Healthy joints couldn’t be more important if we want to stay active as we age. Healthy joints allow us to turn, twist, jump, run and move. The joints are connected with muscles and ligaments to give us stability, with a smooth layer of white tissue known as articular cartilage at the end of the bone to distribute the forces of compression and enable smooth gliding as we move.
The Importance Of Good Joint Health
When you keep your joints in good condition, wear and tear are reduced on the cartilage. This is a major factor when we want to continue enjoying an active, healthy lifestyle as we get older and enter retirement. Not only can healthy joints allow you to carry on participating in the sports and activities you love, but they also enable you to avoid the need for any early-onset surgeries to replace joints, especially of the knee and hip.
To keep the joins in top condition, you should consider doing exercises that will reduce the load on your joints while also utilizing the core muscles. This helps to preserve long-lasting function while reducing the chance of developing arthritis at an early age. However, how do you choose the best exercises to keep your joints healthy? How do you know that you’ve chosen a workout regime that won’t exacerbate any existing problems and actually increase the strain on your joints?
Aim For Variety
The most important thing that you can do to ensure a successful workout regime is to maintain variety. If you complete the right balance of muscle strengthening, flexibility, and aerobic exercises, and maintain the right body weight for you, you’ll have everything you need to maintain optimal joint health over the course of your lifetime.
Cross-training is one of the most popular ways of adding more variety to a workout routine since you’ll do a different activity every time you exercise. Meanwhile, flexibility exercises help you to maintain your entire range of motion of your joints. Active stretching exercises like pilates, tai chi and yoga are all beneficial in helping the joints to be ready for intense exercise. This is why stretching exercises must be carried out before after and before any strength or aerobic training to ensure your best possible performance.
Working Out In Later Life
When it comes to cardiovascular or aerobic exercises, you should start out at quite a low intensity. High-impact training exercises like step aerobics, running on concrete or jumping rope are best avoided as you get older in favor of lower-impact sports and exercises like swimming, walking and bicycling. If you’re planning on hitting the gym as you age, you should choose equipment that has a low-impact load on your legs such as stationary cycles, stair climbers and ellipticals.
The Benefit Of Weight Training
Adding weight training into your workout routine will help to maintain strength in your muscles while allowing for better joint stability. However, it’s always wise to use the services of a fully trained and qualified Dallas personal trainer since having the right form is absolutely critical to ensuring you don’t hurt yourself. With the right support from a professional, you can start off with a low load and higher repetitions to minimize any risk of damage to the joints.
Exercise For Your Joint Health
Although it may sound counterintuitive to workout and move your joints to protect them, in fact, it has been shown that this is one of the best ways to stay mobile and in peak condition as you get older. Seek out professional advice, though, before you embark on any exercise regime so that you can be certain that you won’t be causing yourself any harm that will negate all your efforts to stay fit and well.