Osteoarthritis in neck/spine

I'm 64 and have had OA for a long time. Being active helps, and I do lots of stretching to limber up in the morning. I swim, do acquagym, walk a lot, do strength training once a week, and yogaflex. By far yoga is the game changer. You might want to try it.

I have OA in my spine and a recent CT Scan (with and without contrast) showed a "developmental fusion of C2-C3." This problem never became evident in an X Ray. The radiologist and the neurologist that requested the exams (I was having tremendous HAs), think that the OA made the side effects of the fusion more painful, and is an anomaly that I was born with or that I developed growing up. Go figure!!!

I was sent to PT for mild traction and exercises, but it only helped a little. I am now doing osteopathic manipulation as recommended by my pain management doctor and by my primary, and it seems to be more beneficial. My health insurance doesn't pay for this treatment, so it is something that I cover out of pocket. Not cheap.

Most likely I will need a steroid epidural too, if the recent treatment doesn't reduce the pain considerably. I am not looking forward to having a needle or steroids inserted in my neck, but the pain and limitations are not fun either.

I am not allowed to bench press anymore, and if I try, I pay a very steep (aka pain) price later. I do dumbbell presses in a slightly inclined bench and I also use the sitting press machine at the gym, but I had to reduce the weight load.

I am not allowed to bend my neck upwards or tilt my head back either or make sudden lateral movements (no cobra in my yoga class). No bumping rides or roller coaster or anything that will produce a sudden and strong move of my neck or head. I can go on and on with the limitations and restrictions.

Topical gels for OA and CBD cream seem to help with the local pain and tightness, and so does heat. Other than that, I just must learn to live with the pain or discomfort. I am much older than you, so the OA is not unexpected, nevertheless is not welcome when a person is and like to be active.

Be careful with swimming, specially with free style movements that require side movements of the neck. Ask your doctor or PT about the best exercises to do, not only for strength but also to reduce the inflammation and pain. Neck pain sometimes brings shoulder and arm pain too so be careful with the amount of weigh that you lift. Take breaks. make sure that you have good form in all the exercises, and don’t hesitate to de-load if needed. Just increasing the reps with lower weights will give you benefits.

You are too young to go thru this, but as you said you won the lottery in the OA department. Be mindful of what you do. I wish you good luck and not too much pain.

I was just diagnosed with arthritis in the neck, spine, knees and ankles. I had to give up squats until I get rid of some weight. Something that I found helpful was pool walking. Just go to the pool and walk back and forth and do some other upper aerobic exercises. I noticed that I had an elevated heart rate for quite a while afterwards and felt great.

I have OA in my knees. I'm 34. I loved doing high impact cardio and now I can't. Instead i do a lot of walking and it really helps. Swimming and biking are good too. Your doctor can tell you what may or may not work for you for exercise. Make sure you talk to your doctor about pain medication too.

Have you considered any supplements for support?