Respect your joints! Your joints are so important to your overall quality of living, pay special attention to caring for them. You only get one set of joints in your lifetime and those joints endure a lot of daily stress. It is only natural that over time joints will degenerate. But, we can help to keep the joints healthy and safe. Here are some ways we can do that:
- Exercise
Helps maintain or reduce weight. Being overweight creates more stress on the joints. Make sure you maintain a healthy weight.
Helps to increase flexibility and motion important for maintaining a good range of motion in your joints.
Include balance in your exercise routine to help prevent in falls that can directly cause damage to the joints.
- Nutrition
What you put in your body can directly affect bone health. It is important to have a healthy eating plan that is balanced between all food groups and macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats and protein).
Foods rich in calcium and vitamin D are important to include in your diet. Calcium helps to decrease weak and brittle bones and vitamin D aides in the absorption of calcium in the body.
- Supplements
It is a good idea to take a calcium supplement including vitamin D to ensure your body absorbs enough calcium to protect your bones.
- Antioxidants
Antioxidants can be another factor in protecting your joints because they help in combating free radicals in your body. Free radicals can attack the joint. Include lots of bright colored fruits and vegetables in your diet, especially ones rich in vitamin A, C, E and Selenium.
- Safety
Always start a workout or activity with a warm up. You need to warm up and prepare your joints for the work to come. Gradually increase intensity level.
Bring joints through their full range of motion to increase flexibility. That means to extend your joints as far as they can go comfortably and work on increasing that range if you cannot get the joint to its full range.
Do not overextend joints. You do not want to hyperextend your joint if they go beyond a normal range.
Do not jerk joints. Make controlled and focused movements with your joints. Your joints should not be popping or jerking at the end of the move. This creates undo wear and tear, control that movement to stop before this happens.
Careful not to overuse or overtrain. Joints can become susceptible to injury or damage if you are doing too much. Not getting adequate recovery or rest time and too much repetition or repetitive motion are examples of things that can cause overuse or overtraining injuries. Be sure to listen to your body if you are experiencing any soreness or tenderness in the joints you may need to give your body some more rest or recovery time. You may also need to reduce your repetitions or duration of your workouts or activities.
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