Strength-training tips and tricks for arthritis pain

Strength training is an excellent way to get a handle on arthritis pain. But there's more to it than just the exercises themselves. Here are some things to bear in mind when planning your regimen:

Book yourself. Don't have the time? Sometimes it's a matter of perception — other people's. If friends or family can't understand your priorities, schedule workouts in your agenda and keep it to yourself. Then just say you're keeping a prior appointment.

Raise interest. Some people love routine. Not you? Introduce variety: add repetitions, resistance or sets — or substitute one exercise for another. Change isn't just an antidote to boredom, it challenges muscles in new ways, which makes you stronger faster.

Go slow. Want to try a difficult challenge that's easy on joints? Lift a light weight just once — but do it very slowly. Pick out a weight about half what you'd normally lift 10 times. Take 15 seconds to lift the weight, hold for another 15 seconds, then take another 15 seconds to bring it back down. The constant stress through the entire range of motion will work muscles in an entirely new way.

Judge transit time. If you're joining a gym, keep it within a 15-minute drive. Any farther and your chances of actually getting there drop considerably.

Spread it out. If a full-body workout is too much, try doing only one part of the workout each day. So if your workout has 12 exercises, do the first three on Monday, the next three on Tuesday and the rest on Wednesday. On Thursday, start the routine again. That way, you're still doing each exercise three times during a one-week period without exhausting yourself.

Hold on to your gains. Giving your muscles a rest is important to making them stronger, but how much rest is too much? Rule of thumb: expect about a 10 percent loss of gains after about 10 days. The more training you've done, the slower the decline. Maintain your gains by exercising regularly.

Count backward. Strength exercises are no fun when the last repetitions are tough to do. But If you want to quit, you're probably going at just the right intensity. Neat trick: count down from your target instead of up to it because you'll be thinking about how few you have left, rather than how many you've already done.

Get off the floor safely. For exercises and stretches that require you to get on all fours, it's easier to get back up again if you walk your hands back until you're in a kneeling position, place one foot on the floor in front of you with your knee bent at about 90 degrees, then use your leg as a support for your hands as you stand or ease yourself into a chair.

Here is how to progress as you get better with your exercises:

1. When you feel comfortable doing the number of starting repetitions, add one rep each time you work out. So, if you start with one set of six reps, you could do a set of seven next time — but stay at six if it's still challenging.
2. Keep one rep at a time until you can do 12 reps of upper-body exercises and 15 of lower-body exercises. Continue with that number three workouts.
3. In your next workout, do one set of eight repetitions, rest a minute, then do eight more. Alternative: increase the amount of weight (in non-body-weight exercises) by the smallest amount possible (probably a half-kilo or one pound) and go back to the number of starting reps.
4. Continue adding sets or weight (not both) as you get stronger.