Take Care of Your Joints, And They Will Take Care Of You

So you thought aching joints was just for the elderly? Aching joints can be as common in young people today as they are in the older generation. You could be an athlete, a mother, a waitress, or a fitness enthusiast just trying to keep your body in good shape, but if you’re not taking care of your joints, it is possible that you can suffer from joint discomfort sooner or later.

Taking care of your joints may involve learning to re-do every day things in a way that consciously helps to lower stress on your joints. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Avoid excessive strain on joints.
• Avoid being in one position for too long. This is especially true when you’re caught in long traffic jams on your way to work! If it’s a long wait, it’s probably a good idea to get out of the car and stretch your muscles periodically.
• Keep an active lifestyle.
• Get a good night’s sleep.
• Use stronger joints more often. For example, you may want to use your shoulders to push open doors instead of your wrist and elbow.
• Use both hands to carry your shopping bags.

In fact, common reasons for some joint aches can be simple things we can avoid, such as using incorrect postures while lifting, prolonged sitting or standing in one place, or using incorrect exercise techniques. Many kinds of work that might force you into an “unnatural” position repeatedly can lead to joint aches. Take for example, sitting in an uncomfortable position, twisting a screwdriver, or gripping tools.

It’s hard to escape the jobs we do, but we can start taking some conscious steps to avoid unnecessary stress on joints that may gradually lead to joint injury. By taking care of our joints today, you might find that they will take care of you well into your senior years.

Tips for Taking Care of Your Joints

Exercise Regularly
Exercise not only helps you keep generally fit, but regular exercise can help in many specific ways: It tones the muscles and strengthens them so that they are more able to bear the brunt of everyday movement. Exercise can help to keep joints mobile and flexible. Other benefits of exercise can include improved weight management, blood circulation, sleep patterns, balance and posture; it keeps the heart healthy, relieves muscle tension, and strengthens the bones.
There are particular exercises that can help you increase mobility and range of flexibility, strengthen muscles and bones through weight training. These types of exercises include walking, swimming, hydrotherapy, Pilates, dancing and aerobics. As with any exercise program always consult your physician before beginning.

Avoid Carrying Excessive Weight
Carrying too many grocery bags at one time into your home in order to avoid extra trips to the garage may tax your joints. Use both hands, carry bags from the bottom up and distribute the weight evenly, minimizing strain on any particular joint.
If you are engaged in lifting weights, avoid lifting heavy weights repeatedly and overtraining. Vary your exercise routine with low and heavy weights and make sure to give your joints adequate recovery period between exercises. It’s important to get a good night’s sleep as well to allow your body to recover.

Manage Your Body Weight
If you are overweight, you may be able to reduce a lot of stress on weight-bearing joints by losing weight and coming down to your optimal body weight. This is one of the best ways to take care of your joints.

Avoid on-the-Job Wear and Tear of Joints
Joint injury can take place if you have a job which requires you to constantly perform repeated motions—this is known as repetitive strain injury (RSI). You can avoid trauma on joints by rotating such tasks with other tasks that do not place heavy stress on the joints. Take repeated rest breaks to break up monotonous and repetitive tasks.
Take care of your posture while sitting or standing for long hours. Take regular breaks to stretch your muscles.

Eat Healthy
Joint pain relief requires adequate nutrition and proper rest. Lack of nutrition can lead to lack of sufficient nutrients required for supporting joint health. Without these nutrients, the cartilage may weaken and tear, synovial fluid in the cavity may become less, leading to progression in joint degeneration.

Joint Health Supplements
Supplementing your nutrition with joint health supplements will help to give your joints the nutrients they need for long-term joint health. Joint health supplements containing glucosamine sulfate, hyal joint, Interhealth collagen type II and MSM provide nutritional support for joint health.
When joints are stressed we need more nutrients to help keep them functioning well. Joint supplements, like GoFlex, contain important nutrients to support all the 10 most stress-prone joints of the body. Nutrients combined with herbs that act as natural analgesics help to support joint health. GoFlex comes with a free fast-acting joint cream which contains an FDA-approved ingredient for pain relief, capsicum, for times when you need quick pain relief!
Take nutritional care of your joints, and you’ll find they will take care of you well into the senior years of your life.