One of the first thngs that people with arthritis notice is that the affected joints start losing the normal amount of movement that they once had. This is caused in a lot of cases by the supporting muscles locking up to protect the inflamed joint. A good way of treating this is by stretching the muscles and allowing the joint to be used through the entire range of movement as this will discourage excessive wear in just one part of the joint and keep the joint capsule in the proper shape for as long as possible. We have a few...
Oblique Sit Up
Core strength is fundamental to pilates philosophy and the oblique sit up is a very important way of strengthening the underlying abdominal muscles that can be forgotten when doing standard crunches or exercises simply focusing on a “six pack”. While the focus of the oblique site up is not on the common six pack muscle groups it is essential for good abdominals to exercise the oblique muscles as they are what gives the flat stomach. The main purpose off this exercise is however, core strength. The exercise: Lay flat on your back with hips parallel to the floor. make sure...
Loosten your groin
When joints become inflamed all of the suppoorting muscles in the vicinity of that joint become tense and loose their effectiveness at the full length of movement. The groin muscles or adductors are typically shortened by an inflamed hip joint and this is not very good for rehabilitation of the joint because by shortening it working area you are actually causeing the joint to work in a smaller area of the socket and actually increasing wear on the affected area. Doing the groin stretch will ensure that the joint is working over a greater area and also stops these muscles...
The Hundred
The hundred is an excellent stomach exercise for developing torso stability and abdominal strength. It is also known as a hundred seconds of pain for obvious reasons as well. It is very important to hold your neck correctly because the exercise is more effective if your head is kept high, this also prevents neck strain. If any neck strain is felt the exercise should be stopped immediately. Lie on your back with knees bent and feet in the air, shins should be parallel to the floor and hips just apart a little. Push your inner thighs slightly together. While inhaling,...
Keep inner leg muscles strong
Arguably the most important part of arthritis treatment is working the affected joints through their entire range of movement and stregthening the supporting muscles. The frog legs is an exercise that achieves both of these for both the hip joint and knees. It is very important, as knee joints wear to keep the inner leg muscles strong especiallly if there is also a problem in the hip. this is because the muscles on the outside of the leg will be favoured. This results in flabby muscles their and a lack of support for the inflamed knee joint.