What is osteoarthritis? Osteoarthritis is literally arthritic inflammation of the bone. Our bones are highly structural, but are quite rough, so there is covering layer at the ends of all our bones called cartilage. This cartilaginous covering normally wears away in all of us throughout our lives, but some quicker than others.
There are some new procedures like hyalgine injections and glucosamine and chondrotine sulfate that attempt to improve the layer, but ultimately this layer is not replaceable.
People with osteoarthritis often feel limited, wanting to exercise but are concerned about experiencing more pain or causing more damage. This double edge sword situation can be challenging and often leads people to consider knee and hip replacements.
This limitation, avoiding weight-bearing exercise, often limits people in their ability to exercise, which affects not just their muscle strength and bone integrity, but also lung and heart function. Do not let osteoarthritis keep you avoiding exercise because it will affect your entire body, your health, and your lifespan.
Starting an exercise regime with osteoarthritis should focus on ways to increase the pounding of your heart rate without the pounding on the joints. Water exercise and aerobics is a wonderful alternative because of the buoyancy eliminates the pounding on your joints, but the water also gives resistance for strengthening.
You do not need to know how to swim, you can do all these exercises standing up and in the shallow end of a pool! The Civic Center has instructors certified to assist you, so why wait!
Alternatives to running, walking and water programs are the elliptical, bicycling, and the rowing, the later two can be performed in the gym or out in nature. There is a great benefit to joints with cyclical motions that are performed with the bicycle and the elliptical. Our joints actually get very little circulation and blood flow and rely on movement to get nutrients into the joint and inflammation out of the joint. Do you ever wonder why your joints are so stiff after sleeping or sitting for along time? Not moving is the reason. I frequently use the analogy of a pond with my patients to explain how cyclical motion improves joints. Ponds that are stagnant with little movement of the water become very thick with algae. Ponds that have movement of the water from a spring or stream stay clear and do not get bogged down. So find a way to keep moving!
Strength training can also provide benefit to decrease pain with osteoarthritis. By increasing muscle around the arthritic joint, the muscle will increase its sock absorption ability causing less stress to the joint bones.
There are many exercise professionals and facilities in Warren County. The Civic Center does not require a membership, so you can pay as go. So if you have osteoarthritis, do not eliminate all exercise, just work with a healthcare professional to determine the right exercises to help your condition.
Zach Sutton, DPT, MS, OCS
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