Your Joints Are Working Harder Than You Think

Taking Care of Your Joints Is Really About Taking Care of Your Ability to Move

Most of us don’t think very much about our joints when they’re working well.

You get out of bed.

Walk down the stairs.

Reach into a cabinet.

Get into the car.

Turn your head to back out of a parking space.

Bend down to tie your shoes.

Pick up a grandchild.

Your joints quietly allow you to do all of it.

Then one morning a knee hurts going downstairs.

Your shoulder doesn’t want to reach overhead.

Your back feels stiff when you stand up.

Or your neck suddenly doesn’t turn quite as far as it used to.

That’s usually when we start paying attention.

October is National Chiropractic Health Month, and this year’s theme is “Joint Efforts.”

I think that’s a good opportunity to talk about something pretty simple:

Taking care of your joints isn’t really about your joints. It’s about maintaining your ability to do things.

Movement Is Independence

When people talk about healthy aging, we hear a lot about blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, diet, and exercise.

All of those things matter.

But there’s another question I think deserves just as much attention:

Can you still move well enough to live the life you want?

Can you walk comfortably?

Climb stairs?

Work in your yard?

Play golf?

Travel?

Get down on the floor and get back up?

Carry groceries?

Pick up the grandchildren?

Those are joint-health questions.

We don’t maintain mobility just so we can say we have healthy knees or a flexible spine.

We maintain mobility because movement is a big part of independence.

Joints Are Supposed to Move

A joint is where two or more bones meet, and different joints are designed to perform different jobs.

Your shoulder allows an enormous range of motion.

Your hip provides movement while supporting your body weight.

Your knees repeatedly bend and straighten while walking, climbing, and getting up from a chair.

The joints of your spine allow you to bend, rotate, and move while also protecting the spinal cord and nerves.

They aren’t all built the same way.

But they have one important thing in common:

They’re meant to be used.

That doesn’t mean every joint should move through every possible range or that you should force a painful joint to do something it can’t tolerate.

It means prolonged inactivity usually isn’t a great strategy for maintaining function.

The Body Adapts to What We Ask of It

We’ve talked about this before, because I think it’s one of the most important concepts in maintaining physical health.

The body adapts.

Walk regularly and walking becomes easier.

Use your muscles and they can become stronger.

Practice balance and balance can improve.

Maintain mobility and everyday movement is easier to preserve.

But the opposite can happen too.

Stop doing things and eventually those things become harder to do.

Sometimes it happens so gradually that we barely notice.

You stop getting on the floor because getting back up is difficult.

Then you avoid stairs.

Then longer walks disappear.

Then you start looking for the closest parking space.

Little by little, your world can become smaller.

That’s something worth fighting against.

You Don’t Need a Complicated Joint-Health Program

Fortunately, taking care of your joints doesn’t require turning your life into a rehabilitation program.

Start with the basics.

Move Every Day

Walk.

Swim.

Garden.

Ride a bicycle.

Play golf.

Take the stairs.

Do some strength training.

The specific activity matters less than finding something appropriate for you that you’ll actually continue doing.

Maintain Your Strength

Muscles help support and control our joints.

Strength becomes particularly important as we get older because we naturally tend to lose muscle if we don’t actively work to maintain it.

You don’t need to become a powerlifter.

Simple resistance exercises performed consistently can make a meaningful difference in strength and function.

Change Positions

I don’t think there’s one magical posture everyone needs to maintain all day.

The bigger problem is often spending too much time in any one position.

If you sit for work, get up periodically.

If you’ve been standing all day, sit down.

If you’ve been bent over working in the garden, stand up and walk around.

Your body likes variety.

Warm Up Before Asking a Lot of Your Body

You don’t have to spend 30 minutes stretching before working in the yard.

But going directly from sitting on the couch to lifting bags of mulch may not be your best plan either.

Walk around.

Move your shoulders.

Bend your knees.

Give your body a few minutes to get ready for what you’re asking it to do.

Give Yourself Time to Recover

You may not recover at 65 exactly the way you did at 25.

That’s okay.

Take breaks.

Spread a big job over two days.

Get enough sleep.

Eat reasonably well.

Stay hydrated.

Then get moving again.

Recovery isn’t the same thing as giving up activity.

What About Arthritis?

This is where many people become afraid to move.

They’re told they have arthritis or degeneration and start thinking they need to protect the joint by using it less.

There are certainly situations where activities need to be modified.

But arthritis doesn’t automatically mean you should stop moving.

In fact, regular appropriate physical activity and strengthening are commonly recommended for people with osteoarthritis because they can help maintain function and reduce symptoms.

The key word is appropriate.

If walking two miles aggravates your knee, maybe we don’t begin with two miles.

Maybe we begin with ten minutes.

Then we build.

The objective isn’t to prove how tough you are.

It’s to keep your body capable.

Don’t Ignore Something That’s Changing

There’s also a difference between normal occasional stiffness and a problem that keeps getting worse.

If a knee repeatedly swells, a shoulder becomes increasingly difficult to move, your back pain continually returns, or you’re developing weakness, numbness, tingling, or significant loss of function, it’s worth finding out why.

Don’t simply assume:

“I’m getting old.”

Maybe arthritis is involved.

Maybe you’ve injured something.

Maybe a muscle has become weak.

Maybe a joint isn’t moving normally.

Maybe a nerve is irritated.

Or maybe the problem isn’t musculoskeletal at all.

That’s why an examination matters.

Where Chiropractic Care Fits

At O’Hara Family Chiropractic, joint function is something we evaluate every day.

Sometimes a spinal or extremity joint isn’t moving as well as it should.

Sometimes the problem involves muscles or other soft tissues.

Sometimes there’s a disc or nerve component.

Sometimes exercise or strengthening needs to be part of the solution.

Chiropractic adjustments and other conservative treatments may be useful for certain musculoskeletal problems, depending on what’s actually causing the symptoms.

And sometimes chiropractic care isn’t what someone needs.

The first job is figuring that out.

That’s why I’ve never liked the idea of simply treating everything indefinitely.

Find the problem. Fix the problem. Leave it alone.

Take Care of Your Ability to Move

National Chiropractic Health Month gives us an excuse to talk about joints.

But what we’re really talking about is something much bigger.

We’re talking about maintaining your ability to participate in your own life.

Walk the neighborhood.

Work in the garden.

Take the trip.

Play golf.

Exercise.

Go swimming.

Get on the floor.

Pick up the grandchildren.

You may do some of those things differently at 70 than you did at 30.

That’s perfectly fine.

The objective isn’t to move like you’re 25 forever.

The objective is to keep moving for as long as you possibly can.

Your joints work for you every day.

Give them something worth working for.