Exercise
It goes without saying that exercise is important to every person’s health and well being. But which type of exercise is better, weights or cardiovascular? Well actually, both are very important for maintaining healthy joints. Let’s talk about the two types.
Aerobic exercise stresses and strengthens your cardiovascular system. Things such as running, biking, swimming, and stationary elliptical trainers are aerobic exercises. Anything that elevates your breathing and heart rate are aerobic exercise and are going to help exercise your cardiovascular system, increasing the efficiency with which your lungs take oxygen from the air you breath, and deposit it into your blood stream and therefore deliver to your joints, supporting healthy cartilage and keeping your joints healthy.
The other type of exercise is anaerobic exercise, or muscle building. This basically consists of weights or resistance training. This exercise increases both muscle fiber size and density. In general the stronger your muscles, the better your joint mechanics will be. There are many options for anaerobic training. The two broad categories are machines or free weights. If you’re a little more gym savvy, the free weights are a nice addition but are certainly not necessary. Machines can give you just as good of a work out in terms of muscle resistance and muscle training.
Another important factor is non-impact versus impact exercise. Just as it sounds, non-impact exercise involves no significant force or impact being transferred through your joints. This type tends to be better than impact exercise because cartilage is very sensitive to impact, particular shearing forces in the joint. Therefore, the more impact your joints see over time, the more wearing of your cartilage can theoretically occur. Examples of non-impact exercise include bicycling, swimming or elliptical training. These exercises certainly involve less impact than running on the road or running up and down a basketball court. Non-impact exercise reduces the amount of force going through your joints at any given time, helping to prolong the life of each joint.
Dr. Shelden L. Martin is with OrthoArizona – Arizona Orthopaedic Associates. He specializes in complex arthroscopic surgery, including ligament reconstruction, cartilage transplants, shoulder and elbow joint replacements, and reverse shoulder replacements.
Martin is also the head team physician for the Arizona Rattlers and team physician for Desert Vista High School.
For more information on OrthoArizona – Arizona Orthopaedic Associates, please call (602) 631-3161 or visit www.aoa.md.
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