The good news is that there are simple steps you can take to improve your joint health and make daily activities easier to perform. By integrating these tips and tricks into your daily life, you can protect your joints and experience reduced pain with greater mobility.
7 Tips to Protect Joint Health
- Stretch in the morning: The first thing you should do to set the right tone for your joints is stretch in the morning. Stretching helps improve muscle elasticity and stretched muscles can work more effectively to protect the joints and support movement.
- Perform low impact movements at home: You can work on your balance exercises which can keep joints strong. You can use home items like chairs and tables for support and work your way to balancing without any support. Another good technique is to practice lowering yourself to a chair and getting up without support.
- Use a foam roller: Foam rollers are a great way to give yourself a deep tissue massage in the comfort of your own home. Tense muscles are more likely to become injured and don’t offer as much protection to the joints as eased muscles. There are many guides you can reference to properly use a foam roller.
- Eat the right foods: Try to eat more anti-inflammatory foods like dark leafy greens, squash, carrots, sweet peppers, and berries. These foods not only ward off inflammation, which can worsen joint pain, but they are also high in antioxidants. These are known to fight off free radical damage which can worsen joint health.
- Keep good posture: Standing up straight can help protect the joints all along your spine and even down to your knees. Try to stand up straight as much as possible with eyes focused forward and chin up.
- Find the right sleep position: Sleeping in the wrong position can leave you sore and stiff in the morning. Depending on where you experience your joint pain, there are certain sleeping positions which can alleviate it. You can use pillows to prop yourself up in certain ways or to prevent joints from hitting each other such as using a pillow between the legs to prevent knees from touching. There are so specialty pillows to support the head and neck in a certain position. Playing around with sleep positions and pillows can help ease and support joint pain.
- Walk: Walking is a great low-impact activity which can keep your joints healthy. You can even walk in a pool so less weight and impact are put on the joints.
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