Despite the health risks inherent in a sedentary lifestyle, research indicates that only about 14% of men and 8% of women with osteoarthritis meet the baseline level of physical activity necessary for a healthy lifestyle, according to Medicalnewstoday.com.
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine researchers studied 1,000 people with osteoarthritis who ranged in age from 49 to 84. They used an accelerometer to measure physical activity during waking hours for one week. The researchers found that the patients were much less active than they thought they were, and much less active than they needed to be to stay healthy. They discovered that 56.5% of the women and 40.1% of the men never participated in even 10 minutes of continuous moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
Federal guidelines suggest that arthritic adults spend 150 minutes per week doing moderate-intensity, low-impact activity.
Arthritistoday.org says that, "exercise is crucial if you have arthritis," but their experts maintain that, while you are working out, it is important to be able to accurately distinguish the difference between regular muscle soreness and abnormal joint pain that could indicate an injury.
Those with arthritis can engage in low-impact activities like swimming and biking, or focus on another part of the body if a particular joint is sore, the website suggests.