Best Exercise For Arthritis in the Knees - Nurse's Guide

If you're suffering with pain from osteoarthritis (not rheumatoid arthritis) or as most call it - arthritis, in the knees you may not know that exercise will help and especially the right exercise. Arthritis experts, arthritis doctors, rheumatologists, physical therapists and other health professionals have been recommending exercise for arthritis for years to help relieve pain.

However it was little known until recently that research proves that the right exercise can help and be more effective than any of the most potent arthritis drugs or medications. The long accepted approach to relieve arthritis pain has been more of a temporary fix and not a solution at all for getting to the source of the joint problem.

Losing weight and the right diet are as important or if not more so than this one exercise I'm about to reveal to you. In any event you don't want to make your arthritis worse or cause any joint damage. You should check with your doctor first before starting any exercise program, even if it's just one exercise. Every knee arthritis situation is different.

One of the most important things to remember is that the research has shown that if you have arthritis in the knees you likely have weakness in the thigh and hip muscles. These muscles won't help you properly by absorbing stress and other forces when you go about your day, considering all you do with your knees. So your knees will not be protected because your surrounding muscles are weak.

So you want to strengthen your thigh and hip muscles to help protect your knees and knee joints.

Okay so what is the best exercise if you're only going to do just one exercise for your knees? It's a modified squat. This is simply a modified version of the squat. Not a full squat which is about 90 degrees. It's a good exercise because it is the same movement you would use if you were getting out of a chair. It also strengthens the thighs and hips.

You have to be careful not to go over about 45-50 degrees (visualize a quarter of a circle and 45 degrees would be half of that) when you bend down when you do it. If you do it can make your symptoms worse. As you bend down, arms in front hanging down, feet spread apart, make sure your hips are behind the heels of your feet so there is less stress on your knees, keep your hips back but make sure your knees are not in front of your toes. Have a chair or counter close by in case you need to hang on or prevent a fall.

Keep your body upright so your hips and thigh muscles work harder. Only let your back arch a little bit. This exercise can be done throughout the day and work up to more with your doctor's okay. This exercise can help anyone who needs to build up their hip and thigh muscles including those with rheumatoid arthritis.

One should never really do a full squat even if they don't have (osteoarthritis) arthritis in the knees. So give this modified best exercise for arthritis in the knees a try and see how it helps. I suffered with arthritis in my knees for years until I changed my diet to raw foods many years ago and cured myself of arthritis and finally got the knee pain relief I needed. I wish I had known about this easy exercise then it would have helped with my recovery faster. Hopefully it will help you.