When over 60, exercise is a way to maintain the structure and function of your muscles, bones and cartilage. It is no surprise that exercise is of major importance once you’ve had heart problems or find you have high blood pressure. For those of us who are overweight, we can’t escape the endless information cycle about the role obesity plays on diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks, stroke, sleeping and breathing problems, depression and generalized body pain. Exercise, combined with healthy eating habits, can curtail or even eliminate some of these problems.

An active lifestyle isn’t just for burning calories. It also encourages proper bone growth and is the only way to feed our cartilage. Maps of the country that show areas where the population is less active also show more obesity. These areas also have more patients diagnosed with arthritis. It’s no wonder experts in the management of arthritis, such as the American College of Rheumatology and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, recommend routine exercise to help manage the pain of arthritis.

Aging can be unkind to our bodies. We lose 15 percent of our muscle mass every decade over 50, and 30 percent every decade over 70. The loss of this muscle in weight-bearing muscles can lead to increased falls. Osteoporosis (the loss of bone mass) is a common problem for women after menopause, but men also suffer as they age.  Exercise is the main defense.

Many with arthritis are afraid that exercise programs may damage their knees. It's just not true. Arthritis is when shock-absorbing cartilage on the end of the bones slowly wastes away. If you have seen the smooth white ball on the end of a chicken bone, then you’ve seen cartilage. The white color is because it has no blood supply, no veins or nerves. It is sustained through the fluid made in joints by the synovial lining tissue.

When you step on your leg, the white tissue squeezes together. You press out the fluid like squishing a sponge. This synovial fluid supports the cartilage and carries the wastes of the cells to the tiny blood vessels in the joint lining. When you step off the leg, healthy cartilage springs apart to absorb the fluid of the joint and carry nutrients and oxygen into the tissue to feed the cells of cartilage (called chondrocytes). Exercise is how you keep the cartilage tissue in a healthy state. Studies show that exercise improves both pain and function in patients who suffer from arthritis of the knees. Following a healthy and balanced diet helped even more.

Like dieting, exercise cannot be done all at once. Aggressive and strict starvation diets don’t work well because your body needs a certain amount of calories to maintain proper function. Trying to jump into exercise routines that are overly demanding or too high impact can cause damage to your muscles, tendons, bones and cartilage—just what you are trying to avoid. Like saving money for retirement or watering your garden, exercise is best done a little at a time, but over the longest periods of your life. This means building strong muscles and bones without tearing your tendons or causing stress fractures. Exercising often and picking a low enough level of activity where you can maintain the routine is the best way to build bone and maintain both cartilage health and cardiac health.

As we age, our bodies heal more slowly. The pain we sometimes get after exercise that gets better quickly is known as delayed muscle soreness and is a normal part of healing. If the pain lasts for many days or doesn't improve with rest, it may represent an overuse injury. Athletes of all ages can get stress fractures that, if ignored, can lead to permanent problems.

It is especially critical for people over age 60 to listen to their bodies after exercise and identify pains that don’t go away after a period of rest—they may signal a serious injury. This is a good time to see your physician. Overuse injuries are very common among people over 60 beginning new exercise routines or rapidly increasing the intensity of their activities. Every January, doctors see an uptick in the number of patients as a result of people beginning exercise regimens after long periods of inactivity during the holidays. To get the best results from your exercise routine, start slow build up to 30 to 40 minutes every day. Consider walking, biking, swimming and the elliptical—all low-impact activities. 

Marc DeHart, M.D., is a board certified, fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeon with UT Health Physicians. He specializes in adult hip and knee reconstructive surgery and treats patients with arthritis.

For an appointment or more information about Dr. DeHart and the rest of the orthopaedic team, please call 210-450-9300.

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