One of the major components of physical fitness is your overall joint health and flexibility. Many of us don’t think about the impact of our joints’ health until we start to develop a variety of aches and pains. By then, it is harder to correct the issues that lead to your joint problems.
So, if you don’t feel like hobbling around every day, I’ve got four tips to help you preserve and protect your joints:
4 Tips For Protecting Your Joints
1. Move Often and Regularly
If you are feeling tired and achy, it’s not likely that you want to do much movement. But if you are looking to protect your joints and preserve their overall long term health, then you need to move often and regularly. Sitting in static positions can cause your muscles and joints to stiffen up, and over time, this stiffness will limit your mobility.
While exercise can combat some of the effects of sitting, it’s important that you build movement into your daily routine. Getting up and walking for a few minutes every hour can help you to be more mobile as well as using an ergonomic active sitting office chair like the CoreChair.
The CoreChair allows you to incorporate subtle, yet fluidic movement to mobilize the joints and improve blood flow. With this increase in blood flow, your body will allow more oxygenated blood to flow effortlessly throughout your body, helping your joints and muscles to stay fluid.
2. Build Up Your Muscles
Developing stronger muscles can help support and protect your joints. While you don’t need to become a bodybuilder, stronger muscles can assist you in the ways that your joints move, which can be especially helpful if you have experienced weakness in a particular area.
Along with weight lifting to build up your muscles, researchers have identified that regular exercise can help those who experience rheumatoid arthritis. Low-impact exercise and resistance training (weight lifting) were found to help improve joint function, reduce cardiovascular risk factors, and even reverse some of the painful effects of rheumatoid arthritis.
Also, by building up your muscles and regularly exercising, you can more easily maintain a healthy weight. By being at a healthy BMI, you can reduce the weight and pressure on your joints.
3. Have the Right Office Equipment
As I mentioned earlier, having office equipment like the CoreChair can help enormously when it comes to preserving and protecting your joint health. Those of us who work in an office environment will typically spend at least eight hours at a desk… that is a lot of static sitting. It is imperative that we use the right equipment to promote a healthy and active office environment.
Paired with the right office chair, you can do other things to set up your office with movement-friendly equipment. Personally, I have an adjustable, motorized desk so that I can move between sitting and standing easily. It also allows me to adjust my desk to my proportions, so I don’t have to strain my shoulders and back. If you are using a standing desk and want to pair it with a perching stool rather than an office chair, the CorePerch is a great option. It features a highly sculpted seat cushion to promote comfort and good posture while actively sitting or perching at your desk.
Also, be sure to have your monitor(s) at the right place to promote good posture, as well as having an ergonomic keyboard. With these things, you won’t feel half-crippled after a long day at work.
4. Follow an Anti-Inflammatory Diet
Inflammation around your joints can be painful and keep you from moving, leading to even worse joint issues. To help prevent inflammation, you can change your nutritional intake and switch to an anti-inflammatory diet. On this kind of diet, you should be consuming things like:
- Green tea
- Dark fruits like cherries and blackberries
- Healthy fats like salmon, avocado, and olives
- A glass of red wine
- Dark green veggies like kale, broccoli, and Brussel sprouts
By ensuring that you incorporate these tips, from incorporating movement into your workday to making sure you eat a healthy diet, you can protect your joints effectively over the years.
