Course 5 – Arthritis and Exercise

People living with arthritis want and try to be physically active just like everyone else. Physical activity is a broad category that includes everything from daily activities, planned exercise and to participation in high intensity and competitive sports. Physical activity and exercise have been shown to have many benefits for people living with arthritis, including improvements in symptoms, such as pain, stiffness, and fatigue. But many people with arthritis also share common concerns about exercise: How much exercise is enough? How much is too much? What types of exercise are best? Should certain types of exercise be avoided altogether? Who can help to create a personalized exercise plan?

As part of a healthy lifestyle, health care providers can help patients include exercise in their daily routine. However, adding or increasing the time spent on exercise can prove challenging for some people. In its 2022 National Survey on Arthritis and Exercise, Arthritis Consumer Experts found that a large majority of respondents reported engaging in recreational activities, exercise programs or classes, and individual activities prior to their arthritis diagnosis. The main reasons that exercise routines changed after receiving an arthritis diagnosis were pain, fatigue, lack of confidence and motivation. These findings suggest that many respondents understand the benefits of exercise, yet they experience significant barriers that are not recognized or addressed by the healthcare system.

The JointHealth^TM Education course on Arthritis and Exercise is designed to provide people with information and guidance to promote safety and help maximize the benefits of exercise. Each Lesson is designed to expand your exercise knowledge, teach you how to choose appropriate exercises for your fitness level, create an exercise plan, and help you start conversations with your health care providers about exercise.

The Lesson and Video Lesson Highlights will be available for your viewing at your own pace. The Lesson Coaching Video is available in English with French subtitles.

Closed caption is available for all the Video Lesson Highlights. To activate closed caption, view the video in full screen. Click on the subtitles icon ) at the bottom right corner of each video to activate the English closed caption. To auto-translate the English closed caption, click on the setting icon () at the bottom right corner of each video, select “subtitles/CC”, select “auto- translate” and then select a language of your choice. In the event of inaccuracies in the automatically generated translation, the content in the original English video is the official video.

Begin your course by selecting Lesson 1. We hope you enjoy JointHealth^TM Education – Arthritis and Exercise.

Thank you to Dr. Marie Westby, Physical Therapy Clinical Resource Therapist, for her medical review of the content on this page. She is a physiotherapist with more than 35 years of experience treating individuals with arthritis and total joint replacements. Dr. Westby has worked as a physiotherapist at the Mary Pack Arthritis Centre in Vancouver her entire career and published several articles, authored chapters and presented internationally on rehabilitation and exercise therapy for varied forms of arthritis and total joint arthroplasty.