Tuesday 14 January 2014

Baby Boomer Exercise for Joint Health

Shake, rattle, and roll! If that reminds you more of your joints than music there's a good chance you're over 50. A decades of activity and different experiences are bound to cause some joint stress.

Movement doesn't have to be painful. There are so many options for physical activity you can find some way to achieve physical activity even if you have to deal with chronic conditions. It is worth making sure that your joints are playing the right role in your movement before you move into action however. Some joints are meant to move and others should be stable. When the roles switch pain is usually a symptom.

Your body moves with all joints in unison and rarely one joint at a time. This is referred to as your kinetic chain. Each joint plays its unique part. Your feet should be stable. Your ankle is a mobile joint. Even when you're standing still small movements in your ankles are keeping you upright and helping you balance. For older adults the ankles sometimes lose mobility and become stiff with reduced range of motion. That can make you more vulnerable for falling, if not in your nifty-fifties or sassy sixties, inevitably later.

Working your way up the chain, your knees should be stable. They're meant to hinge and only have slight rotational ability. Your hips, or pelvis should be mobile and your lumbar spine, in other words lower back should be stable.