I came across an interesting piece of research that has now found that people with sore joints who exercise for two hours every week have less pain, visit their doctor less and take less sick leave. The findings were from an analysis of how 40,000 people across the UK with hip, back or knee pain fared when they did two one-hour exercise classes every week for 12 weeks. The results were enough for the NHS to make physical activity a standard part of treatment for those with musculoskeletal conditions.
So what can be the options for those who can exercise just twice a week, or be a weekend warrior? I would recommend doing some drills in the water, in the shallow end of the pool.
The pool workout
The buoyancy of the water provides support, making movements easier to perform and allowing for a greater range of motions than on land. Leg extensions in water, where you are seated on a chair and lift weights, are good because they are low-impact, reducing stress on joints, while the water’s resistance builds strength and endurance. This makes the exercise beneficial for people with joint pain, arthritis, or those recovering from injury, while also providing a cardiovascular workout. Kicking your legs in water, freestyle crawl kicking — where you float holding on to the pool wall and kick backwards — doing breaststroke and backstroke movements, walking sideways, backwards or just simply just standing in water strengthen your hips.
Exercises for muscles and joints
Other than movements in water, one can do exercises specifically targeting specific muscles and joints prone to pain.
I recommended hip mobility exercises since our hips support our entire torso and connect our legs with our back. Hips ought to be strong as they help in performance, be it in sports, workouts, injury prevention and daily functions. They help in proper force generation, shock absorption, balanced movement patterns and give you a lot of vanity when you wear clothes. Along with weak hips, knee and ankle pain can also manifest, so the alignment and strengthening of the hips is most important. Do the following for hip mobility.
1) Hip swing: Circle your hips as wide as you can, moving clockwise and anti-clockwise alternately to ease out stress.
2) Squats: When you squat or do any kind of lower body workouts, you engage the hips and make sure that we stretch them well.
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3) Clamshell routine: Basically you mimic the opening and closing of a clamshell. Lie on your side, place your feet together and bend your knees. Raise your top knee toward the ceiling. Hold, then slowly let go. Clamshells can be a useful exercise for building up hip muscles like the gluteus medius, which can improve hip stability and alleviate some types of hip discomfort.
4) Lunges: These strengthen and stretch the hip flexors and surrounding muscles. The forward lunge, reverse lunge and lateral lunge are important variations that emphasize various ranges of motion to increase strength and mobility.
The knee plan
Knees are not just joints, they are the foundation that allows us to walk, climb, sit, rise, travel and move through life with dignity. Your knee joint’s supporting muscles can be strengthened with low-impact exercises and gentle stretching.
1) Work your way up to half squats, calf lifts, and other leg lift variations after stretching your hamstrings, quadriceps.
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2) Try heel and calf stretch: Facing a wall, lean back one foot as far as is comfortable while keeping your hands on the wall. Both feet should have their toes pointed forward, their heels level and their knees slightly bent. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds while leaning into it. Your back leg ought to feel stretched. Repeat with a different leg.
3) For knee joint mobility, flexibility and range of motion, do knee circles. Stand straight with your feet together and your knees bent. Place your hands on the knees and slowly rotate them making small circles. Complete a set in one direction and then switch to the opposite direction
Back mobility exercises
Back exercises are for everybody, so that our overall body movements are well coordinated.
1) Lie flat on your back, bend the hips and perform a cycling action with your legs. Great for endurance and mobilising your hip joints.
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2) Raise your hips off the mat while lying on your back with your knees bent and your feet hip-width apart. This pose strengthens the back muscles.
(Dr Mehta is a holistic health expert)
