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Exercise can reduce the impact of arthritic flare-ups and speed healing.

Q: I have been active most of my life playing sports and doing all kinds of fitness activities. As I am closing in on 60, I am stronger and fitter than most of my peers and I take no medications. My energy is generally very high and I still participate in various activities and sports that go with our Canadian seasons. Weight training, golf, mountain biking, skiing, kayaking etc… The one downside to my life time of athletics and fitness training, however, is that I have arthritis in various joints in my body. My knee sometimes flares up, my fingers and toes can get sore sometimes and my elbows and shoulders bother me if I push too hard in the gym or when doing my sports. When I am achy, should I keep on pushing myself or take time to rest and recover? Why is it important keep moving even when I am in pain?

A: First of all, congratulations on continuing to live an active, energetic life as you approach your senior years. Moving towards retirement (eventually) with a strong, fit body will give you many options and opportunities to experience whatever life will bring you going forward. Too many people arrive at their retirement with the financial means to live a full life, but, with so little strength and endurance and so little “wellness” that they don’t have the ability to do much of anything other than tend to their illnesses, aches, pains and sickness; leaving them with very few options of what they can do.

In regards to your sore, achy joints it is vitally important that you keep them moving as much as possible for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the most important is that the more you exercise, the stronger the supporting muscles around your joints will become, allowing for more range of motion, greater stability and less pain. You can think of the supporting musculature around a joint as acting like a brace to help to stabilize the area. This is especially important with osteoarthritis (OA) when the cartilage in the joint has been lost or damaged to injury, surgery or simple wear and tear and bones start rubbing against each other causing inflammation.

A secondary reason for keeping your arthritic joints moving is that movement in general increases blood and oxygen circulation throughout the entire body and, in particular, to your joints. This means that there will be more lubricating (synovial) fluid brought to the area to ease movement and to bathe the joint with nutrients that can speed healing. In some cases, this can even spur cartilage repair and re-growth.

In more general terms, exercise brings a sense of well-being to the exerciser and provides them with the feeling of being able to control what is happening in their body, enhancing mental health and decreasing anxiety levels. Working out and staying active during flare-ups is also important for maintaining a lean body and avoiding weight gain which can add stress to joints which are already under duress.

Finally, while it is very important to avoid being sedentary when managing OA, it’s just as important to allow your body enough recovery time between sessions or activities and to understand how to modify things when flare-ups occur. The best way to modify exercises when your joints are irritated is to decrease the weights that you lift, reduce the range of motion of each exercise you include in your workout and to perform exercises with less speed and more control. Also, be extra-diligent that you are maintaining excellent posture with no slouching. Consider taking an extra day of rest between workouts or sporting activities.

For activities like walking, choose routes that are softer, like grass, dirt paths or athletic tracks or even switch up your routine and exercise in a pool or ride your bike. Never work “through” pain and always seek your physician’s approval before you attempt to exercise during an arthritic flare-up.

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