Weight Training Prevents Arthritis

If you don’t use it, you lose it! Disuse and physical inactivity can lead to osteoarthritis – a painful degeneration of bone and cartilage in the joints. Athritis usually begins during middle age and causes pain and disability. Gradually, the surfaces of the connecting bones deteriorate, which decrease the quality of life. Drugs such as aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen may relieve the symptoms, but have no effect on the underlying problem. Researchers from the Indiana

university school of medicine found that adults with mild knee arthritis who did lower- body weight training for 2.5 years showed less narrowing in the knee joint following X-ray examination – a sign that arthritis wasn’t progressing. Flexibility exercises practiced by the control group had no effect on knee joint arthritis. Subjects in both groups lost lower-body strength during the study, but losses were less in the strength-training group. ( Arthritis Care Research, 55:690-699, 2006 )