Tendons, muscles and arthritis

mamadeesix

Are you more likely to suffer tendon injury, muscle strains, etc. with arthritis? Is osteo or rheumatoid more likely to cause issues with other connective tissue stuff like that?

I used to be very active. Working out 6 days a week, lifting weights (pretty heavy weights, too), cardio kickboxing, running. You name it. I lugged around heavy band equipment like the big guys, no problem.

In the last year since all this joint pain and weirdness has ramped up,I am scared to do anything. I feel so frail now. Anything I do seems to cause an issue. Any little thing will set off a lower back or neck strain, etc. I lifted a couple of boxes today (not heavy, used good form) and my back is jacked up. I carried some Walmart bags and now the elbow joints and tendons in that arm hurt again. I already have hip bursitis, so I have to be careful with that, too.

Still don't know what I have, arthritis wise, for sure. And this is a fairly new thing for me......trying to figure out what it all means.

dreamdaisy

I have no idea whether it is more likely but I can think of a reason why. When a joint is causing us discomfort we unconsciously tense our muscles and move differently in an attempt to reduce pain. Oddly enough it makes no difference, when something hurts it hurts but it is a natural response. I understand that exercise has been a very important part of your life, and it is a good thing to still do it, but perhaps it's time for changes to be made in what and how you do it: warm up for longer, warm down for longer and do less in between to minimise the risk of hurting yourself further could be a plan. We all slow down with age, it's just that us with arthritis slow earlier.

Readng your account of what you used to do is interesting because nowhere is there a mention of times of rest and recovery for your then healthy body. Even though sportsmen are nowadays more aware of looking after their bodies many of them begin to break down in their early thirties or sooner, poorly hips and knees are no longer confined to OAPs. DD

mamadeesix

lol, yeah. I didn't list rest and recovery, but I did rest. I was mostly just listing things I used to do as a way of showing what I can't do now. lol. But I never did heavy duty workouts back to back days, etc. I might do cardio HIIT one day, but then weights the next, etc. I tried to do yoga, stretching, although admittedly, I wasn't as good about fitting that in.

And I do not do much of ANY of that now. In the last year, I have drastically cut back on what I do. Sometimes because something hurts too much and I am afraid of re-injuring it (hip bursitis, tennis elbow, etc.) But a lot of times in the last year or some I am just SO tired, I cannot make myself do anything.

Mostly, nowadays, I do a 15 min. stint on the elliptical on days when I have the energy. Frankly, I am too afraid to lift weights at this point or do anything hard core, even if I had the energy.....until I know what I am dealing with.

dreamdaisy

I can't manage fifteen minutes on that, even five is a struggle but being years ahead of you that's no great surprise and is enough for me to feel a sense of achievement (yup, I have very low aims and targets, that way I can reach them and feel good about myself).

Good health is completely taken for granted by those who have it and the natural assumption is it will always be that way. Becoming unable to do with ease what we used to do when younger is not a unique human experience until it happens to us, and the general depredations of age don't help, do they? My husband recently signed up for a yoga class and for the first time since turning sixty he had to write down his age: it brought him up very short. I remember hearing an interview with someone who had been through a great crisis, they said 'These are things I thought happened to other people but now I am other people.' DD

stickywicket

I think I know when / if I've pulled a muscle. But ligaments and tendons? I've no idea what they feel like. I suspect I haven't many left as the surgeon told me back in '81 that my knee ligaments were shot. I don't remember them going. The pain just merged in with that of the RA and OA.

'Gymspeak' is a whole new language to me. I don't know what an elliptical is or cardio HIIT or cardio kickboxing. Forty years ago I struggled to even lift a baby

The tróuble is we regulars on here are regulars for a reason ie we need to keep sitting down because we've had this stuff for years and wouldn't recognise a decent muscle if it was presented to us on a plate. I guess we're the wrong people to ask. I know 'Maturecheese' was working out until diagnosed but I don't know what he's doing now. Maybe you could PM him.

Otherwise I think your best bet would be to save it as another question for the rheumatologist. Frustrating for you, I would imagine, but arthritis of any kind is good at that :roll:

Maturecheese

mamadeesix I know exactly how you feel. I too used to do insane things up the gym and gradually got reduced to the x trainer. Now I can't even do that and I haven't been to the gym for weeks. I have lost a lot of weight and most of my muscle mass and am a bit of a weed now. Unfortunately as I'm still new to this caper I can't really offer any advice except to say you are not on your own if that helps.

mamadeesix

Yes, it is a bitter pill to swallow...... Not being able to do the things we used to be able to do with ease.

Beyond that, I am worrying about more everyday things, though, now. Like that lifting a grocery bag will set my elbow off again.

The first rheum I went to did not check into autoimmune stuff. He though this was all OA, I guess, b/c my blood word is fine. So he keep telling me that I need to keep exercising.... Don't let fear keep me from being active. Etc.

I understand and can handle the added temporary pain that used to come with working out, (knees and toes worse for a day or two)

But this is different...... It's like my whole body is prone to a strain or pull with the slightest thing these days. That's why I am wondering if it might be autoimmune in nature .... In addition to the OA that I know I already have. (knee, big toes)