Getting older isn’t an excuse to avoid an active lifestyle—in fact, research shows that slowing down physically is associated with greater risk for low vitality, poor health, hospitalization, and loss of independence in older adults. Not convinced? Another recent study (Annals of Internal Medicine, Sept. 26, 2016) found that adults age 70 to 89 who regularly exercised were 13 percent less likely to suffer a disability—and more likely to recover faster if they did.

“It becomes even more important to get regular exercise as you age,” confirms David Thomas, MD, professor of medicine and rehabilitation medicine at Mount Sinai. “Physical activity helps boost your energy, mood, heart health, and bone strength, and more and more evidence also is linking it to a sharper memory in old age.”

The same goes for seniors who’ve led a sedentary lifestyle for decades but finally start prioritizing health and fitness. “There is evidence that people who start exercising late in life after years of inactivity benefit more,” Dr. Thomas confirms.

Ease in Gently

If you aren’t used to exercising, it’s important to start slow. If you have a pre-existing health condition, let your doctor know you intend beginning an exercise regimen. “It’s important to find out what constitutes a possible danger sign,” Dr. Thomas says. “For example, if you have a heart condition, your doctor will likely advise you to stop exercising if you experience chest pain or pressure.”

You can expect to feel some aches and pains after exercising, particularly if you aren’t used to activity, but warming up with gentle stretches and marching on the spot can help prevent muscle strain.

Don’t Let Arthritis Put You Off

You shouldn’t avoid exercise if you have arthritis, since studies show that physical activity can ease the pain that accompanies the condition. The same policy applies if you have the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis.

“Many seniors with osteoporosis avoid exercise because they fear falling and fracturing a bone,” Dr. Thomas observes. “However, weight-bearing exercise, such as walking, helps build bone mass.”

A Health and Fitness Key: Stay Alert for Injuries

One common knee injury is a torn meniscus. “The meniscus is a tiny shock absorber that acts as a cushion between the thighbone and the shinbone,” says Dr. Thomas. “It’s vulnerable to tears during sudden rotating movements—for example, the twists and turns you might engage in during a game of tennis. Damage also can arise over time, due to osteoarthritis in the knee joint.”

If you’ve torn a meniscus, you’ll experience symptoms like pain, swelling, and weakness, or you may hear a popping sound inside the knee when you move. “Tears generally heal on their own, with rest,” Dr. Thomas says. “Once the pain has diminished, physical rehabilitation can stabilize your knee by boosting muscle strength in the joint.”

If the tear doesn’t get better, your doctor may recommend arthroscopic (“keyhole”) surgery to repair the damaged meniscus.

The shoulders are another part of the body that can take a beating. “Repetitive motions like swinging a golf club or lifting weights can weaken or even tear the muscles and tendons of the rotator cuff, which holds the shoulder joint in place,” Dr. Thomas explains. “Rest, activity modification, and strengthening exercises are often enough to relieve a rotator cuff injury, but large tears may require surgical repair.”

Exercise Targets

A good starting point with any new workout routine is to do no more than 20 to 30 minutes every other day. “Balance it between cardiovascular activities that raise your heart rate, and resistance exercises that build muscle and bone strength,” Dr. Thomas advises. “Don’t forget flexibility, which will benefit from gentle yoga, and balance, which can be improved by tai chi.”

Ease into the new exercise routine—don’t try to lift more weights than you can handle, don’t start out at a run on the treadmill, and don’t overstretch while trying to touch your toes. “After about six weeks you can start increasing the frequency and duration of your exercise sessions,” Dr. Thomas says.

Keep in mind too that workouts don’t have to be “formal.” You can march on the spot while you’re waiting for your coffee to drip, rake leaves instead of relying on the leaf-blower, do shoulder lifts and rolls when you’re stopped at a traffic light, and take the stairs instead of the elevator.

For related reading, please visit theses posts:

• Knee Joint Pain Solutions, from Strengthening Exercises to Surgery to Alternative Treatments
• Senior Exercise Basics: Getting Ready to Work Out 
• Balance Exercises for Seniors 
• Core Exercises for Seniors 

This article was originally published in 2017. It is updated regularly. 

The post Health and Fitness for Seniors: Avoid Injury When You Exercise appeared first on University Health News.

Adults with scoliosis may have had the condition since they were young, or may develop it due to another condition that affects the spine, such as osteoarthritis or the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis. While some people don’t suffer any discomfort from their scoliosis, others experience severe scoliosis pain.

Understanding Scoliosis

Scoliosis pain isn’t in the spine itself—it’s related to the effect scoliosis has on the muscles of the back. Scoliosis causes the spine to form an “S” or “C” curve; the muscles on the outside of the curve tend to be placed under greater stress than the muscles on the inside of the curve.

Scoliosis in adults can be worsened by other spinal conditions, such as spinal stenosis. “The range of symptoms can be from asymptomatic—or no symptoms—to completely debilitating, depending on the patient, magnitude of the deformity, and where the bend or special shape occurs,” says Paul Huddleston, MD, an orthpaedic surgeon at the Mayo Clinic.

How to Ease Scoliosis Pain

Treating scoliosis pain in older adults focuses on maximizing physical function. If you have an underlying condition such as osteoporosis, you may be given medications to slow the natural process of bone loss that occurs as you age.

Pain-relieving drugs can help ease scoliosis, and physical therapy also can help by strengthening the muscles of your “core,” which help to support your lower back. For examples of core exercises, visit our posts “Core Exercises for Elderly: Staying in Charge” and “Core Exercises for Seniors.”

Another type of exercise that focuses on core muscles is yoga. A 2014 study suggested that a specific yoga pose might actually improve scoliosis and scoliosis pain in adolescents and adults.

For the study, 25 participants were given a physical examination and X-ray to assess the extent of their scoliosis. They were then shown how to perform a yoga exercise called the side plank (vasisthasana), and instructed to do the exercise on the side of their spinal curvature.

“Since scoliosis is an asymmetrical condition, I have treated it asymmetrically, asking patients to do the pose on the weaker side only,” said study leader Loren Fishman, MD, assistant clinical professor of rehabilitation and regenerative medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, and medical director of Manhattan Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. “That strengthens the specific spinal muscles on the convex side that are needed to help with curve reduction.”

Fishman also noted that “while the National Scoliosis Foundation recommends 25 yoga poses, it does not cite clinical results, and does not suggest that the poses be done asymmetrically.”

The study participants performed the side plank pose for an average of one and a half minutes per day, six days a week, for two months. At the end of the study period, 19 participants who did the yoga pose more than three times a week had a 40 percent reduction in their scoliosis curve.

The Surgery Option

If physical therapy doesn’t help your scoliosis pain, surgery to straighten your spine may be an option.

“We think of surgery really as an end-stage treatment,” says the Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Paul Huddleston. “We are trying to balance the patient’s suffering versus intervening too soon. We don’t want to put a very large, potentially painful procedure in front of some of these more basic foundation treatments, but we don’t want people to suffer, either.”

The post Scoliosis Pain Can Strike Older Adults appeared first on University Health News.

But perhaps nothing can do as much for your joints, and possible rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis symptoms as the things you can do yourself—namely, exercise and weight management.

Getting in Shape

Exercise is an important part of any comprehensive arthritis treatment plan because it improves joint mobility, muscle strength, and overall conditioning, and it helps you maintain a healthy weight. Additionally, staying active may improve your level of pain and functioning and boost your overall health.

Exercise and strength training are of particular importance to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, because a large number of them have only the minimum strength needed to handle a variety of daily activities, such as walking, rising from a seated position, and climbing stairs. Any further decline in strength, even if small, could put them below the threshold needed to carry out these activities and threaten their ability to maintain an independent lifestyle.

For those with osteoarthritis symptoms, exercise combined with weight loss can lead to dramatic improvement. One study found that losing just five percent of total body weight within a 20-week period should be enough for overweight or obese people with knee osteoarthritis symptoms to feel and function better. Exercise also can help strengthen your hips and shoulders.

Exercise Guidelines

Exercise guidelines from the American College of Sports Medicine include recommendations tailored for adults over age 65 who have osteoarthritis symptoms. Among the recommendations:

• Do moderately intense aerobic exercise 30 to 60 minutes a day for five days a week, or vigorously intense exercise 20 to 30 minutes a day for three days a week. With moderate-intensity exercise, you should still be able to talk to the person next to you while exercising, but not so with vigorous exercise.
• Do eight to 10 strength-training exercises (eight to 12 repetitions of each), at fairly light to mildly strenuous exertion, on two or more nonconsecutive days of the week. Rest one or two seconds between each repetition.
• Do balance exercises if you’re at risk of falling. Try standing on one foot while holding onto a chair. Or, try a tai chi class taught by a certified instructor. Don’t attempt balance exercises for the first time when you’re alone.
• Do 10 minutes of flexibility exercises (stretching) at least two days a week. Do your stretches after your other exercises, or independent of them.

If you have arthritis, your physician and/or an exercise professional can help customize an exercise regimen tailored to your individual capabilities. Develop a physical activity plan that addresses each type of exercise, how to monitor your activity, and how to re-evaluate your exercise regimen as your health status changes.

Stretching, or range-of-motion, exercises: In range-of-motion exercises, or stretches, you condition your joints to become more flexible by slowly and gently bending and straightening them as far as they will go, but not to the point of discomfort. Over time, and with repetition, a joint’s comfort range can gradually be broadened and, in some cases, approach normal.

Strength or resistance exercises: Whether done on a mat, in a pool, with free weights or weight machines, resistance or strength exercises challenge your body to build stronger, larger muscles that give you better posture and help you move your joints more easily. And because muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue, having larger muscles is a way to turn your overall metabolism up a notch and more easily keep your weight in check.

Aerobic or endurance exercise: If your overall health and fitness level are good enough, aerobic or endurance exercises should be added to stretching and resistance exercises. In endurance exercise, you work the large muscles of your body for an extended period of time, with the goal of gradually increasing the stamina of your heart, lungs, and overall cardiovascular system. This exercise trains your body to use oxygen better, improves overall circulation, and helps you develop stronger muscles. It also is a proven method for weight control, especially when combined with a healthy diet, which in turn can ease osteoarthritis symptoms.

Talk to your doctor or therapist to determine what starting level of endurance exercise is right for you. Even if you start out with just five minutes of sustained exercise, you should be able to gradually build up to 30 minutes a day. Your pace should be comfortable, yet challenging, allowing you enough breath to have a normal conversation. Ideally, you want to do 30 minutes of endurance exercises daily—all at once or in three 10-minute sessions—at least five days a week. Warm up with a low-intensity form of your exercise for at least five to 10 minutes before each workout, and then cool down with another five minutes of range-of-motion movements afterward.

Exercise Caution—But Do Exercise!

Although exercise, in general, is an effective tool for managing your arthritis, in some instances, it can do more harm than good. Be wary of exercises that require bending forward (sit-ups, toe touches), that increase the likelihood of falls (step aerobics, anything done on a slippery floor), or that jar the spine (running on a hard surface, jumping, or high-impact aerobics).

It’s a common belief that the impact of running or jogging can

contribute to or exacerbate knee or hip osteoarthritis symptoms. Running places excessive stress on the leg joints, resulting in forces of more than seven times your body weight on the knees and five times your body weight on the hips. Yet a 2014 study suggests that running may, in fact, reduce the risk of knee OA.

Sports Smarts

Just because we age, it doesn’t mean we have to stop taking part in the sports we love. But it does mean we need to be a bit smarter about the activities we choose and, in some cases, adjust our technique or equipment in order to reduce the stress on aging joints. Here are some sport-specific tips that should help you compete, despite having arthritis.

Swinging a golf club can enhance the range of motion in our shoulders, arms, and legs. Just watch out for those water and sand traps!

• ---

  Golf: According to the Arthritis Foundation, swinging a golf club can enhance the range of motion in your shoulders, as well as improve balance and overall coordination. However, be careful on the links if you’ve recently had a knee replacement. Although golf typically is considered a low-impact activity, one study found that a full golf swing can take its toll on new artificial knees, generating high forces in the forward knee and less on the opposite knee.

• Swimming: Water exercise is often a part of arthritis therapy, since it helps take the load off joints even while you put them through a workout. Modify your technique to fit your needs:
  • Cut back on total distance, but swim the shorter distance at a faster rate.
  • Pick a stroke and intensity level that are comfortable. The breaststroke, rather than freestyle, might be better if you have arthritis in your upper body.
  • Include some resistance exercises that help strengthen your rotator cuffs and the muscles that stabilize the shoulder blades.
• Tennis: Play doubles instead of singles to cut back on the need for the frequent starting, stopping, and changes of direction that makes tennis so taxing on the knees.
• Skiing: Switch to somewhat less challenging slopes to cut back on the range of motion required. Mix in some cross-country skiing, which is easier on the joints and probably closer to home.

For further reading on exercise basics, especially for seniors, see these University Health News posts:

• “How to Get Motivated to Exercise“
• “Senior Fitness: Choosing the Right Program“
• “Core Exercises for Seniors“
• “Does Exercise Help Arthritis? The Benefits of Regular Physical Activity for Rheumatoid Arthritis“

Originally published in May 2016 and updated.

The post Got Osteoarthritis Symptoms? Try Exercise First, Surgery as a Last Resort appeared first on University Health News.

Flexibility is the ability to move joints through a range of motion. Weak or tight muscles limit flexibility; strong muscles enhance it. Think of your body when you bend to pick up an object, stoop to do housework, dress, or bathe; our core muscles allow that flexibility.

In middle-aged and older adults, tight (less flexible) hamstrings and hip flexor muscles often affect muscles of the core, including those in the buttocks, pelvis, and lower back.

For more information about building core fitness, consult our free guide at Free Guide, Easy Exercises and Stretches: How seniors can improve stability and core strength and prevent falls

Core Exercises for Seniors: Technique Tips

• Range of motion: Full range, from full stretch to complete contraction.
• Breathing: Exhale when lifting a weight. Inhale when lowering a weight.
• Speed of movement: Approximately 6 seconds per repetition.
• Rest between sets: 30 to 90 seconds, depending on intensity of the lift.

Originally published in April 2016 and updated.

The post Core Exercises for Seniors appeared first on University Health News.