A U.S study published in the January issue of Arthritis Care & Research, again proved that exercise programs can help ease arthritis symptoms. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill evaluated the effects of an Arthritis Foundation regimen consisting of basic and advanced exercise classes twice a week for an hour a week for eight weeks. Others were put in a control group that did not take part in the exercise program. The 346 people, with an average age of 70 all had self-reported arthritis.
Even though twice a week is not a lot of exercise, the outcome was striking. After eight weeks, people in the exercise group showed significant improvements in pain, fatigue and managing arthritis. But that was not the only momentous achievement. Such is the power of proper movement upon the human body, that the pain and fatigue improvements were still evident six months after completing the exercise program.
The Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program emphasizes range-of-motion and low-resistance exercises, but the researchers found that people who completed the program also had increased strength in their upper and lower extremities. This suggested that strength training — a minor component of the program — is effective. No increase in exercise endurance was noted.
One of the researchers concluded: “Our findings indicate that the basic 8-week PACE (Arthritis Foundation Exercise) Program is a safe program for sedentary older individuals with arthritis to start exercising without exacerbating their symptoms.”
Here’s the catch. Researchers now want to determine if further studies should be conducted to understand if offering the program more than twice a week and for longer periods offers additional benefits.
Are such studies the best, or most cost efficient way to determine such simple health outcomes? Not in my opinion. None of this information is news to competent Personal Trainers, who have practical experience with hundreds, or sometimes thousands of clients. I would not hesitate to say that the PACE (Arthritis Foundation Exercise) Program can be improved upon, and the results can be magnified substantially.
Study funding is a continuous process, taking incremental steps to maximize every finding and every incoming dollar, which restricts information getting out to the public in a timely manner. We are now living in 2008, and I have probably known about such outcomes for two decades. The conclusion is still relevant as a teaching aid, but as far as being newsworthy, it is stale to those who make their living in the exercise field. Trainers have known all along that exercise is a good way to stay fit, keep muscles strong, and control arthritis symptoms. Daily range-of-motion, strength and endurance exercises help keep joints moving, lessens pain, and makes muscles around the joints stronger.
