Arthritis and Exercise

[Calyssa]

Hi to my fellow arthritis sufferers.

I have been trying to follow a low carb plan for a few years now, but I find losing weight, and just plain not overeating, difficult because of the drugs I take for my asthma.

So I have started to exercise more in the fond hope that it might help shift a few pounds. But my joints really do hurt after walking for just a few minutes. My doctor says just to do gentle exercise and to stop when it hurts. In that case I would never even get out of bed in the morning!

So my question is to anyone else with osteoarthritis: Have you found exercising helps your joints at all? And is it helping you to lose weight?

[ryan6563]

Re: Arthritis and Exercise

Yes exercising helps. However try not to use staircase and also avoid sitting down. If it is possible try and import some herbal medicines or oil and do a massage on a regular basis.

[ProFaction]

Re: Arthritis and Exercise

Hey I have found that it is helping a lot! I find that I need to eat the lowest sodium foods I can find because that helps my joints not hurt too. If you have access to a swimming pool that is an awesome way to exercise that doesnt seem to hurt so much!

[MNLoser]

Re: Arthritis and Exercise

I'm new here and just starting Atkins today - I know I need to exercise to make this really work but I have pretty severe arthritis in my knees as well as my shoulder. I'm contemplating joining a local gym but I do feel a little worried about causing myself more pain.

[mizski]

Re: Arthritis and Exercise

Swimming is great if you have access to a pool. I started out with Qi Gong and Tai Chi. Both are gentle movements and work well with arthritis. I like the Qi Gong for Weight Loss DVD. Here's a little video to give you an idea of what it looks like. I know it doesn't look like your typical cardio stuff, but it is very helpful...and doable without pain. I found the more I did the movements, the more my pain lessened. Between Atkins and Qi Gong/Tai Chi I no longer need any of my arthritis meds.

ETA: I now have a Wii and do a lot of those workouts too plus other more traditional workout DVDs.

[Templar]

Re: Arthritis and Exercise

I empathise with you on the exercise thing. I too could not do certain movements due to pain. I tried every pain killer the doctor could give me. They all did nothing much so exercise got a definite back seat. Until in talking with the doctor He tried me on 7 day morphine patches. Just peel and stick and forget. This gives me enough pain coverage to walk relatively pain free. I am a month past induction and I have lost 14 kilograms without very much exercise at all. So it is possible. No doubt I could loose more quicker if I could exercise more. But I cant so I don't. I just do what I can when I can and stick to the diet and I am slowly getting there.

[KitKat11764]

Re: Arthritis and Exercise

Hi all i have RA and Fibro and so the only way for me to exercise is to do a heated pool that is specifactly for Arthritis patients. They have a work out they do there and after that i just walk up and down the pool on my own. I have to use a cane to walk and can not stand for very long either but in the pool i can walk without the cane...i love it.. Onl;y problem is when you get out.. cuz it feels like someone handed you a pile of heavy bricks or something. lol...One problem to my pool it is clear across my city from where i live. That's about 40 miles round trip...so i will have to just go maybe twice a week at first. I have not started it back yet or the atkins either because i have been trying to figure out what mentally is making me sabatoge myself. I am divorced and disabled pretty bad from the RA and Fibro..Had some problems in my marragie dealing with the weight. When i was dx with the RA and Fibro in 2000, i was already about 40 lbs overweight..then they threw me on predisone high dose's to try and control the huge flare i was in..Then they added more meds to the mix and even more after that...I was on the predisone for 18 months daily 75 mgs 3x a day and i gained a huge amount more weight...Finally got off the predisone after the Remicade kicked in and i was weened off it. Then I quit smoking a pack a day habit in 2003 and gained even more.. So now I am at 245 lbs and only 5.1 ......i feel like i am in ****...i can't do much cooking because i do not have the strenght to mess with the pans too much or the prepartion of the food... Cant stand for longer than 2 or 3 minutes at a time. So i usually get frozen foods i can put in the oven. If they had soome kind of frozen atkins foods i could do in the oven i would be estatic!! But they don't, that i know of..I am on SSI and food stamps but i do not get much of either one...The SSI i get is actually the highest amount they pay but it takes all of it just to pay the bills....so i am not sure what i am going to do..my cholestrol is high and bp is high too...so i take lots of meds.. And mentally i feel like crap just trying to deal with all this.So if anyone has any help for me please let me know ok..But before i start atkins and make it my WOL forever, i need to find out why i do things to sabotage my efforts to lose this weight. But in the mean time if anyone can help me with advice or anything please do..thank Cheryl~

[Jules831b]

Re: Arthritis and Exercise

Hi I too have osteoarthritis and at just 40 years old I had left partial and right total knee replacements and 7 months ago I had my partial replaced to a total, I'm now 44 years old, well on the 28th of this month. In all in the past 9 years I've had 16 operations on my knees. I also have it in my hands and my feet.
I have a exercise dvd that you can exercise sitting down and I know there are others out there too.
I too can't walk or do anything without being in pain and if I push myself then I can hardly move once I do eventually sit down. Which I do tend to do as I'm sooooo frustrated with not being able to do much.
Well take a look on the internet for sit down exercise and you should find something to suite.
Kindest regards
Jules

[bestynuan]

Re: Arthritis and Exercise

i have arthritis on my right knee. The cause of this is my obesity. So my doctor told me to work out but need to be careful because it can cause more danger on my health. Every morning i need to walk 10 to 15 mins. and do fast walk every 1 minute.