Cardiovascular fitness is important, too, as heart disease is one of the major causes of death. In order to exercise the heart, you must raise the heart rate with exercise. Calculate your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. Research has shown that several short exercise sessions, such as climbing stairs, during the course of the day have the same effect as one long bout in lowering triglycerides or blood fats. Some aging athletes are concerned that playing sports will make their arthritis worse.
Arthritis is a natural condition that affects the surface coating of bones in our joints.
Each of us has a genetic predisposition that helps determine when our joints will wear out. While a serious joint injury may affect that timetable, moderate exercise will not. You may feel more symptoms from exercise, but it will not cause additional damage. In fact, some studies show that exercise reduces pain in arthritis sufferers. Warming up, stretching and anti-inflammatory treatments like ibuprofen pills or cortisone or Synvisc injections may help relieve symptoms but won't slow down the natural progression of arthritis.