Also as stiff as a shelf in the morning and would you prefer to jump out of bed? With the following tips you keep your joints in top condition.
Joints become less flexible with years. The connective tissue becomes less elastic, the amount of cartilage decreases and an important fluid in the joint, the synovia, becomes less viscous. During sleep, the blood circulation is also at a lower level and especially the connective tissue and synovia do not do well. All of that can lead to morning stiffness.
Morning stiffness – Just a little extra exercise, that’s the best way to prevent stiff joints. Not just the ‘standard for healthy exercise’ from the Dutch government (half an hour of moderately intensive exercise per day), but a step up. That keeps the cartilage supple and the synovia syrupy, so they can do their job well. Important: it is not just about improving endurance, but also about growing stronger muscles. These are crucial for a smoothly operating joint. By the way, stiff joints can become supple again through sufficient sport and strong muscles . In short: sports helps to prevent and remedy stiffness!
For strong joints it is important to exercise in a ‘loaded’ manner. Swimming and cycling are healthy, but they hardly burden the joints, so they do not shoot that much. Walking, running (for the joints in the legs, which carry the weight), rowing (for arms, back and shoulders), that’s what sports are like to keep your joints stable and strong.
Good idea against morning stiffness: let the body, and with it the joints, quietly get into action in bed by doing some exercises. Just, nicely stretched on the back.
Pull one leg up and stretch it again. That is good for the hip and knee joint. When stretching you can let the leg hit the mattress , but you can also keep the leg just above the mattress to train the abdominal muscles. Repeat this exercise ten times left, ten times right.
Pull the knee up and pull it as far as possible towards you. Hold the knee in the back of the knee or with your hands around the knee, which is most comfortable for you. Do this five times left, five times right. Good for the hip joint.
Pull both knees up and move them together first to the left, then to the right. Repeat this five times. Good for the hip joint and to loosen the back.
Stretch out one leg and make the other a bit shorter, as it were, by pulling them out and pulling them in. Ten times left and right alternate. You can make this longer and shorter of the legs from the hip, which makes it smoother. Also great for the back!
Sit upright and bend downwards a few times as far as possible, and to the left and to the right. Good for your hip and back.
These exercises are especially good for the joints that are heavily loaded, such as the knees and hips. In addition, there are of course joints that are much less loaded, such as the elbows, neck, shoulders, wrists and fingers. Are those stiff, warm who are already in bed by doing some light work.
Do you wake up in exactly the same position in the morning that you went to sleep? That is not good, at least, not for the joints. They become extra stiff. Try to move at night, so: when you wake up half, turn around, stretch the legs or pull them in, hold the arms in a different position. Avoid the prone position, because it burdens the lower back too much.
A sleeping body puts the internal heater in a lower position. Not nice for the joints, which cool down and are therefore stiff when you wake up. A (flannel) pajama helps better to keep the body warm than for example an extra blanket. After all, a pajama is close to the skin and therefore holds heat, while there is always space between the body and the blanket, which makes cooling easier. And besides, does your duvet often touch loose at the bottom? Watch out: your feet cool down and that cold draws to the rest of the body. If you can not keep the duvet in check, put socks on at night.
Moisture is disastrous for the joints. Do you have a damp house or a damp bedroom and suffer from morning stiffness, then that probably has a lot to do with moisture and it is necessary to do something about it. Cold is not good either, but that is no reason to sleep with the window closed: a closed bedroom leads to more moisture and a less good sleep.
Immediately a good warm shower after sleeping helps the body warm up. Then loosen the joints with simple rotational movements. Bend a few times through the knees (as far as comfortable), swing your arms from front to back and let them rotate all the way, turn the wrists and ankles around, shake off the shoulder blades. You can only do the neck turning alone, and do it forwards: the neck joint is not made to move backwards and forwards. That usually feels very uncomfortable. Visit http://ziektevanparkinson.org/ to get more tips on eliminating sleeping disorder.