How to Stock Your Natural Medicine Cabinet
This article is written by James from Elliptical Ninja.
“Typically, people who exercise start eating better and becoming more productive at work. Exercise is a keystone habit that triggers widespread change.”― Charles Duhigg, ‘The Power of Habit’
It is no surprise that exercise can bring about some drastic change in your life, provided you make it a habit rather than a part-time hobby.
Healthcare research worldwide has been implementing exercise into the daily routine of people suffering from various ailments for decades now.Researchers have proven that exercise facilitates better and faster improvement of health. However, what matters more is following the right exercise routine rather than what everyone around you is doing.
One question many ask is, how and why should you exercise when you are in pain?
Research consisting of 380+ case studies where over 38 thousand participants were observed and treated under various treatment options was conducted to understand how exercise improves chronic pain conditions.
Quality of life and movement agility is greatly improved when a specific exercise regime is implemented in the day to day life of the patient. Exercising improves bone strength and muscular flexibility. Besides the physical development, exercise increases the secretion of endorphins and dopamine. These feel-good hormones support good mental health and thus make you feel better emotionally.
So what kind of exercises can you do to reap these health benefits when you’re suffering from chronic pain?
7 Exercises That Help to Reduce Chronic Pain
Common causes of chronic or long term, constant pain include rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, osteoporosis, endometriosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, obesity, and many more.
Physical Therapists and rehabilitation experts worldwide have been implementing particular exercise regimes in their patient’s daily workout routine to improve their lifestyle a great deal.
Here are seven types of exercises that can help reduce chronic pain.
1. Swimming
Regarded as one of the most beneficial exercise routines for back and joint pain relief, swimming has many other potential advantages that one cannot simply neglect.
Since over 85% of the body is buoyant during swimming, the pressure on the joints are almost nil. This makes it a perfect exercise in case of lower and upper extremities related pain ailments. Swimming also helps to strengthen the neck and back musculature. Regular swimming reducing spondylitis and related pain conditions.
2. Yoga
One of the ancient most forms of exercise originating in India is yoga. Believed to be the cure of hundreds of ailments, Yoga is a simple combination of posture, breathing, and meditation.
Traditional yoga has over 1000 variations and regimes that all follow the basic principle. Every yogic posture concentrates on a specific area and helps in improving that zone. Often referred to as a very gentle and fluid form of exercise, yoga is currently considered as a treatment option by many branches of medicine due to its holistic approach to healing.
3. Stretching
Stretching is an essential introduction of any exercise routine. It helps in relaxing the muscles and bones and reducing the stiffness. Because stretching improves the overall flexibility of the body, it reduces the chances of exercise-related injuries. It’s especially useful in handling muscular pain.
Stretching is often recommended during physical therapy sessions to improve and smoothen the muscular movements.
4. Walking
Walking is one of the easiest ways to shed calories without needing to spend lots of money on a gym membership. It has been noted walking early in the morning improves your mood and calms your mind quickly.
Besides being a great source of mood elevator, walking also helps in boosting the energy of the body. This occurs due to increased oxygen flow to various parts of the brain and muscles. Walking is effective in reducing pain in areas like back, neck, and joints. Since walking is classified as a low-impact aerobic exercise, it has been very effective in lowering fibromyalgia-related anxiety.
5. Pilates
Pilates is one of those exercises that require proper guidance and expert help. On observing for the first time, it looks like a simple stretching and movement. But Pilates focuses on exact and proper posture alignment that should be done correctly. If done correctly, Pilates effectively improves chronic back pain a great deal.
Pilates is classified as low-impact endurance movement-based regime that promotes muscular strength, tonality and flexibility. That’s why you need one-on-one training sessions with an expert instead of doing it yourself.
6. Core build-up exercises
Core build-up exercises generally include a lot of weightlifting exercises. Weightlifting is a subject that many peoplemistake as being exclusive to bodybuilders.
But weightlifting is more about strengthening the muscles and bones rather than building up muscles. Weight lifting or weight training is helpful in the management of certain types of body pains like post-surgical rehabilitation.
Physical trainers decide the amount of weight and types of weight lifting exercises one needs to do, based on body assessment and medical history analysis.
7. Water Aerobics
At first notice, water aerobics seems more like a fun routine than exercise. However, it is regarded as one of the best and most intense workout routines with tremendous health benefits.
Often practiced at pools where the water temperature is slightly warmer than usual, water aerobics helps in stretching and conditioning the musculatures of the entire body at a single instance. Since water acts as a buffer, there is little strain on the joints. This makes it a useful exercise for patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and other forms of joint pains related to chronic ailments.
When exercise is included in your day-to-day lifestyle, chronic pain tends to reduce to a large extent. Exercise, in general, tends to have immense health benefits like reduced chances of cardiovascular disease and obesity, improved sleep and mood, increased core body strength and stamina, improved posture and bowel movements, etc.
Often referred to as an “elixir of long life”, including these 7 simple exercise routines in your daily life will only bring positive outcomes
Author bio: Yoga teacher, James is a dietitian and specialist author at ellipticalninja.com. He likes to help people to improve their health and lifestyle. His writings on fitness equipment have been published in several journals.
Taking fitness classes in the gym have inspired him to start blogging. Besides working as a creative writer for fitness loving people, He plans to open a video forum where health and fitness conscious people can find reviews on different exercise machines.
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