Physical activity and Arthritis

Regular physical activity and exercise are important in the management of all forms of inflammatory arthritis (IA), including for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and axial spondyloarthritis (axial SpA), and offer numerous health benefits. Despite this, people with IA are often inactive, and express many concerns and fears about engaging in physical activity.

Benefits of physical activity

Physical activity and exercise can help:

• physical fitness – strengthen heart and lungs
• muscle strength and endurance
• flexibility and range of joint motion
• balance
• pain and fatigue
• depression
• prevent a loss of bone density

Types of exercise

Physical activity and exercise are important for keeping joints as mobile as possible and strengthening muscles. It can also reduce the risk of developing other diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), high blood pressure, osteoporosis and diabetes.

There are different types of exercises you can do that are suitable for people with RA. You should aim to do a mixture of the following:

• mobility exercises
• muscle strengthening exercises
• aerobic exercises (exercise that makes you breathe harder)
• balance exercises

Overcoming barriers to exercise in arthritis patients

Some of the commonly cited barriers and the solution to overcome them are given below

It hurts too much to exercise

Movement, physical activity and exercise may help to reduce the amount of pain. Experiencing some pain is usually a normal part of symptom management. A physiotherapist will be able to guide the patient on how to start moving and exercising in a safe paced way.

Avoiding movement may make symptoms worse. Remember, lack of physical activity is also associated with several other conditions such as heart disease, pulmonary disease, diabetes and obesity, so there is much to gain from getting moving.

Exercise might damage my joints further

Exercise, including weight lifting and high intensity types of exercise have been shown to be beneficial and safe for people with arthritis.

Although exercise can sometimes cause pain, this is usually a sign of adaptation to a new activity, or if the pain persists that the activity might be too much for your current capacity. It is not a sign that further damage has occurred to the joints.

Exercise might cause a “flare”

There are times when symptoms can increase – joints may swell more, be more painful and may be warm to touch. This is known as a “flare”. This may happen if a patient has overdone things, including over-exercising. It’s important that during flares a patient should modify (not stop) the physical activity and allow body to recover.

A physiotherapist will be able to advise on how to modify the activity levels during a flare, as well as how to exercise safely to reduce the risk of causing a flare.

Exercise will make me more tired

Pain and exhaustion can make it hard to be physically active, particularly at first when the body isn’t used to it. However, exercise and physical activity improve physical fitness and strength, and can also help reduce disease-related exhaustion and boost mental health.

A physiotherapist will be able to advise on how to start exercising, as well as how to gradually increase it as your body gets stronger.

Source : World Physiotherapy