I have not exercised in weeks because of my joints! Help

I have arthritis so I feel your pain, literally.

My physio and doctor have helped me by telling me this.

First you need to relieve the inflammation and pain, in my case this was a cocktail of pain and anti inflammatory meds. Once the pain had been relieved then it was gentle exercises.

The most important advice was to lose weight. This in itself can relieve the stress on your joints and alleviate the pain. This is true and works well. My Arthritis calmed down so much after I lost 20lbs. And remember you can do this by diet only you don't need to exercise. Having said that their advice to me regarding exercise was this:

1. Before I get out of bed I do some stretching exercises, for me they consist of gentle rotation of joints starting at the ankles and working up through knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists and neck. They are specific exercises shown to me by my physio.

2. Avoid high impact movements like jumping or running instead try walking and swimming. A most useful piece of kit is a pair of hiking poles. They not only relieves the stress on your knees/hips but also give you stability especially on uneven ground and you can walk a little further with this kind of support. I felt a bit embarrassed at first but they really helped me to get out and about so much.

3. Once you get moving again start lifting weights, start slowly and build up as this strengthens the muscle around the joint and helps take the pressure off.

4. You will know how far to push, there will be days when you can climb mountains and days where you can barely move and need medication and rest. Don't let the bad days scare you into not doing anything on the good days.

5. Make a note of things that set it off and try to find ways of either gently building up a tolerance or ways around them. For me carrying heavy shopping bags sets it off in my hands so I have my shopping delivered or take my husband to carry the bags. Walking up too many stairs will set of my hips and knees. However by walking up more stairs and building up a tolerance on good days that is getting better.

This last 18 months have been really good in fact I actually did climb a mountain, well walked up one. Yes I did suffer for a few days afterwards but the sense of achievement carried me through.

I am having a bad flare up lately but I know I can manage it and it will subside eventually. I think it is a combination of cold weather coming and stress from caring for my elderly mum.

It is the fear of causing yourself more pain that can effect you mentally and stop you even trying to move. You have to fight this or you won't do the things that can actually help. It is as much a mental attitude as it is a physical one. You can work on it and work through it and improve it.

Sorry this is so long.

TLDR: Professional diagnoses, medication and exercise advice is crucial. Lose weight. Walk. Swim, Lift weights. Rest when you must, exercise when you are able. Push yourself gently but firmly and don't give up.

Hello, I am a fitness instructor (FI) but currently studying a degree in sport science. I am slowly replacing my knowledge with sports science but I will tell you what I have learnt from FI for now.

The objective is to avoid directly loading the joint. There are two ways of achieving this. Water based exercise and the Recumbent bike. Depending on the stress you have on the knee joint, I would suggest picking one of these two. I would avoid vertical loading and focus on working the muscles rather than placing load on the joints. Outside of my knowledge, I believe that there are upper body based cardiovascular exercises but I never touched on these.