An Exercise Guide for Seniors Suffering from Arthritis

With age comes a slew of new physical and mental health problems. Unfortunately, painful or stiff joints are the most common ones. While there can be several underlying causes of joint pain, in ageing adults, it is generally a sign of arthritis. Other symptoms that one should look out for are swelling in joints, decreased range of motion, fatigue, and physical deformity.

Arthritis is also marked with inflammation of the joints which can make it extremely painful for the patient to complete his daily activities. Thus, it is important that seniors take immediate action as soon as the diagnosis is confirmed.

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Exercises for Seniors Suffering from Arthritis

One of the simplest and healthiest ways to fight these symptoms is exercising regularly. Exercises can improve balance, flexibility, and endurance in seniors. Plus, a fixed level of daily physical activity can help with improving mental health as well. Thus, in this article, we have listed some exercises that can prove really beneficial for seniors suffering from arthritis. Keep reading on to know more!

Knee Extensions

Since knees are the most prone to be affected with arthritis, we will start our list with knee extensions. This is a simple and easy to do chair exercise for seniors. All you need to do is sit on a comfortable chair and keep your back firmly at the backrest. Hips should also be kept as far back as possible.

Next, you need to push your chest out while keeping your core tight. Now, you have to place both your hands at the sides of the chair and legs at a 90-degree angle with the chair. You can also grip the seat to keep it stable. Next, slowly extend one leg in front of the body, as far as possible. Hold still for a minute and then slowly draw it back. Repeat the same with the other leg.

You can do as many sets as you can without exerting yourself. However, if you start experiencing pain, you should stop immediately.

Wrist Bends

This exercise is for seniors who might experience stiff wrists. Arthritis can sometimes cause wrists to get stuck, preventing them from bending. Needless to say that this can make many daily activities painful for seniors. So, to relieve this pain and increase the mobility of your wrist, you can do this exercise whenever you are free.

To do this, put your elbow on a tabletop and point your hand upwards to the ceiling. Now, use your other hand and push back the palm of your tabletop hand slowly. Try to go as far as you can, however, please do not push too hard. Also, if you feel any pain, don’t go any further.

Now try to hold your hand in this position for five seconds and release. Repeat the same with the other hand.

Ankle Rolls

The third joint that’s most commonly affected by arthritis is the ankles. This often leads to painful and restricted mobility, along with major balance issues. Ankle muscles that are either tight or too weak can put the bones and ligaments at risk of injury as well.

To avoid this, you can stand up and raise one foot off the floor. Next, point your toe forward and try to draw a circle in the air. Draw five circles and then change direction. Repeat the same with the other ankle.

Conclusion

Exercising may seem like the last thing to do when suffering from arthritis flare-up. However, the ones mentioned above are very easy and sure to reduce the discomfort. Thus, we hope that you do these exercises and share them with other patients as well.