and tear. However, you can minimize the damage by setting a goal pertaining to a routine action plan and following it regularly.
If you follow your action plan, you can even prevent joint replacements.
Bottom Line
Adopt simple yet realistic measures for the best long-term outcomes pertaining to your joint health. Don’t expect overnight results. Always remember that keeping it simple ensures exceptional outcomes over a period of time. For instance, if you want to strengthen your joint muscles, it is better to consult your Orthopedic doctor how much weight and what sort of weight training suits your joints. For long-term agility, stability and flexibility stick to minimal weights and loads.
What else can you do?
Consult your Orthopedic doctor who specializes in sports medicine and also takes the advice of your physiotherapist, occupational therapist, and a certified professional trainer. Even an exercise physiologist will help you in developing an optimal exercise program along with your Orthopedic doctor.
If you still want to learn more about how to keep your joints healthy – then comment below