Group: General Fitness & Exercise

General Fitness & Exercise
Created: 2011/12/31, Members: 379, Messages: 54577

Various general exercise related discussions. Find out what it takes to reach your fitness goals through daily effective exercise. With so many options we try to find out what works best.

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Strength Training and Arthritis

FannyPack
FannyPack
Posts: 1
Joined: 2009/04/08
United States
2009/04/08, 11:06 PM
Hello,

I'm new here and wanted to say a quick hi before rushing into questions right off the bat.

Now that that's out of the way, I have a question! I tried weight lifting toward the end of last year. I was following The New Rules of Lifting for Women. I have arthritis in my upper body including hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, and I even found I have it in my upper back/neck area. I literally went to bed every night in tears because sharp, blinding pains would shoot through those areas. After a couple months, I stopped the weight training in an attempt to ease the pain. Since I've stopped, the pain has nearly completely stopped aside from small, dull pains every once and a while.

Now, I've read that strength training is supposed to be good for arthritis. This probably means that I was doing something wrong. I could have been trying to lift too much. I'm not sure seeing as I never hurt my muscles. It was only my joints. The equipment I was using was my free weights, no machines. The only machine I have is a newly purchased elliptical. My exercises included three days of strength training alternated with Tae Bo and general walking.

Has anyone else had this sort of thing happen? If so, is there a way to strength train without being in almost crippling pain?

Thanks much!
shaunbroyhill
shaunbroyhill
Posts: 115
Joined: 2006/12/30
United States
2009/04/09, 03:07 PM
Were you following proper form? Also are you trying to build muscle or just tone up? If you are just trying to tone up remember to do light weight, lots of reps.