Arthritis can make every step feel harder, but avoiding exercise often makes things worse. An orthopaedic expert explains how stretching, strength training and low-impact cardio can reduce pain, improve mobility and help keep your knees healthier for longer
Roughly one in seven people in the United Kingdom lives with arthritis – and often this has a significant impact on day-to-day living. But research funded by Arthritis UK has found that exercise is the best way to reduce pain, improve mobility and stay independent for longer. With that in mind, we have spoken to Orthopaedic Doctor, Dr Thomas Naylor, to learn specifically which exercises to do, how to do them, and why they can help our creaking knees.
Which types of exercise are good for arthritis?
People will have different physical abilities depending on what stage and severity they are at with their knee symptoms and overall health, but the three areas exercise can help with are “stiffness, strength, and pain symptoms,” says Dr Naylor, adding that focusing on these will help to avoid pain, maintain range of movement, and to help keep movements controlled to generally protect the joint.
How to reduce stiffness in knee joints through exercise?
We know the phrase ‘use it or lose it’ rings true when it comes to strength training; turns out it is the same for joint health. “A knee joint will manage a full range of possible movement if it regularly does that movement,” says Dr Naylor.
This means we have to keep moving our joints; if we don’t, they will stiffen, restricting the range of motion. “It is much harder to get a stiff joint moving again than it is to retain movement.” Says Dr Naylor.
The exercise to prevent stiffness is stretching. “Bending the knees fully (bringing your heel up to your bum), and pushing them straight (forcing the back of the knee flat onto the floor with a towel, raising the ankle up).” Dr Naylor says.
How to increase joint strength
A large volume of scientific evidence shows that exercise and strength training improve symptoms of knee arthritis and delay the need for joint replacement surgery. Dr Naylor feels that “specific exercises are probably less important than actually doing something that works well for your body and is consistently manageable”.
The idea being, any exercise is better than none, and doing what won’t feel like a chore means you are likely to stick at it, the same logic that steady weight loss can be achieved through, or any long-term goal.
That being said, Squats are obviously the king of lower-body strength exercises. “These can be performed with body weight only, focusing on a full range of movement, or weighted in whichever form works best for you. Hex bar squats are potentially more comfortable for people who have back pain,” says Dr Naylor.
Leg press, hip thrusts and knee extensions are also going to help, but you should be cautious with weight and steadily build up. Unilateral lunges are also great for strengthening the muscles around the knee, as well as encouraging more balance between both legs, which is only going to help the load your knees take.
How to reduce pain while exercising
Dr Naylor says that “a little pain is fine, but you should avoid the activities that seem to result in continuously worsening pain.” For instance, Dr Naylor mentions that running can be protective against developing knee arthritis, as cartilage needs movement and forces to be applied to it to keep it healthy.
But, the relatively hard repetitive impact caused by running means that if it is making symptoms worse, it should be avoided, or managed in terms of intensity. Dr Naylor says gel-based over-the-counter pain killers are fine to use, and offer fewer complications than pills, also.
If you can’t live without running, then using (or subsidising some runs with) a treadmill or softer surface (grass rather than street) reduces forces across the knee joint. “Cycling is great for knee health, and often better tolerated than running.” Dr Naylor offers.
How exercise can prevent arthritis
As well as helping symptoms, exercise can help prevent arthritis symptoms from forming, both as a result of strengthening joints and the surrounding muscles, but also through weight management. Maintaining a healthy weight significantly decreases loads put onto the knee and reduces inflammatory markers in the joint.
“Being overweight or obese significantly increases the likelihood of developing arthritis or needing a knee replacement,” says Dr Naylor.
