Stiff, achy and nagging joint pain is something we all deal with in life. It’s uncomfortable, inconvenient and annoying. Elbows, hips and knees start to ache as the colder seasons approach. People even say they can tell when it’s about to rain because of the pressure increase in the air due to the tightness in their joints. The distraction of joint pain impedes or completely sidelines enjoyable physical activities. Even more, lingering joint pain can negatively effect emotions and mood throughout the day. These pain responses cause reluctance to exercise or participate in any physical activity at all.
Who wants to put themselves through a bout of physical exertion when going up and down the steps is painful to even get to the gym? Unfortunately, abstaining from exercise is one of the worst things that can be done to fend off the negative effects of joint pain.
As someone who has endured a major reconstructive surgery in my elbow joint, I can relate that early onset arthritis is not a fond subject for me to deal with in my every day life. As a 34-year-old athletic, fit young man, most people would think managing arthritis in my every day life is something I wouldn’t be tending to. Some of my favorite activities such as Martial Arts and Boxing have hit the sideline because those activities threaten my career as a personal trainer. There are activities that are always questionable for me that I must be careful of that might put dangerous compressive forces on my repaired elbow. Such as hitting softballs, riding bikes or popping up on a surf board. I can still participate in exercises that are lower risk such as slow pitch recreation softball, surfing, or leisurely bike riding with my son. However, I would not be able to enjoy these activities without a structured regular exercise routine.
As personal trainers in the Napa Valley, my team and I work with clients with similar issues to my joint pain from previous surgeries. In some cases, we work with more extreme cases in which joint pain is far more severe from the stresses of injuries, accidents and degenerative joint disease that life throws at them. A subject that we find is usually neglected is being specific as to what type of stress in put on the body via exercise. When exercising significant areas of the body such as the neck, shoulders, back, hips, knees and ankles, a forgotten topic is what has caused joint pain in the first place. Joint pain is usually caused by an unhealthy mechanical stress on the joints through poor body mechanics, underuse and overuse of the joint. The last thing we want to do is emulate these sub optimal compressive forces on the joints. It’s important to understand that too much compressive force on the joints from exercise can exacerbate critically important joints of the body.
Unfortunately, we hear that people are apprehensive of starting an exercise program due to the fear of hurting themselves even further. Avoiding exercise and physical activity is one of the worst things to remedy this issue. Lack of exercise and physical activity will lead to underuse injuries, weakness in the body and ultimately accelerating the aging process.
A solution that we promote our personal training clients in Napa is performing eccentric exercises. We define eccentric exercises as the slow lowering motion or “letting off” slow descent portion of an exercise. An example of eccentric exercises that we coach our clients to do is the “Eccentric Chair Squat”:
- Position yourself standing in front of chair.
- Slowly push your hips down and backward in a squatting motion focusing on descending slowly at a rate of 3-5 seconds until sitting on the chair.
- Push your heels into the ground and stand back up.
- Repeat for 3-5 repetitions.
The benefit of this mode of exercise is the decreased number of repetitions performed for a movement that puts compressive forces on the back, knees, hips and ankles. We see a lot of individuals performing a high amount of repetitions of the standard squat exercises. The type of squats which you just squat up and down with out counting the amount of time on the descent. While the squat exercise is a great movement for strengthening the lower back and lower extremities, too many repetitions can exacerbate stress on individuals with joint pain. Therefore, a great solution is to perform an eccentric mode of exercise that will promote productive stress on the muscles surrounding the joint with a decrease amount repetitions on the joint.
We need to put stress on joints to keep the body in motion. However, it’s critically important to be mindful of what movements might acerbate joint pain. We must keep moving if we want to keep breathing for a strong, happy and healthful life. Let’s make sure that we do this in a constructive and mindful approach.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.
