Starting my fitness journey

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joannenaylor69
joannenaylor69 Posts: 1 Member
in Introduce Yourself

reaching out to the community to get advice as have health issues but enjoying the gym at moment arthritis is the big struggle

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  • macca1611
    macca1611 Posts: 5 Member

    Hiya.

    I have arthritic knee and hip. I have found that if I reduce carbs and sugars through my eating I don't suffer as much. Did a bit of reading into a sort of hybrid keto meets carnivore style diet and found all inflammation and joint pains subsided a good bit to ever went completely on occasions. No pain meds needed.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 37,327 Community Helper

    I have some osteoarthritis (knees, hips, etc.), osteoporosis, and at least one torn meniscus. I've also been athletically active for over 20 years with most of that going on for most of those years. I'm 69 now, was in my late 40s when I first started getting routinely active.

    Reaching a healthy body weight reduced pain frequency/severity quite dramatically. Getting stronger in the supporting muscles, and also sometimes getting more flexibility/mobility in the joints, has also helped reduce pain/discomfort, in addition to making functional improvements in my daily life. I still work at that routinely.

    What you're doing is important and useful, I believe. For me, it was important to proceed gradually, make sure rest/recovery and nutrition/hydration were overall pretty good, and learn to understand what uncomfortable sensations during exercise were worsening the condition, vs. just hurting in the moment.

    Along the way, some other interventions that helped when they were available to me were physical therapy, osteopathic manipulation, and professional massage - sports-type therapeutic massage, not just relaxation massage.

    I wish you well in this pursuit - there are rewards from the work, IME.

  • totameafox
    totameafox Posts: 1,285 Member

    unfortunately one of the aggravations of arthritis is also one of it's cures… movement. I have a friend that swears by hyaluronic acid. Glucosamine is supposed to help too. My budget is a bit to tight to try the hyaluronic acid and I've yet to see a glucosamie pill i could swallow. but movement, though painful, will keep the joints from locking so keep with it.

  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 9,856 Member
    edited April 3

    a while back there was a sincerely irritating commercial for an arthritis med, with the tag line “a body in motion, stays in motion”.

    Annoying as heck, but true.

    Find some form of regular movement. For me, coming off an illness that left me with severe joint pain, it was stretching for thirty minutes every morning. At first it was boring, an annoyance, but gradually, it became Me Time and a meditation.

    I still do hip circles before every yoga or cardio class. They are tremendously helpful.

    Yoga is helpful. You might find yin style yoga, or a stretching class helpful.

    At the other end of the spectrum, I feel amazing after a tough hot yoga class. The heat really loosens my joints.

    Swimming helps me with joint pain. Nothing touches and the motion forces me to stretch out.

    Even getting up and walking is effective. The simply getting out of bed and standing part is hard, until my hip joints have settled in. Walking helps loosen them.

    The #1 worst thing for my arthritis and other joint pain is sitting. If I sit for an hour, it’s like starting my day all over again, startigg no with the hip pain. Much easier to be popping up and down throughout the day.

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