Sweating Voluntarily: Exercise and RA

Listen to Your Body

It is also more important for us than most to LISTEN TO OUR BODIES! For many of us it is woefully short trip from joint pain to joint injury. Remember the phrase "no pain, no gain"? Well forget it! Pain is a sign our bodies give us that something is WRONG. It is what prevents us from jumping off cliffs and banging our heads on bricks and the like. If something hurts, stop doing it. If any pain you experience from exercise sticks around for more than just a few days you should contact your doctor. Even so, that doesn't mean you get a free pass. Maybe while you are having that talk with the doctor you'll figure out how to adjust your plan while you recover and how to prevent similar issues in the future.

There are so many ways to stay fit and active too. Swimming, yoga and tai chi are excellent ways to exercise and tend to be easier on the joints than many other high impact activities. Even just going for a good daily walk is a super way to go! It clears your head and gets you away from looking at the piles of laundry lying about. My favorite piece of exercise equipment is Otis, my new standard poodle puppy. He really doesn't care if my knee aches or I'm feeling witchy. He wants to walk and that's a super good thing for both of us. By the time we get back home we both have better attitudes about life in general.

I'm including a couple of links for your viewing pleasure. Rheumatoidarthritis.com has this page which talks about different types of exercises complete with step by step examples. Medicinenet.com even has this slide show which demonstrates some simple stretching and range of motion techniques. These sites and others out there demonstrate just a few of the ways you can turn sweating voluntarily into a strategy for living fully. In the end isn't that really what it's all about? I know Otis and I think so!