Exercises for people with chronic diseases that affects your muscles and joints

Aqua fit is a great no/low impact workout. If you do deep water, your feet never touch the floor of the pool so no impact at all to them.
Swimming is also good, and you can use a snorkel if you need too.
Water excercises will benefit your legs without the impact.
Also look into yoga. There are many different types and some can be done all while sitting.
Not a big calorie burn, but the stretching could be very helpful for you.
You tube might also have some chair excercises you can do that will keep the pressure off your joints.

i'd say it depends. i found swimming harder on my knees and ankles than walking or low impact cardio because of constantly working against the water.

i do lots of crunches and lower back extensions, and bench presses, bicep curls and tricep extensions, cable cross overs and pretty much every upper body exercise doesn't use your knees or ankles - except some gyms have machines designed to integrate your lower body. oh, and you can probably do hip adductions and abductions - if you're not a gym member, you could use stretchy things or a bullworker. i use both, and use an A system with soft foam on the arms for adductions; i also use a pillow with lots of heavy squeezing.

you can do hand bicycling for cardio, which is working well for me. wear a heart rate monitor while you do it to make sure your heart rate is up. watch tv or listen to an audio books while you go.

Water exercise be it aquatic running, aerobics, swimming

If pool chemicals bother you, try a saltwater pool.

Not being aquaticly inclined, i took up aerial yoga as a way to stretch and strengthen, while working on meditation, body awareness and acceptance

I don't know what my problem is to be honest (have some ideas, but...). I'm still as flexible as a teenager 30 years ago. But my joints and muscles are a lot more problematic. This week I danced a bit and accidentally swung my hip a bit too far to the side - and suddenly my leg seems to stand next to me. Odd.. experimented a bit with that and then gave up. Next day, and coming days my hip joint and all sorts of muscles and tendons on pelvis, hip and leg down to the foot hurt. Oh great.

Chieflrg wrote: »

Strength training is proven to help with chronic pain from disease. Strengthens the muscle that surround the joints and has many other benefits as well.

I highly urge you to train if you aren't already.

Swimming isn't the best for people that deal with joint disease but if you enjoy it...👍

that's true, but this is something that should be approached carefully. one can harm the joint or muscle or connective tissue by overdoing or just picking an exercise that isn't a good fit. i've re-injured problem areas several times, and some of those exercises were given to me by my physical therapist.

it's best to start gradually and really pay attention to every rep, stopping if something doesn't feel right. anything. i re-tore a healing lat because the pop i felt didn't hurt, so i finished the set, and i had to lay off for several months for it to heal (as per my sports medicine dr) and still have problems from the scar tissue. so folks, start slowly and be mindful!

Chieflrg wrote: »

zebasschick wrote: »

Chieflrg wrote: »

Strength training is proven to help with chronic pain from disease. Strengthens the muscle that surround the joints and has many other benefits as well.

I highly urge you to train if you aren't already.

Swimming isn't the best for people that deal with joint disease but if you enjoy it...👍

that's true, but this is something that should be approached carefully. one can harm the joint or muscle or connective tissue by overdoing or just picking an exercise that isn't a good fit. i've re-injured problem areas several times, and some of those exercises were given to me by my physical therapist.

it's best to start gradually and really pay attention to every rep, stopping if something doesn't feel right. anything. i re-tore a healing lat because the pop i felt didn't hurt, so i finished the set, and i had to lay off for several months for it to heal (as per my sports medicine dr) and still have problems from the scar tissue. so folks, start slowly and be mindful!

Anybody that has read my advice knows I'm a advocate to proper load management.

Unfortunately the majority of doctors and physical therapist do not follow current evidence or even know it. So honestly I'm not surprised by your experience and I'm sorry you e experienced bumps in your road.

I've experienced the same where I was confined at times to a wheel chair and use of a cane for many years do to uneducated doctors and physical therapists who follow regurgitated treatments that can do more harm then good.

I appreciate your note and I'm not arguing your thoughts just wanted to be more clear on my advice.

you are so right - everything you say seems to mirror my experiences.

My wife is bothered by indoor pools, but not outdoor ones. I found a pair of Theraband ankle devices that go around her ankle for water resistance exercising on days I don't feel like swimming. Access to an outdoor pool can be tough, I know.

Maybe finding a very gentle yoga or a joint specific, easy Tai Chi routine (Ann has pointed out to me even some forms/moves in Tai Chi can really hurt your knees).

Stationary Bike or Air Bikes can be great if you can tolerate that.

I have an ankle that suffers from severe arthritis and will never recover, and I also suffer from problems with my elbow that comes and go. What I have found to work for me is a combination of swimming as cardio (I started with very poor technique and the key is definitely to start slow) and pilates. After the lockdown, I started doing pilates online, and there are definitely very good videos for beginners and lately decided to also get into yoga, which I never liked until now, but it turns out that it is easier to find an online class I like than in person, since there are far more options. Also if you google "mobility workouts" you might come up with some good ideas, that build strength while not stressing joints. I have found that FitOn has some really good workouts, even in their free program.