Getting in the Groove: Making Exercise a Consistent Routine

Though exercise brings many benefits for those managing arthritis, there are specific guidelines to follow that ensure your routine is both safe and effective.

Set a Goal and Work Towards It

Specific goals help keep you motivated and on track to maintaining your regular schedule. Your goal could be large or small: work up to a recommended exercise or complete a task, like using a certain weight for a specific exercise movement. 

No matter what level you’re starting at, it is important to progress conservatively and slowly work your way up in the frequency, intensity, and duration of your exercise. 

Set a realistic goal depending on your baseline. Studies recommend regularly exercising three to five  days a week, for about 30 minutes. If you are starting from no exercise at all, start with one or two days a week of low intensity exercise for five to ten minutes. Progressing too quickly will likely cause you more pain and could increase your risk for injury.

Don’t forget to celebrate when you reach your goal! Take time to acknowledge where you started and how far you’ve come. Tell your loved ones about your accomplishment. Pay attention to how reaching your goal made you feel. Then, use your progress as motivation to set a new goal and start chasing that one.

Get in a Groove

Schedule time into your daily routine for exercise. When life gets busy, it is easy to skip out on the new parts of your daily routine. Set yourself up for success with a plan ahead of time. Find the things you do during the day that aren’t so healthy or beneficial and swap them for your exercise. Instead of that extra 10 minutes of TV, schedule that time for a short workout. 

Establishing a regular exercise routine for your arthritis pain is a long-term goal, so make sure you make your routine enjoyable. You shouldn’t be dreading exercise every day. Try adding music, changing your scenery, or splurging on a new workout shirt. Remember the reason why you’re exercising and the benefits it will bring to your health. 

Don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day. Missing one day won’t take away from the weeks and months of consistent work you've been putting in. You don’t have to be perfect, just try to be better the next day.

Pay Attention To Pain

Because those who suffer from arthritis experience chronic pain, they will have that same pain while exercising. It is important to pay attention to your pain and if or when it changes. If you find that you have a new pain, or if the pain that you have had increases significantly after the exercises, that is a sign you have done too much. The next time you try the exercise routine, do fewer repetitions, or lower the intensity. Make sure to increase your repetitions and intensity more slowly.

Physical therapist, Whitney Patton, goes over these guidelines and the importance of slowly building up the difficulty of your exercise routine in this episode of Move to Mobility. She explains that modifications to exercises to make them more manageable are necessary and appropriate.

Grab a buddy to join you! 

Everything's better with a friend. Find someone who shares the same goals or interests in starting an exercise routine and work towards your goals together. You each should stick to your own personal progression but having a partner can help hold you accountable to remain consistent with your routine. An exercise partner can also be a source of encouragement and emotional support.

In a study published in the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, people with knee osteoarthritis who paired up with a partner stuck to a workout plan for longer than those who did it alone. Even if you don’t physically meet up, you can hold each other accountable by checking in each day and chatting about how your workouts went.