Subject: Re: Weightlifting and weight training with arthritis

Hey Danny,
i don't go to the gym anymore, but when i did i found the same as you, my muscles were weakened and tired alot quicker. I had to use the hooks that fasten around the wrist to help 'pull' weights, rather than lift them.
Keep it up Danny, i know it can be disheartening, but 'use it or lose it'.
Best of luck mate,
Chris

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Subject: Re: Weightlifting and weight training with arthritis

Quote from and ARC information booklet:

Extra activity will tend to make you ache more. If you have pushed yourself to complete a job in the house or garden, or at work you well have experienced increased pain the next day. This probably occurs because our muscles have a level of stamina built into them and when we exceed this level our muscles begin to ache.

Arthritis can reduce the stamina of your muscles, so you tire more quickly. Also when joints are affected by arthritis the ligaments may become slack, this means that the muscles have to work harder to keep the bones in place, so the muscles begin to ache even more quickly.

I've also been told by my OT that because of RA the muscles can't hold as much stamina. It really is a balancing act, just doing the right amount of exercises.

About the steroids, suppose it's your decision what to do. I wouldn't want to take anymore drugs into my body if I didn't have to, RA drugs are toxic and scarey enough for me. I'm not judging you here, or lecturing you, it's up to you what you take. I didn't know much about anabolic steroids and I've googled it before I did this. Please don't take this the wrong way, it's just my opinion.

Hope the first bit that I've said explains things for you.

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Subject: Re: Weightlifting and weight training with arthritis

I can pass on my experience although my weight training is just to supplement my cycling (see my "Exercise" thread elsewhere).

I've had RA for four years but has it been under pretty good control for two years now and I was determined to get back into my cycling once my anti-TNF kicked in. I found that I'd lost a lot of fitness and strength in the previous two years so I started weight training to strengthen the bits that you need when cycling but don't exercise all that hard: shoulders, triceps, back/core muscles etc.

I tried going twice a week but found that I wasn't recovering well and was aching all the time in my wrists and shoulders so cut down to once weekly. That's probably a lot less often than you do if you're in to weight-lifting but my focus is on my bike training which I manage three or four times per week; the gym is just a bit extra.

You do have to listen to your body and back off if the pain is too much, and I would suggest that is more important for your type of training than mine. You, I would guess, push the weights as much as you can physically manage whereas I work at maybe 75% of the maximum I could manage for one effort. I vary the reps if I'm having a bad day, but I think you would have to reduce your target weights - frustrating I imagine, but that's how it is. I can see that too much would damage weakened joints, tendons and ligaments so be careful.

My strength has definitely improved a lot via the gym, but at the price of aching a lot the following day and I'm sure a lot more than it would if I didn't have RA, however that's a price I'm willing to pay because otherwise I wouldn't be as capable on my bike - it was reaching the point where it wasn't my leg muscles that were holding me back on my bike, it was the pain in wrists and shoulders.

Re. glucosamine: in short there is no proof it is any good. Sure, there's a lot of anecdote, "I took it and now I'm better" but lots of anecdotes don't equal proof. I tried it and it didn't help at all - is that proof? Nope. The best analogy I've come across is if glucosamine works, why doesn't eating hair clippings make hair re-grow on bald men? It's the same principle. Having said that, it won't do harm, MAY help, but it's not proven in large-scale independent trials. If you do take it, make sure it's the chloride, not the sulphate - that latter is cheaper but apparently less effective. Maybe.

Fish oil fatty acids help RA though, you just need a lot I think.

HTH

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