Helpful Exercises to Strengthen Your Joints & Prevent Injury
Posted March 16, 2023
Why Is It Important To Strengthen Your Joints?
When you think of a joint, making it stronger probably does not come to mind right away. Strength is something we typically associate with muscles, not joints. However, joints do get stronger when we exercise and there are ways to keep your joints strong and to prevent injury.
It is essential to consider how to strengthen joints for injury prevention. Weak joints and muscles can lead to injuries including ligament sprains and even fractures. If you’ve heard of a torn ACL, torn meniscus, or ankle sprain, these are all joint injuries. Although many injuries happen out of someone’s control, having weaknesses and imbalances in the body predisposes joints to injuries. Injury prevention physical therapy is a great way to prevent joint damage and injury.
Best Joint Strengthening Exercises
Our joints and muscles are very resilient as they face the demands of daily life, whether its work tasks, exercise, or hobbies. If you think of how much your joints do daily, it’s amazing that they are not injured more often! Think of someone trail running or playing football – the hips, knees, and ankles are challenged on unstable surfaces, obstacles, and forces from the ground and other players. It is crucial to prepare the joints and muscles for this stress and load of the sports or movements you do through exercise. The cartilage and tendon tissue that comprise joints responds well to gradual loading. This means they respond well to a gradually more difficult exercise and gain strength and stability. A few things to consider when building joint durability: strength, stability, and mobility.
Strength
Weight lifting with proper form is one of the best ways to keep joints strong and healthy. Everyone, no matter what age, should be strength training at some capacity two-three times per week. It keeps the body healthy overall and is linked to a better quality of life and longevity, especially as we age! Strength training is even linked to a lower risk of hip and spinal fractures from falling in older adults. Examples of important exercises to keep the hips, knees, and ankles healthy are squats and lunges.
Stability
Joints tend to become painful if we misuse them at the wrong angles. Stability is the body’s ability to control movement patterns with being challenged in all directions. An example is the trail runner running on a rugged surface, such as rocks and roots. The ankles, knees, and hips should be stable in all directions to accommodate the uneven surface, so the joints do not sustain an injury. This can be achieved by simulating someone’s desired activity in physical therapy and creating exercises for the joints that strengthen them in all motions. An example of an exercise to add stability to the ankle is having someone do lunges on an unstable surface, such as a balance board or foam surface.
Mobility
You will need to work on mobility to have healthy and strong joints. This is especially true with conditions where the cartilage has worn down. All joints should move within a normal range and plane of movement, and there are methods that your physical therapist will use to restore this movement. One method is joint mobilization, where your PT will aim relieve pressure to your joint to achieve a specific movement.
How Physical Therapy Can Help With Injury Prevention
Exercise for joint pain and injury prevention is one of the best long-term solutions for joint health. Along with mobility, stability, and strength exercises, your physical therapist will instruct you on activities. PTs are trained extensively in tissue healing, whether bone, joint, or muscle tissue. They will design a plan to progressively strengthen your joints whether you are an athlete or a grandparent trying to keep up with your grandchildren. Your PT can also help make a referral to a dietitian or physician who can also recommend dietary changes to promote joint health!
It is also important to get adequate aerobic exercise, whether swimming, bicycling, or walking. These movements are especially helpful to keep people mobile who are developing arthritis in the knees, hips, or ankles. Generally speaking, if you keep active, do some type of strength-building exercise with good form, and keep your joints mobile, you are doing what you can to prevent joint injury. A PT will help guide you on the best exercises for promoting long-term joint health so you can keep active and live a healthy life.
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