Obesity and how it affects your joints

Joint strain is an inevitable part of being overweight. 

When you fill your car boot with heavy suitcases, you can visibly see how much extra strain the wheels have to bear. The same principle applies when you are overweight. Our joints already have to work really hard to carry us around all day and help us move. When we add additional weight, we are giving them more work to do resulting in a payback of pain and stiffness which are often signs of arthritis. Carrying around excess weight not only strains your heart and lungs, but also places a lot more pressure on your joints, especially knee joints as they are the lower joints on the body and carry most of the weight. 

Knee Joints 

Knee joints also suffer from the greatest wear and tear from our daily exercise, such as walking up the stairs, shopping etc. By adding extra weight, we surely increase our chances of joint problems and arthritis. It is estimated that for every 10lb gained in weight, one increases the risk of arthritis by 35%. When we walk, our knee joints bear 5-6 times our body weight. So just losing a small amount of weight can make a big difference. Knee and hip joints are usually the first joints to be affected by weight gain, two of the hardest working joints in the body. Many clients have come to me wanting to lose weight due to hip and knee problems and are more than delighted to see such a difference when they have lost their weight.

The Spine

Our spines help us to move, bend and carry weights. When we are overweight, our spines rarely get a chance to rest from all the work they have to do, unless we sit or lie down, but exercising regularly means we have more chances to reduce our weight. Moving around helps us to use energy but, when we are overweight, we feel less like moving around and would prefer to rest. Being overweight in itself can be a health hazard and our spines can suffer greatly.

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