From the moment you were born to this very second, your joints have been working tirelessly to provide you with the quality of life that you deserve. They keep you moving and able to take on various everyday physical activities, and they even help you to achieve things as simple as sitting down. Quite simply, without your joints, your life would be a lot different and a whole lot worse.
So, start taking care of them! To see what it takes to do so properly, make sure to read on.
Warm up before exercise and cool down after
If you work out, then you could be doing more harm than good to your joints if you don’t warm up before and cool down after each exercise that you do. When you do warm up and cool down, even when you are younger and feel like your joints are in good shape, you can decrease your chances of suffering with an ailment like bursitis in the future massively — as stated at Airrosti, bicep bursitis is an inflammation of the bursa that stops the joints from moving without friction, and that can be agonising!
To warm up and cool down effectively, you should be stretching each muscles that you used in your exercise for between 8 and 12 seconds.
Lose some weight
Added weight puts pressure on the joints found in the lower part of the body like nothing else. Being overweight, especially, makes it incredibly hard for the hips and knees to work comfortably, thus, resulting in them being far more prone to issues of wear and tear in the future. So, if you feel like you could stand to lose some pounds, then, for the sake of your joints, do all you can to lose them.
The best way to do so in a way that is kind to your joints is to embrace aerobic exercises. Such workout regimes, like walking, swimming and cycling, do not make the joints as stiff as others do, and they keep the cartridges in them nourished.
Build stronger muscles
You shouldn’t be forgetting to work on your muscles, though, because making the ones that surround your joints stronger will give your joints the added protection they need to fight the problems that can arise within and around them. For the most part, this is done through the way the muscles absorb the shocks that the joints normally have to deal with thanks to movement.
When it comes to strengthening the area that surrounds your knees (which are probably the joints that need most protection) make sure to focus on building muscle in your quadriceps. To do this, start with squats, either with or without weights, before moving into the gym and onto the leg press machine.
If you want to retain a good quality of life deep into your twilight years, then you need to be doing all you can to take care of your joints. Take care of them, and they’ll take care of you!
