The Best Arthritis Exercises for Seniors to Improve Mobility and Reduce Pain

The last thing a person with fatigue and ailing joints wants to do is get moving. You feel like exercise will wear you out and make you hurt worse. It’s understandable and seems to make sense in physical terms.

But the reality is counterintuitive. Exercise, if done properly, can actually be energizing and pain-relieving. If you want to improve your movement and energy levels with safe exercise that’s proven to be helpful to senior adults, reconsider your hesitance and learn how to implement an exercise routine that will reap tremendous benefits.

Find out how joint pain and arthritis affect seniors and how to improve these symptoms with lifestyle changes, particularly exercises that target affected body parts. Read on to learn how you can improve your quality of life by performing smart exercises.

Table of Contents

• Understanding Joint Pain and Arthritis in Seniors
• How Does Exercise Improve Arthritis in Seniors?
• 10 Best Exercises for Seniors With Arthritis
• Tips for Managing Arthritis With Physical Activity
• Senior Services in America: Supporting Seniors With Arthritis for Over 20 Years

Understanding Joint Pain and Arthritis in Seniors

Joint pain may be caused by a number of conditions, including:

• Rheumatoid arthritis: This autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in the lining of the joints and eventually causes it to deteriorate may cause the following:
  • Swelling
  • Stiffness and pain
  • Joint deformity
  • Fatigue
  • Fever
  • Weight loss
• Osteoarthritis: When the cartilage surrounding the joints wears down over time and use, the joints may begin to feel stiff and sensitive. This “wear-and-tear” arthritis most often affects the hands, hips, spine, and knees and thus makes most activities of daily living more uncomfortable for people with the condition.
• Bursitis: Inflammation of the bursae — thin fluid-filled sacs cushioning the joints — can cause pain, swelling, and restricted range of motion in the joints of the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees.

Understanding what is causing your joint pain will help you to take appropriate measures to improve symptoms and exercise safely.

How Does Exercise Improve Arthritis Pain for Seniors?

Exercise is beneficial to both physical and mental health. Besides strengthening the heart, lungs, muscles, bones, and other organs, it can help manage the symptoms of arthritis by:

• Strengthening the muscles around joints
• Minimizing bone loss
• Increasing energy levels and stamina
• Improving sleep
• Promoting weight loss or management
• Minimizing joint swelling and pain

A possible explanation for the mechanism by which exercise targets arthritic tissues is that movement promotes the rehydration and thickness of the cartilage.

10 Best Exercises for Seniors with Arthritis

The following low-impact exercises allow seniors to move about and strengthen their joints safely.

#1: Walking

You don’t have to go to the gym or do high-intensity workouts to enjoy the benefits of exercise. Walking is a simple, pleasant activity that you can do almost anywhere, alone or with friends. This versatility may be why walking is the go-to exercise for 71% of active people living with arthritis.

In addition to reducing pain and improving function in the joints, walking has the potential to increase senior adults’ sense of independence, confidence, and overall wellness.

Besides walking normally with hands swinging at your sides, consider stepping it up with the Nordic variation, which involves using hand-held poles to propel yourself forward. This is a bit more challenging, but offers a better overall workout, working the back, chest, shoulder, and arm muscles in addition to the leg.

#2: Water Aerobics

Exercise in the water may be more comfortable for senior adults with arthritis because the water bears a significant percentage of your weight, putting less stress on the joints while still allowing the muscles to work and get stronger.

Stronger muscles help support the weight-bearing joints, helping to improve the cartilage quality and absorb much of the weight, reducing the load on the joints themselves. 

If activities are performed in warmer water, the effect on the muscles and joints is even more pronounced as higher temperatures help relax the muscles, reduce stiffness, and ease movement.

Pain reduction and improvements in physical function have been found to accompany a routine of water aerobic exercise in patients with inflammatory arthritis (rheumatoid) and osteoarthritis.

#3: Cycling or Stationary Biking

Cycling is another good way to exercise without forcing your joints to bear your full weight. As the joints (particularly the knee, but to some extent the hip) move through their range of motion, more synovial fluid is produced, giving more lubrication to the joints and thus allowing easier, less painful movement.

Cycling has been found to be comparable to water-based exercise in terms of its positive effect on joint function, pain and stiffness reduction, and overall quality of life in arthritic individuals.

#4: Tai Chi 

Tai Chi is an ancient Chinese exercise characterized by slow, graceful movements that have potential for easing pain and improving joint function in the knees, hips, and hands. Tai Chi places emphasis on the harmony between the body and the mind and is meant to promote calmness, balance, and straight posture.

This style of exercise appears to be more effective in osteoarthritis cases than rheumatoid cases for improving flexibility and grip strength and reducing pain and tenderness.

#5: Resistance Training 

Resistance training helps the muscles get stronger by working against weight or force. Using free weights, resistance bands, weight machines, or body weight are all examples of resistance training methods. Training sessions should take place 2-3 times per week, with a 48-hour rest period in between, for maximum benefit.

If your training routine is varied and well-rounded, it can result in improved joint function, strength in the muscles and associated tissues (ligaments and tendons), and bone density.

The following exercises are good types of resistance training appropriate for senior adults with arthritis:

• Sit to stand: Move from a sitting to a standing position, varying the height of your seat and adding difficulty with weights or a faster speed.
• Rows: Holding dumbbells while standing and bending forward slightly at the knees and hips, pull the dumbbells toward your chest, keeping your elbows back and squeezing your shoulder blades together. The exercise can also be done from a seated position with a resistance band.
• Incline pushup: Place your hands on the surface of a wall, table, or dresser a bit more than shoulder-width apart. Bend your elbows to lower your chest toward the surface and then straighten your arms after a pause.
• Stationary lunge: With the legs staggered, bend at the knee as you lower your body toward the floor, keeping the chest upright.

Resistance training using progressively heavier weights is particularly helpful for improving strength and function and reducing pain in people with osteoarthritis.

#6: Seated Workouts

Avoid the risk of falling by doing seated workouts, which might include any of the following exercises:

• Hip hinge: Sit on the edge of your chair with hands crossed over your chest. Bend forward over your knees, keeping your back straight. Then return to the normal sitting position, with your back and chest upright.
• Leg lifts: Sit on the edge of your chair and grip the sides for stability as you extend one leg so that the heel touches the floor and the toe points upward. Lift the leg about a foot off the ground and return it to its position on the floor. Repeat the exercise with the foot placed at different angles.
• March: At the same time, raise an arm bent at the elbow and the leg on the opposite side bent at the knee. Return them to a neutral position before raising the opposite arm and leg the same way. 
• Heel toe taps: Begin with a foot flat on the floor. Extend the leg so the heel only touches the floor and the toe points up. Bring the foot back to the floor and repeat.
• Jacks: Make the body form an x by spreading the arms and legs out simultaneously, arms in the air and feet tapping the floor on either side of your chair legs.
• Trunk rotation: Cross your hands over your chest and rotate so your shoulders point to the left and to the right, stopping in the center. This helps stretch the back muscles.

#7: Gardening

While generally not considered an exercise, gardening is a beautiful and productive way to stay physically active. The movements required to weed, trim, dig, plant, and pull help to keep the joints flexible and accustomed to movement, preventing stiffness.

To protect your joints while gardening, consider taking the following measures:

• Do simple stretches before gardening.
• Use tools that are easy to grip and don’t require you to stoop to use them.
• Plant items in raised beds or containers so you can work at a comfortable height.
• Wear garden gloves to cushion your joints.
• Practice good posture, allowing larger, stronger joints to do the work of lifting and pulling.

Gardening requires a large variety of movement, ensuring that the body stays flexible, but people with arthritis must take extra care to avoid aggravating their condition.

#8: Yoga

Yoga is an ideal exercise for senior adults because of its slow, low-impact movements.  It is great for training the core muscles and increasing flexibility and muscular coordination. 

This is true for all active senior adults, including those with osteoarthritis, though adjustments may be necessary to keep the activity safe and pleasant. For example, chair yoga therapy allows the body to perform similar movements without the difficulty and discomfort of getting to and from the floor.

Chair yoga therapy has been found to improve mental health and slow disease progression in patients with knee osteoarthritis. Some effective yoga poses for senior adults with arthritis include:

• Seated mountain
• Seated cat-cow
• Seated chandrasana
• Seated uttanasana
• Hero 
• Down dog with chair
• Butterfly
• Sitting side-bend 
• Seated spinal-twist 
• Reclining twist 
• Savasana

#9: Swimming 

If you have access to a pool, swimming offers a full-body workout. The exercise itself puts less stress on the joints and, by promoting weight loss, may help you ease the pressure on your joints outside the water as well.

By improving circulation, swimming may reduce inflammation and thus ease joint pain. You might find that you begin to build muscle by working against the natural resistance of water and increase your range of motion as your joints become more flexible.

#10: Stretching

Stretching is essential, even if the discomfort of moving ailing joints makes you feel disinclined to do so. This is because if you keep your joints in the position that is most comfortable, the muscles will stiffen and eventually shorten, making motion even more difficult.

Maintain and even increase your range of motion by doing regular stretching exercises for seniors with arthritis, such as the following:

• Stretches for the back, hips, and knees
  • Hamstring stretch
  • Knee-to-chest stretch
  • Piriformis stretch
• Stretches for the arms, shoulders, and neck
  • Serratus punch
  • Corner stretch
  • Posterior shoulder and back stretch
• Stretches for the hands
  • Towel squeeze
  • Finger extension

These stretches should mitigate pain and stiffness, allowing you to move more easily and enjoy your daily activities.

Tips for Managing Arthritis with Physical Activity

If you are a senior adult with arthritis or you have a loved one struggling with the condition, consider the following tips for improving your quality of life through exercise: 

• Move slowly and gently. Begin with range-of-motion activities to limber up the joints before doing aerobics or strength training. Moving slowly will help you detect pain and stop any activity before it becomes injurious to your body.
• Avoid high impact. Low impact will help protect the joints from excessive stress.
• Use warm towels, packs, or a shower to help relax the joints and muscles before you work them.
• After you’ve finished your workout, use ice on your joints for 20 minutes to prevent swelling.
• Don’t overstress your body. If you are experiencing pain more than two hours after exercise, you might be pushing yourself too hard.
• Investigate opportunities for exercise classes designed specifically for people with arthritis.

Senior Services of America: Supporting Seniors with Arthritis for Over 20 Years

In the senior living communities managed by Senior Services of America, our residents are given countless opportunities to stay active. One of our goals is to empower senior adults to live as independently as possible with maximum enjoyment in their life.

We highly value the safety of our residents. To that end, we hold our staff members to a high standard of professionality, communication, and care. 

Find your nearest community today to learn about the many ways we support the thriving of our residents in every aspect of their life. These include exercise and wellness programs as well as social and recreational activities. Whatever your circumstances and preferences, we have something for you.