Pain and inflammation associated with arthritis is a serious problem that most seniors have to deal with. For some people, this means staying away from the things you used to love such as sports and other physically engaging activities.
However, this doesn’t have to be the case. Furthermore, having arthritis shouldn’t rob you of your fun life. There are creative ways to stay active, which will help you take the edge off of arthritis-related pain and stress.
8 hobbies for people with Arthritis
- Yoga
- Dancing
- Go Hiking
- Swimming
- Cooking
- Gardening
- Stitching and crochet
- Photography
1. Yoga
Doctors often advice arthritic patients to engage in some physical activity. Low-impact exercises done in the right manner can be great in the reduction of pain. Yoga is one of such exercises that has proven invaluable in managing arthritis pain.
It helps loosen as well as strengthen the muscles around the joints. When the muscles become stronger they can take most of the force that the joints would normally handle. As a result, there is less friction hence less inflammation.
So make yoga one of your new hobbies and see your mobility improve a great deal. However, make sure to inform your instructor about conditions in advance so that they can know which yoga exercises to prescribe for you.
2. Dancing
Dancing is one way of working your sore joints and muscles while having fun. You won’t need to turn into twinkle toes to reap the benefits of dancing in arthritis management. But you might want to learn a few moves to help relieve inflammation in your muscles.
Slow-style dance moves such as ballroom and line dancing are the most recommended. Special Zumba sessions are also gaining popularity.
3. Go Hiking
Hiking or walking is a great hobby for arthritis patients since it delivers a host of benefits. To begin with, it helps to relieve the tension in the cartilages and muscles in the affected areas. Consequently, walking promotes the distribution of synovial fluid to provide better lubrication.
The fluid will also help flush out respiratory waste from the muscles and nearby tissue to prevent further reinfection. Finally, the sight of nature and the smell of fresh air that you experience during hikes have immense benefits in managing arthritis-related stress.
To make the most out of hiking, make sure to ease yourself into it by doing light warm-up exercises. Also, start with easy or shorter trails. As your body gets used to it, you can upgrade to steeper terrain. In addition, you might need some walking aids such as poles to provide you with better balance. At the end of the hike, make sure to do cool down exercises to relieve the tension in your joints and muscles.
4. Swimming
Swimming is a highly recommended exercise/hobby for arthritic people. It is among the few activities that work your entire body at the same time. As the water buoys your body, you are able to build your muscles with minimal pressure while keeping the joints intact.
Not only does it reduce the pain but it also prevents further friction that often causes secondary degeneration of arthritic joints.
5. Cooking
When the pain becomes too much and you are marooned indoors, why not pull out a recipe book and whip up your favourite dish. Cooking is a great hobby that can raise your spirits as well as mitigate arthritic symptoms.
Make sure to cook foods that have positive impacts on your joints. For instance, you can use ingredients with proven antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antibiotic properties. Common ones include garlic, oily fish, broccoli, spinach, grapes, soy, apple cider, and citrus among others.
When cooking, there are some safety considerations to make. It is natural that you might feel a certain degree of stiffness in your muscles. So use light utensils with good grip to avoid accidents and injuries.
6. Take up Gardening
Gardening is just as fulfilling as it is healing. This makes it a great hobby to distract you from arthritis-related pain. Planting involves body movements such as continuous bending and standing.
These are a great way to work your muscles and reduce stress in your joints. Just make sure to pace yourself because too much of such exercises might cause further stress. Consequently, consider the right tools to make it safer and easier. For instance, use long-handled tools to perform bending-intensive exercises like planting, weeding, and pruning.
For watering, use a hose rather than a heavy traditional watering can. You can also get innovative by designing a drip irrigation system from soda bottles.
Don’t forget you should also relax and admire your work. You can do by relaxing in a reclining garden chair.
7. Stitching and Crocheting
Sore fingers and wrists are common conditions that arthritis patients face occasionally. Finding a new hobby in stitching or crocheting is a great solution to this problem. These fun exercises require nimble deliberate movements, which help improve your dexterity immensely.
Consequently, it takes a lot of concentration to knit a great piece of clothing. This enables you to take your mind off the pain or discomfort in your joints.
When stitching or crocheting, make sure to be in the right posture to prevent over-stressing your wrist muscles. You can support them using a plush cushion. Also, soaking your hands in warm water for a few minutes helps to loosen the muscles before you begin using them.
8. Develop your photographic skills
Don’t let the pain wear you down indoors. Grab a low-cost camera and begin photography as a hobby. Take walks across the park, in the zoo, or wherever excites and take snapshots of those beautiful moments you’d like to relive. The walking part helps you exercise while the photography aspect of it helps you to blow off some steam.
So instead of brooding in your house, take any of these exciting hobbies and arthritis pain will be as good as forgotten. In addition, some of these hobbies such as stitching and photography can give you some extra cash if you sell your products. Just make sure that you love doing whichever one that you have picked.
Analysis
Finding interests and hobbies that can occupy the time for those that may not have the same mobility as they used to is an important thing to enrich their life. I know that these activities listed can also be done by older individuals even without arthritis, and there was another article here: https://ukcareguide.co.uk/22-hobbies-elderly-men-and-women/ that has a longer list of activities that older individuals can do to pass their time. Nothing is worse than having an activity that you love to do but your physical limitations stop you, but there are ways that they can work past it or assist with doing it.
What I noticed with these activates and activities in the other article I had just listed is that a lot of these are done in group settings. When we get older, the easier it is to be in solitude because you’re family might be at work, or your friends may be in another city. Human interaction is an important and valuable piece in life and when you get older, it gets harder and harder to come by for some– and these activities, done in a group setting can make it easier for those individuals to be able to not only do their hobbies but also meet and talk with others too.
