8 Useful Ways to Relieve and Prevent Pesky Joint Pain

We all expect our joints to endure an unreasonable amount of stress on a regular basis, and do very little to help them out.

When you take the time to think about it, you’ll realize that joints are incredibly important to the overall performance of your body – after all, they connect bones, support your weight, and allow you to move more freely. Though your joints are designed specifically to cope with the regular stress they’re exposed to, they can sometimes suffer from excess wear and tear. This can lead to joint pain, or arthralgia.

Joint pain throughout your hips and knees, as well as various other locations on the body, can be caused by numerous factors. These factors can range from disease and trauma, to sprains, strains, and tendonitis. Arthritis can also cause joint pain, but it’s worth remembering that the details of such pain can differ from one person to the next. Fortunately, there are some ways that you can alleviate joint pain, and also ways to prevent it entirely.

Useful Ways to Relieve and Prevent Pesky Joint Pain

1. Put Safety First

When it comes to engaging in high-impact sports or physical activity that could have a negative outcome for your joints, it can be a prudent idea to invest in a little extra padding. Suit up for playing contact sports with plenty of the appropriate equipment. What’s more, if your joints have already begun to ache before you even get started, try strapping on some braces to stop the problem from getting worse.

2. Hydrotherapy

Warm water is ideal for easing the pressure placed on joints and muscles on a day-to-day basis. Indulging in a nice hot bath after a long day can be a salient way to alleviate some of the aches in your hips and knees. Make sure to immerse the painful area within the water for an extended period of time, and massage it from time to time to help stimulate blood flow.

3. Cryotherapy

If warm water doesn’t work wonders on your ache or sprain, cold temperatures could do the trick. Cold or ice water will help to reduce blood flow, therefore slowing down tissue swelling. If you’re starting to feel pain or inflammation, apply an icepack to the area for no longer than fifteen minutes. Remember, if you want to avoid ice burns, you should never place the pack directly on your skin but wrap it in another material.

4. Stop Stretching before You Exercise

Flexibility helps you to move well, so you should make sure that you try and stretch at least three times a week. However, it’s important to avoid simply stretching out cold muscles. Instead, do a light warm-up, such as a brief walk, to loosen the ligaments, joints, and tendons in your body. You can do some jumping jacks as well if you do not feel like walking outside and so on.

5. Try some Massage Therapy

Massage is a poignant way to relieve joint pain throughout the body – whether you have it done professionally at a spa or local health club, or try it out for yourself at home. If you’re approaching the massage therapy concept on your own, try massaging the area with the most pain using a menthol rub to help reduce the pain, and remember that the strokes you make should move towards the heart.

6. Low Impact Exercise

If your joints are in pain, then the best exercise to flip the switch include low-impact choices such as swimming, riding a bike, walking slowly, and certain types of strength training. Remember that most forms of high-impact exercise like running can be too much for your already injured joints. This would include playing basketball with the local high school varsity team on the local court in the park. This would be most unwise and not only will you probably lose that game (affecting your psyche) you will have done nothing good for your body.

When in doubt about the course of action that’s right for you – try speaking to your doctor.

7 Eat Plenty of Fish

If you’re struggling with joint pain, particularly pain that can be attributed to rheumatoid arthritis, then try eating some more fish. Cold-water fatty fish such as mackerel and salmon can be ideal sources of omega-3 acids – which help to keep joints healthy, and reduce inflammation. If you don’t’ like the taste of fish, you can always press the button for fish oil capsules instead.

8. Get Plenty of Rest

Finally, one of the best methods you can user to alleviate joint pain is to get plenty of relaxation and rest. The more you rest, the more energy you will restore, and the more opportunity you will give your body to repair itself as it should naturally. What’s more, by resting between periods of exercise, you’ll also help your body to cope more with the demands you and life are making of it.