Exercise and Osteoarthritis: Understanding Pain
Exercising with osteoarthritis: understanding good pain & bad pain
Kim Bennell, physiotherapist
Research shows that exercise is beneficial for everyone with osteoarthritis regardless of how old they are, how severe their disease is, what it looks like on their x-ray, how severe their pain levels are or their function. A misperception that people can have about exercise and osteoarthritis is that if they feel some pain while they're exercising that that will mean that they're damaging the joint and that's not the case we expect that people will feel some discomfort and some minor amounts of pain while they're exercising and that's normal and in fact over the long period they will find that the exercise actually improves their pain and function but certainly pain during exercise does not mean damage to the joint.
The difference between muscle pain & joint pain
Lucinda Moody, exercise physiologist
A common mistake that people with osteoarthritis make is trying to work out the difference between muscle pain and joint pain so post any strength training program you will get muscle soreness and muscle stiffness especially if it’s your first time. It's important to understand the difference between the pain that you're getting from your osteoarthritis and post exercise pain or pain during exercise. So, anything that's prolonged for a period of time lasting after your exercise bout generally you need to perhaps see your doctor or talk to a physiotherapist about modifying your program but identifying the difference between joint pain and post exercise pain is essential.
After any physical activity or exercise bout where you do experience pain in the joint that has been exacerbated by the exercise or physical activity definitely keep an eye on it for one to two days if after that time you find that it's still causing you some pain it might be a good idea to go back to your physiotherapist or allied health professional to seek advice about a modified program. Other areas of the body may experience some sort of discomfort in the muscles because it's a new exercise to you and any loadbearing exercise will definitely give you some sort of post exercise soreness and stiffness so just ensuring that that pain isn't something that's really new and that you feel that is modifying your ability to be mobile on the ground.
For anyone who has osteoarthritis generally you will be in pain whether it comes and goes or it's there all the time, so you have already experienced pain. If you experience pain during exercise the question is do I stop or do I keep going what we’d like to do is for you to get through at least 10 minutes for your first cardiovascular or strength training about and then see how you recover after a few days. If you're feeling fine after a few days perhaps increase that to a 20-minute exercise program so you're going to be in pain most of the time anyway with your condition which you can manage through other um exercise opportunities but certainly if you are feeling like excruciating pain in the joint that is irregular and not normal certainly need to reduce the physical activity and seek help from an Allied Health professional such as an exercise physiologist or a physiotherapist.
