How much sport?

LisaKesterDodgson

I'm 46 and I've had RA for 13 years and am constantly trying to keep active. But...How do you know if you're overdoing it or not? I'm doing water gym at the mo and some days it's great and I feel fine and other days my shoulder, wrist, or hip joints really ache in the evening. Should i carry on anyway and ignore the aches and pains or should i rest? Am I doing damage to my joints by overworking them? The other day I did a bit of gardening for about an hour with a pair of long handled shears and in the evening and next day my hands were agonising, so much so I couldn't even grip the stearing wheel! Any advice welcome

stickywicket

Please bear in mind that I'm not a physio or a doc and my only qualification for answering this post is far too many years of RA and OA :roll:

The accepted view is that exercise is good but not all exercises are good. Your water gym is probably very good as the water supports the joints while you are taking them through their paces. As for them sometimes aching afterwards, you'd really need to check out with a physio if that's OK for you. I take the viewpoint that, if they don't ache for too long, that's OK.

The gardening's probably different because you may well find yourself using muscles that haven't had a good workout for a while. I know we use our hands all the time but not necessarily in the way you'd need to use them to effectively operate shears which means gripping tight while performing other actions. I think the operative phrase is 'quit while you're ahead' here Don't just go on until the job's done but stop when things start to hurt.

You'd probably find it very useful to get a physio referral as a good physio would be able to tailor the advice to your own specific needs. Or you could just check out Arthritis Care's booklet on healthy living.

I've always been told to continue to take my joints through their full range of movement even during a flare but only very gently and carefully then.

Colin1

Yes you should carry on exercise is good for you talk to your GP or consultant, don't give up always a way round it might well be the nreed to change you exercise regime
Colin