Let’s talk about the most important tip to manage knee arthritis and osteoarthritis. We know that the weather is getting colder everywhere.
It’s usually the season wherein people start to feel the after effects of arthritis, stiffness, pain, soreness, and aching of the joints. The coldness and humidity usually trigger those. It’s the official season when we are starting to have arthritis symptoms kick in.
Mechanism behind osteoarthritis.
It's pretty much a degeneration of the joint that happens over age. It’s a normal aging process that can be considered because of standing or doing activities for a very long time. Over the time, we start to gradually wear out the cartilage or the structures within the joints. So eventually, the space within the joint is starting to decrease.
For example, two bones on either side usually have a very good amount of space in between so that when you are moving, it can generate a lot of motion. But then, with arthritis or the degeneration aging happening, it's starting to lose space that starts to approximate.
You can even see the changes on x-rays when you get checked. But then like I said earlier, it's a normal aging process that every one of us are going deal with at some point.
Managing osteoarthritis:
Motion is lotion. Which means when we put any active motion to the joint, we are able to somewhat reverse or slow down the process of aging or the degeneration happening to the joint. They need to be constantly pumped into this motion.
So, if we get active motion going on and there is a constantly pumping motion happening, then it can bring in nutrients to facilitate healing and recovery. That's why active motion is very important.
The reason why people nowadays are very easy to develop arthritis because they live a more sedentary lifestyle, or even a little bit more obese. They don't really put enough a lot of the active motion into the joints and the joint is more likely to be stuck in the same position for a long time.
Eventually, the joint doesn't have enough nourishment, and the aging process would speed up. So, get the active motion going. That’s the most important thing to prevent arthritis from even happening.
Andy’s personal experience
There is something I started to notice this year. I just turned 30 years old a few months ago this year. Then starting this year, because of the cold front two weeks ago, I actually felt a lot of soreness and stiffness in my back which never happened.
It wasn't related to a specific injury or a trauma. It’s just chipped in one morning when I woke up. But when I started moving around the stiffness, the soreness is taken away just by actively moving. Aging started to happen even though I just turned 30 years old.
And I want to emphasize that aging is a process that happens to every single one of us. But if you get active motion going, you'll be able to slow down the after effects and even prevent those symptoms and discomforts from happening.
Like for myself, the day I realized that, I immediately came to the studio and jumped on to our reformer. I started doing exercises and then stiffness just got taken away and never came back.
This is just a great reminder for all of you guys if you are suffering from arthritis or you're starting to feel some stiffness and soreness in your joints, the most important thing you need to do is not take any supplements or medications.
The most important thing you need to do is active range of motion to the joints because motion is lotion.
