Osteoarthritis is a disease caused when your cartilage starts breaking down, thus allowing your bones to rub against each other. This results in stiffness, pain, and bone spurs. If you have osteoarthritis of the hip, you might be experiencing a lot of pain that could prevent you from exercising.
However, the lack of exercise could make your case much worse. If you are interested in other hip arthritis treatment options, you can check that link out… or you can talk to a local doctor such as MOATI to find out more about your options in general. Here are the five most recommended exercises to relieve hip osteoarthritis symptoms.
If you are feeling pain in your bones, talk to your doctor!
1. Low-impact exercises
If you are just starting to incorporate exercise in your daily routine, it is important to start off with low-impact exercises. These sorts of exercises will include walking, stationary biking, water exercises, yoga, tai-chi and others. Starting off slow is important, because you do not want to cause too much strain on your body.
2. Strengthen your muscles
Managing to strengthen the muscles around your hip joints will improve your balance and take a lot of pressure of the hip joints. This does not mean that you should engage in heavy exercises often. Exercising around two to three times a week should be more than enough. Some of the exercises here include chair stand, bridges, and hip extensions. Talking to your physical therapist is a good idea as well.
3. Increase your flexibility
Doing these exercises will increase your flexibility, will help with your overall mobility and will reduce stiffness. You should consider exercises such as inner leg stretching, hip and lower back stretches, double hip rotations, and others. Just make sure that you are listening to your body, and if you are feeling too much pain, you should not force yourself to do these exercises. Take it slow.
4. Balance is important.
Let’s not forget about your balance. It is important that you have proper balance in order to lower the chances of hurting yourself, and especially your hips. Some of the examples of exercises that can help with balance include:
- Standing on one foot.
- Tai chi.
- Slowly walking backwards.
- Using Wii Fit balance exercises.
5. Aerobic exercises
On the other hand, there are aerobic exercises that are known as endurance exercises. These are designed to make your heart beat faster, and are good to keep you healthy overall. Whether you have osteoarthritis or arthritis in knee, being active is very important.
Arthritis can cause a lot of pain
Final word
If you are still feeling pain, you should talk to your doctor. It is important that you listen to your body, and thus adjust the activities to what your body can handle. Stick with the more gentle exercises that are designed to help strengthen the hip muscles. If you are having any issues, talk to your doctor.
