swimming exercises

flo1175

Hello
I am surfering with spinal rheumatisms and I know swimming is good for it but can you tell me if i have to swim only on my back or if just swimming its enough as i dont want to hurt myself more.
is there any excercies i can do in the water?
Thanks a lot
Flo

helpline_team

Dear Flo,

Thanks for your enquiry to Helplines. I read some of your other posts to see what kind of arthritis you may have. I know you've mentioned RA, but am wondering whether that's certain?

We get quite a lot of enquiries from people who may have early osteoarthritis following early menopause. It can be very helpful to clarify with your GP the kind of arthritis as it affects all of the self-management guidance.

For example you've mentioned elsewhere being offered anti-inflammatories for your arthritis and with RA generally the treatments would include disease modifying drugs (examples: methotrexate, or sulphazelazine) and you've not mentioned them.

If you do get some clarification about this you could email us your name and address to helplines@arthritiscare.org.uk and we can send you a clear pack of information on self-management options to explore.

On the question of swimming, key strokes to avoid may be those where you hold your head out of the water (this puts a strain on the neck). I wonder whether you've got a physiotherapist yet? A nice one can make all the difference.

Hope to hear back from you. Any problems, you can always ring our freephone 0808 800 4050.

Hope we can help a bit more

Guy