Luke Lewitzke

Certified A.C.E. (American Counsel on Exercise) Personal Trainer

Weight and Lifestyle Management Specialist

Every day I meet people who are in pain, the kind of pain where it hurts to even move.  So, they don’t.  I can’t say that I blame them because who wants to be in pain.  The problem though is that not moving is actually causing things to be even worse.  There are two sayings that come to mind when I think of this, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.”, and “Motion is lotion for the joints”.  I’m not saying that one needs to work out for an hour a day or do heavy weightlifting to help their situation.  The reality is that simply moving, going for a walk, mowing the lawn, doing housework, will help to potentially ease your pain in many ways.

If You Don’t Use It, You Lose It

Staying active, stretching, and performing weight bearing activities is crucial for maintaining joint mobility and muscle mass. Muscle is developed when a load or stress is placed upon it. When performing this movement repetitively, this load can potentially cause small tears in the muscle fibers. Our body will try to protect that from happening again by signaling to the brain to increase the production of muscle fibers. The body will repair the small tears and then build on top of it to increase the muscle fiber density so that the muscle is stronger to prevent from tearing again.

By getting stronger, it will be easier to move and perform activities of daily living. Conversely, if you don’t move or “exercise” and lead a sedentary lifestyle, your muscles will atrophy. As they diminish, those smaller, shorter muscles will pull on the bones of the joints, potentially causing them to rub resulting in inflammation. It will also just be more challenging to move and perform the tasks you want to do when you want to do them.

Motion is Lotion

You see, movement helps to increase blood flow to the muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons, bringing important nutrients to those areas in the body.

This in turn will help make the muscles stronger, the bones denser, the joints more supple, and the ligaments and tendons stronger and more elastic. Not only will you have increased blood flow and circulation, but your body will also increase the production of synovial fluid. Synovial fluid is a gel-like substance that flows through the cartilage and synovial membrane of the joint, keeping it soft and pain-free.

By increasing the synovial fluid, you are going to make it easier for the bones of that joint to slide over one another. The simple act of walking is one of the best ways to do this. Walking will increase your heart rate, therefore promoting circulation. It will also get your body moving in all 3 planes of motion, challenging the core, and increasing the movement in multiple joints gently throughout the entire body.

In addition to helping with joint mobility, muscle strength, and bone density, maintaining an active lifestyle has numerous other benefits such as aiding in weight management through caloric expenditure, improving mood through the production of certain hormones, boosting energy, and helping improve sleep, all of which can help with pain management. 

So, as you go about your day, think about ways that you can safely and effectively increase your movement.  How can you increase your number of steps each day?  How can you challenge your muscles without exacerbating your pain or discomfort?  And most importantly, how can you do this without it feeling like work? 

Practice parking a little farther from the store doors, stand up and sit down 3 times every commercial when you are watching tv, or get up and dance to your favorite song a couple of times a day.  Maybe you enjoy doing housework or gardening or want to take up yoga.  The point is to move to help ease your pain.  Remember, motion is lotion and if you don’t use it, you lose it! 

For more tips or ideas on how to incorporate movements or to learn new exercises, please visit our website, www.neuroendomke.com, for our exercises of the week.