It can be hard to stay moving when you’re mostly confined to your home. We’ve put together some tips for staying active and maintaining your strength, mobility, and flexibility during this challenging time.
Why exercise is vital
Exercise is extremely important to maintaining your mobility. When you exercise, you provide the following benefits to your joints and the rest of your body:
- Strengthened muscles around joints
- Maintained bone strength
- Controlled weight
- Improved balance
- Increased energy levels
- Better sleep at night
- Enhanced quality of life
When you don’t move around, your joints can stiffen and swell, causing pain and making it even harder to get around. How do you stay active when you can walk laps at the mall and your community center yoga class is suspended?
Talk to Dr. Strasburger before starting a new exercise plan. With his go-ahead, you can confidently settle into a new at-home workout routine.
Household items can be great workout tools
Check out this list of household items and exercises they can be used for in the comfort of your home. You don’t need a gym to get a good, safe workout. You just need to do it!
Range-of-motion exercises
We recommend doing range of motion exercises daily. These include arm and leg lifting exercises, and rolling of the shoulders. Rotate your wrists and ankles as well. The idea is to slowly increase your range of motion over time.
Strengthening exercises
Light weight training can be used as a strengthening exercise two to three times a week. Weightlifting isn’t just about barbells and dumbbells. You can use extremely light weights and many repetitions to slowly build strength without strain.
Aerobic or endurance exercises
Low impact aerobics give you more energy and stamina, can help control your weight (taking strain off lower joints), and can also improve your cardiovascular health. You can walk, use a stationary bike or elliptical, or swim if you have a pool at home. Try to work up to 150 minutes a week; around 10 minutes twice a day.
Body awareness exercises
Gentle yoga, adaptive Pilates, or tai chi can help you improve your posture and balance, reduce risks of falls, enhance your coordination, and make you feel relaxed and at peace. Reduce your stress levels with a few short sessions every day.
Rehabilitative care
If you are recovering from an injury, talk to Dr. Strasburger about an ARYSE brace to protect and support your joint while you slowly rehabilitate at home. If you have knee pain, ask about iovera°, the safe, effective form of cryotherapy that can literally freeze pain away and provide relief for weeks.
Have questions? Call our office today at (402) 466-0100 or contact us online.