^{By Houston Brown, CSCS – Baptist Health System HealthLink}

It is always a good idea to make sure you are doing the right workout – one that gives you the best results depending on your goals and limitations. Two common conditions affecting older adults are Osteoarthritis and Osteoporosis. Typically your plan of attack would depend on which condition you have. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease affecting the cartilage causing stiffness, pain, and dysfunction of the joint. Low impact exercises such as biking, swimming, walking, and other exercises that do not pound the joints are prescribed.

On the other hand, Osteoporosis is a degenerative bone disease affecting the density leading to fractures and slow recovery from fractures. Bone density can be increased and new bone growth can be stimulated by weight bearing exercises.

As you can see these are two opposing strategies, which is just fine for most people who only have one of the two, so what is the protocol for someone who has both Osteoarthritis and Osteoporosis? If you choose a routine with too much high impact you will aggravate joint inflammation, but with only low impact you will lose bone density.

There are three important things to remember when modifying a workout for this situation: exercise selection, exercise order, and exercise frequency.

For each workout select a few moderate impact weight-bearing exercises to include. These should be preformed standing supporting your body weight. Some examples are step-ups, squats, lunges, over-head presses, and back rows, to name a few.

Begin each workout with a warm-up to loosen up the joints and get some blood pumping to the muscles. Three to five minutes is adequate for a warm-up, which may include walking, biking, stretching, or abdominal exercises. Next, while your joints and muscles are fresh, complete the more difficult impact and weight bearing exercises. Now that the hard stuff is done, finish the workout with all the low impact exercise you desire.
Under these conditions you may not be able to tolerate long bouts of exercise. Exercising every day for about a half hour is a good way to keep your body strong without placing too much demand on your joints.

Questions? Call Baptist Health System’s HealthLink fitness and rehabilitation center at 210-297-9900. HealthLink is conveniently located at 288 W. Bitters Rd, next to Hobby Lobby.