cornerofmadness

when I had them and friends with arthritis is that moving is a form of medicine in its way. Yes it hurts but the more you move the less it will hurt after a time. There are reasons for this (provided you still have any cartilage left. If you don't or you're dealing with an autoimmune arthritis it's different).

Case in point, didn't do any exercise on the 4th other than walking a little and getting up and down. Yesterday I hurt so bad I could hardly walk and it was a swollen little bitch of a knee.

Today in PT not only did I have to do the bike and balance board again, I also had to leg press 60 pounds with just the bad leg and then stand on a balance pad and play catch. With all that work out you'd think I'd be dead. I iced it and it doesn't hardly hurt at all.

The reasons? When you exercise the fluid in your joint moves around. Consider the cartilage a sponge. When you compress it and let it go again (as you do when you flex and extend a joint) the cartilage picks up this joint fluid and squeezes out the toxin-filled fluid already in the cartilage. It will actually help you KEEP the cartilage you have left and keep it healthier. It also increases the fit of the cartilage in the joint. So yeah it hurts but as you keep going it hurts less.

Also I've lost 35 pounds now. YAY.