The wear and tear on joints as you age is real. Whether you’ve lived an active life or not, one of the realities of staying above ground is that your joints will sometimes hurt.
Joint-saving exercises are important because your joints often remind you that they’ve been working overtime for years. However, avoiding exercise doesn’t work, as staying active is one of the best ways to strengthen your joints. A saying I often use with clients suffering from joint pain is
“It will hurt if you don’t, and it will hurt a little if you do. I’d rather (you) do.”
Joint-saving strength training involves building strength and maintaining mobility when joint discomfort occurs to eliminate joint pain.
However, these aren’t just for those with pain or injuries but for everyone. Let’s explore how to protect and strengthen our joints and flex with a purpose.
Benefits of Joint-Saving Strength Training
When your joints are pissed, skipping the gym altogether is tempting. But the truth is that with a few tweaks, strength training can do wonders for your joints, and here is why.
Reduced Pain and Inflammation
Joint-saving exercises and methods will strengthen the muscles surrounding your joints while minimizing unnecessary stress. Stronger muscles mean less strain on the joints themselves, which can help reduce pain.
Improved Mobility and Stability
Motion is lotion, baby, and, like most good strength training exercises, joint-saving training will help maintain and improve your joints’ strength and range of motion. Because if you don’t use it, you will lose it
Maintains Muscle and Bone Density
Strength training isn’t just about vanity—it’s also about performance in and out of the gym. Weight-bearing exercises are crucial for maintaining muscle and bone density as you age, and the joint-saving approach lets you reap the benefits without unnecessary joint stress.
Confidence Boost
The thing about pain that is not often talked about is that it saps away confidence. Moving and lifting without pain helps restore confidence in one’s body and proves one can do this.
Key Principles of Joint-Saving Training
Regarding joint-saving training, the “how” matters as much as the “what.” You must train intently, focusing on methods that strengthen your joints. Here are the key principles that make good sense for most workouts.
Slowly Does It (Except For Power Exercises)
Gone are the days of rushing reps or sacrificing form for speed. Lifting with control minimizes form breakdowns and prevents unnecessary joint discomfort. Slowing down, especially during the eccentric (lowering) phase, builds strength and muscle.
Don’t Skip The Warm-Up
Skipping a warm-up is like driving a car without letting the engine warm up first. Warm-up exercises prepare your joints and muscles for the work ahead.
Train In A Pain-Free Range of Motion
A full range of motion (ROM) is essential when your joints allow it. However, if specific exercises feel uncomfortable, you should work within a pain-free range (ROM). Work within these pain-free ranges and gradually expand them as your pain-free ROM improves.
Strengthening Supporting Muscles
Your joints rely on muscles for stability and mobility. By strengthening the surrounding joint muscles, you can make them happier campers.
Joint-Saving Training Methods
Joint-saving methods focus on maximizing results while minimizing joint discomfort. From techniques that strengthen joints to equipment that minimizes unnecessary stress, here are ways to make your workouts more joint-saving.
Eccentric Training
Slowing down the lowering of most exercises, known as an eccentric, reduces the impact on your joints and increases muscle time under tension. A three—to five-second lowering with squats, presses, and rows works well.
Partial Range of Motion
If a full range of motion causes pain, work within pain-free ranges. Box squats, for example, limit squat depth and work around knee discomfort while building lower body strength.
Isometric Holds
Holding a position—like a wall sit or a split squat hold—builds strength without repetitive joint motion. It’s low-impact and highly effective for strengthening muscles around painful joints.
Unilateral Movements
Training one side at a time, like with split squats, unilateral rows, and presses, improves muscle imbalances and reduces joint stress due to favoring one side over the other. If one side is too painful to train, working out the non-painful sides helps maintain a training effect on both sides.
Joint-Saving Equipment
It’s not like you cannot use machines and free weights when your joints hurt; you must be selective with your exercises and range of motion. The equipment below is more joint-saving and ideal for your joints when they’re angry.
Resistance Bands
Bands provide ascending resistance that is easy on the joints and is great for strength and mobility work. Unlike barbells and dumbbells, your joints are under minimal stress when the bands are NOT stretched.
Cable Machines
Cables offer consistent tension throughout the movement, allowing for controlled, joint-saving motion in multiple planes of motion.
Suspension Trainers
Suspension trainers allow you to use your body weight for challenging, joint-saving exercises. Adjusting the angle of your body will enable you to modify the intensity easily.
Let’s not forget the best tool of all: your very own body weight. Now, let’s put it all together.
6-Week Strength Training Workout
Here is an A/B workout that improves strength, muscle, and mobility while working within your joints’ limitations. You’ll perform tri-sets, resting little between exercises and two to three minutes after each.
Please start at the lower end of the rep range for each exercise and go up a rep or two the next time you do it. Once you reach the upper end, increase the weight or intensity, and start at the lower end and work your way back up again.
For improved flextime, repeat each tri-set two to three times and alternate between A and B for three workouts a week for six weeks.
Workout A
1A. Goblet Box Squat 6-12 reps (use a three-second lowering)
1B. Dumbbell Floor Press 8-15 reps
1C. Bodyweight Single Leg Hip Extension 10-15 reps per side.
2A. TRX Rows 15-20 reps
2B. Resistance Band Overhead Triceps Extensions 15-20 reps
2C. Resistance Band X Crossover Lateral Walk 15-20 reps per side
Workout B
1A. Isometric Split Squat 20-45 seconds per leg
1B. Band Resisted Push-Up 12-15 reps
1C. Bottoms-Up Kettlebell Carry 40 yards on each side
2A. UnilateralCable/Band Row 12-15 per side
2B. TRX Hamstring Curl 12 reps
2C. TRX Biceps Curl 10-15 reps
Wrapping Up
Joint-saving strength training isn’t about avoiding intensity but training around discomfort. Whether you’re managing joint pain or trying to prevent it, the principles and methods I’ve covered will help.
Your joints have supported you this far, and they deserve a little TLC to keep you moving, lifting, and living life on your terms. Please get in touch with me here if you have any questions about this article and the workout.
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