In a recent The Guardian article, reporter Sarah Phillips asks rheumatologists and orthopaedic surgeons how to maintain healthy joints throughout life and avoid surgery. Phillips reports that UK health guidelines recommend 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous activity weekly, yet about 27% of adults in England do less than 30 minutes a week of any exercise that gets them out of breath.
“When patients have a lot of pain in their joints, muscles or tendons, then exercise can be a frightening thing to engage with because it might make the pain worse,” says Dr Elizabeth MacPhie, a consultant rheumatologist in Preston. “We have to support patients to understand how to look after their joints when they have arthritis, not to be fearful of doing exercise, and find the right type of exercise for them.”
Here are the 14 expert tips from the article:
- Move as much as possible. Phillips reports that Prof Alister Hart of University College London says the more sport and activity people do, the less arthritis should happen on a population level. Prof Scarlett McNally adds that joints are better when used: “Stay active and build up your muscles.”
- Pay attention to aches and pains. Prof. Hart tells Phillips to try low-intensity movements first, such as stretching or cycling, and monitor how the body responds. Red flags worth taking seriously, he says, are pain that wakes you at night for several nights and a need for painkillers for more than a week.
- Practice glute bridges. Hart calls glute bridges the ultimate exercise, telling Phillips: “You can do zero harm with glute bridges, and almost anybody can do them.” Lying on your back, bend your knees to 90 degrees and push your pelvis to the ceiling, ideally with a resistance band across the lower thighs to engage the gluteal muscles.
- And squats. McNally tells Phillips that the glutes and thigh muscles are critical for independence. If squats feel too demanding, she says, going up and down stairs or practising sitting-to-standing movements builds the same muscles just as effectively.
- Do parkrun. Hart describes running 5k as a “Goldilocks dose” of impact, enough to keep skeletal muscles and tendons healthy, not so much as to cause harm. McNally adds that parkrun works precisely because it becomes a habit, and walking the route counts too. “Smaller doses really are a miracle cure,” she tells Phillips.
- If you can’t run, swim. Dr Matthew Hutchinson, a consultant rheumatologist in London, tells Phillips that low-impact aerobic activities such as swimming improve joint function and reduce pain. MacPhie adds that water makes movement easier for those with joint pain, walking lengths of the pool or doing gentle stretches in the water is a good starting point.
- Don’t forget to stretch afterwards. Hart tells Phillips that even two minutes of post-workout stretching is better than nothing. The key, he says, is to take joints through their normal range of motion without pushing too far.
- Make time for strength training. Hart calls strength training “the number one way in which you can prevent arthritis,” telling Phillips it is never too early or too late to start. McNally adds that building muscle before surgery speeds recovery significantly: she was a day case for her own hip replacement because her muscles were strong enough.
- Conditioning is key. Strength and cardiovascular work must go together, Hart tells Phillips. “You’ve got all the bendy people in yoga studios, they don’t need more bending and stretching, they need more strength. And you’ve got all the Muscle Marys in the gym, they need a bit more stretching, conditioning and mobility work. Everyone should swap.” Hutchinson adds that stronger surrounding muscles put less strain on the joint itself.
- Eat with your joints in mind. Hutchinson tells Phillips to focus on whole foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, and food cooked from scratch. He notes emerging evidence that gut microbiome disruption may worsen inflammatory arthritis. Hart recommends vitamin D3 at 400 IU in winter, and MacPhie adds that cod liver oil, rich in omega-3 fatty acids, has mild anti-inflammatory properties.
- Slim down if you need to. Hutchinson tells Phillips that excess body fat both increases strain on joints and drives inflammation. He notes growing interest in GLP-1 drugs for their dual benefit of weight reduction and reduced metabolic inflammation, though he stops short of recommending them universally for joint health.
- Work on describing your pain. Hutchinson tells Phillips that keeping a diary of when pain comes on, how long it lasts, where it is located, and what makes it better or worse helps doctors understand a patient’s condition more accurately and leads to better care.
- Quit smoking. Hutchinson is direct on this point, telling Phillips that smoking is strongly associated with rheumatoid arthritis and worsens its severity. For pretty much any disease, he says, quitting is one of the most effective things a patient can do.
- Be careful what you wear on your feet. Hart tells Phillips that carbon-plated running shoes change the body’s biomechanics in ways that may risk stress fractures if muscles are not conditioned for them. Barefoot shoes carry similar risks. McNally is reassuring for those without specialist kit: any comfortable, affordable footwear is fine to get started.
Phillips sums up that the evidence is consistent across experts: movement, in whatever form suits your body and your life, is the most powerful tool available for keeping joints healthy and delaying or avoiding surgery altogether.
Acknowledgement: This summary was generated using AI writing tools as part of my experimental learning process. For more information, check out the original article listed below.