Get Moving and Feel Better
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Improving Flexibility
The Purpose: Improving flexibility means increasing the full, natural movements of a joint – called “range of motion” – to help you do everyday activities, such as pulling on socks or reaching for an item on a shelf. How much you can put each joint through its full range of motion is determined by how much the muscles, ligaments and tendons supporting a joint can stretch.
The Payoff: Doing daily exercises to stretch tissues around a joint not only helps make joints move more easily, but also helps ease pain and reduces the chance of injury.
Try This Hip Flexor Stretch whenever you’re heading out for a walk or after sitting at work or in the car for several hours: Stand in front of a chair that has no wheels or arms, with side of left thigh against the seat, and place left hand on the chair back for support. Put left knee on the seat and slowly move pelvis forward without rotating your hips. You will feel a stretch along the front of your hip and down into your left thigh. Leaning back slightly, without arching back and while keeping hips still, will stretch the muscles farther. Hold the stretch for five seconds and work up to 10 seconds. Repeat 10 times per leg.
Increasing Endurance
The Purpose: Aerobic activities, like walking, which heavily use the heart and lungs to keep you moving, increase your blood flow. As blood moves through your body faster, waste products and inflammatory chemicals are shuttled out and nutrients and oxygen are shuttled in.
The Payoff: Building endurance has both physical and mental effects. Aerobic exericses help you have more stamina to get through your daily tasks, reduce fatigue, lower your risk of chronic health problems and help decrease weight, which can greatly reduce the pain of knee osteoarthritis.
Try This Walking Goal: At a gentle pace of two miles per hour, you can walk one mile in 30 minutes. If 30 minutes all at once is too much to start with, try three 10-minute walks. After several weeks, try bumping up your pace to three miles per hour to reach the goal of 1.5 miles in 30 minutes, which has been shown to provide peak benefits of increased feeling of well-being and decreased depression.
How Long?
Aim for 30 minutes of activity on most days of the week. Mix up moves from all areas: flexibility, strengthening and endurance exercises. Your body will get a more complete workout and your brain will keep from getting bored.
