Transforming Lives: How Exercise Professionals Help Manage Osteoarthritis
How can an exercise professional help your osteoarthritis?
Lucinda Moody, exercise physiologist
An exercise professional can certainly help you talk about the anatomy of the joint and how your joint is being affected by your osteoarthritis and then once you have a better understanding of how your joint works and how your joint moves, what muscles support your that area of the body I think you'll have a better understanding of how you perceive your pain and knowing what muscles and joints will be affected by the exercises that you do, so we can certainly assist with that education.
What happens on the first visit?
When you come to see an exercise professional, we would take you through a pre-screening and talk in more detail about your referral from your physiotherapist or your doctor about your condition a little bit of education on the joints the anatomy of the joints and how exercise is going to affect your body. So, your heart rate will increase, you will get improved strength through the exercise you're doing, we'll talk about balance we may even do some pre- and post-fitness testing just to see how you're going, and you can gauge your own improvements which is a great motivating tool throughout. So, we provide you the explanation on how your body will respond to the exercise and what muscles and joints you'll be working through the exercise program.
How does exercise improve your quality of life?
I love what I do, and I get pleasure out of seeing people with chronic conditions improve their quality of life. They come to me and they're just so down they haven't left the house for months. They've got depression, they’re in pain, they've got other comorbidities on top of their osteoarthritis. They don't feel like the exercise is going to help, it's going to make them hurt more and we spend time, we educate, we talk to them about how the exercise will affect their body and the stories that we get back you know six weeks later sometimes earlier, Lucinda you've improved my quality of life my relationship has been reenergized I can hang the washing on the line without pain, I can move I can dance and those sort of things inspire you to really want to get out there and help anyone with an arthritis condition so a lot of inspiration in the work that we do is exercise professionals.
