Joints move your life. You need them to walk, run, dance and make all sorts of bodily movements. So, don’t you think you should be concerned about their health? Let’s learn how to do so in this informative blog.
What do you mean by strengthening joints?
Strengthening joints means doing everything possible to keep joints in good condition. The only and ultimate ways to achieve this are discussed below.
If your joints are strengthened (or healthy), they typically show the following characteristics:
- Better muscle strength
- High bone density
- Flexibility
- Enough lubrication
- Fast repair of daily wear and tear
- No inflammation
Now, let’s move on to how to achieve such healthy joints.
Ways to make your joints stronger
Exercise, a balanced diet, weight management, and certain lifestyle changes are the four crucial aspects to pay attention to for perfect joint agility.
Exercise
Workout is important as it helps improve overall strength, flexibility, joint mobility, better blood circulation, and better lubrication throughout the body.
Strength
Your joints are like any other body part comprising living cells and tissue. Thus, when you overload your joints—or provide them with strength training, it helps make them stronger and more resilient.
Strength training, also known as weight lifting and resistance training when performed over time increases the endurance power of the overall body increasing the capacity to handle more and more weight.
This happens because when we strain our body via weight lifting for the first time with a low capacity to handle the weight, our body responds to the first weight training by increasing its capacity to handle more weight in the future than the weight involved during the first training session; the byproduct of this weight lifting process is that you end up making muscles and bones stronger.
Thus, ensure a variety of weight training activities so you will end up strengthening your joint bones and muscles as much as possible.
Initially, you can begin with squats, shoulder presses, lunges, and push-ups. For more exercises to build strength, talk to a certified trainer. However, if you have knee pain, first consult the best knee pain doctor in India.
Ignoring joint inflammation and doing weightlifting will make your knee pain worse.
Low-Impact Aerobics
Aerobic exercises are those that make your heart pump faster and faster, increasing the circulation of the blood throughout your body. In addition to that, you are also forced to breathe faster and faster to meet the oxygen requirement of the body.
Although aerobics is mainly focused on building heart and lung capacities, light exercises like walking or cycling can also strengthen your joints without causing you to strain much.
Other Options
If you want to build the strength of joints, start yoga. The yogic system of exercise is a very effective and trustworthy ancient way of building overall health capacities and endurance.
Yoga will help make joints stronger and more agile. You can consider poses like tree pose, bridge pose, warrior II, and downward dog to begin with.
Besides, if possible, consider all forms of water workouts. Water aerobics and swimming are great ways to work joint bones and muscles ultimately increasing agility and strength.
Benefits of exercise
There are various advantages of keeping your joints healthy via weight training, flexibility and balance exercises. These are as follows.
Low risk of injury: When your joint bone density is high along with a thick cover of muscles, chances are less to sustain joint injuries because of mild to moderate external traumas.
Better joint agility: Exercise makes your joints strong and flexible improving their mobility and agility.
Prevention of speedy joint degeneration: When joints are healthy, they degenerate at a slower pace than in cases where joint bones and muscles are weak with a lack of lubrication and blood supply. So, exercise regularly to keep your joints healthy.
Enhanced athletic performance: Good joint health also means you will be able to perform well in sports.
Foods
In addition to exercise, pay attention to your diet.
Ensure enough calcium, vitamin D, and protein. The first two are essential to build bone density while the latter is for maintaining good muscle mass around the joints or throughout your body in general.
Dairy products, soya products, and green leafy vegetables are always full of calcium. For vitamin D, you can take sunlight or supplements. Although non-vegetarian foods are great for ensuring protein, vegetarian people can take their protein from nuts, pulses, and other options like tofu.
Furthermore, if you have joint inflammation issues, you can consider foods and supplementary aids like omega-3 fatty acids, blueberries, olive oil, vitamin C, green tea, and turmeric as they possess anti-inflammatory properties.
Finally, if possible, ensure you drink citrus fruit juice or eat such fruit as they contain vitamin C; you can also consider including foods rich in vitamin E in your diet. It is because they help fight against the harmful effects of oxidative stress.
Vitamin C and E both are antioxidants. Hence, they also help keep your joints and bones healthy.
However, if you have joint or bone problems, only a good diet cannot help you out. Here, you will have to consult the right orthopedic doctor in Delhi NCR first.
Weight Management and Lifestyle Changes
If you are obese, manage your weight. Too much weight is often associated with the speedy degeneration of your joints.
Quit overeating, adopt an active lifestyle, and don’t take stress. Rule out the possibility of genetic obesity.
Furthermore, quit smoking and drinking excessive alcohol since it interferes with the effective absorption of calcium and other essential micro and macronutrients.
Sleep deprivation is also something you must avoid as it reduces the body’s natural capacity to rejuvenate itself after regular wear and tear. Hence, take care of your sleep habits. Take enough sleep each night.
Conclusion
All these factors ultimately help you make your joints better and stronger. But, make sure you exercise under the supervision of the perfect trainer. Make a perfect diet regime after consulting a dietitian or nutrition expert.
If you have obesity-related issues, consult the right specialist to get the best advice.
