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Arthritis exercise - strengthening knees and back
from: Karri Koivula
Squat, if it can be done without discomfort, is a great exercise for people suffering from hip, knee and back arthritis.
It doesn’t do anything to the actual arthritis, but will help to maintain physical fitness and functionality.
Proper function of hip area is very important for pain free backs and knees; the stiffness caused by arthritis hinders this function and creates a situation, where you can end up having even more pain, than what would be caused by just inflammation or joint degeneration.
You want to ease in to squatting; if you don’t ease in to it you might end up aggravating your knees/hips and back even more.
Great way to ease in to squat is to pile up some books on to a low chair, and the start to practise sitting down to it.
The chair will help to emphasize the sitting back motion, which is important when you first start to learn this movement.
And as your flexibility and ability to squat deeper increases, you can remove books accordingly.
Use common sense; if it squatting aggravates you conditions don’t do it anymore.
Now, it’s possible that you are unable to squat because the nature of your arthritis just downright prevents that, if this is the case don’t force the squat, it’s not exercise for all.
Important tip – Trigger point massage
Before you start squatting, take couple of weeks to massage your back muscles, not forgetting glutes and hamstrings, daily with a tennis ball.
It would be also great to massage your psoas and abdominal muscles.
By doing this, you will increase the changes of squatting pain free.
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Related resources back at pain relief guide site, quick links below.
Also, remember to download trigger point pain charts and tutorial (beta) - available at home page.
And always remember to ask permission from a qualified health care professional, before starting to do any kind of exercise
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