There are many reasons why our mobility declines with age, but one common reason is weakening joints, often resulting from years of arthritis. Injuries from falls are another major cause of joint related mobility problems - as we get older, our bodies take longer to recover from traumatic injury, and sometimes full recovery is not possible.
When you start suffering from a weakened joint the natural urge is usually to rest it as much as possible, but this can result in the joint getting weaker and once this happens, your confidence may decline, especially if you feel unsteady on your feet.
So for this reason, a supportive band around your ankle or knee, or one to support your elbow or wrist, can help you to keep active and mobile. The two most important joints to keep mobile and strong are the knees and ankles, as these support your whole body and are vital for walking mobility.
As soon as these weaken, we tend to reduce activity levels dramatically, and this creates a downward spiral of reduced mobility.
Support Yourself
The key to maintaining your mobility for longer is to support your joints with a medical brace. These allow you to maintain full motion of the joint but provide external strength to support weaker muscles.
To get stronger and avoid the need for long-term use of these supports you need a combination of recuperative exercises, good nutrition, and supplements. Physiotherapy can also help if it is available to you.
With a good support you should be able to manage most of the activities you enjoyed before your mobility declined, such as walking and gardening.
Strengthen Your Bones and Joints
Ideally your diet should provide all the nutrition your body needs, but in reality this can be very difficult, so a good supplement such as a Collagen & Hyaluronic supplement is needed to give your joints every chance.
Regular exercise is also important and walking is one of the best exercises to improve and strengthen joints in your legs. If you need to, use a walking aid such as a rollator, or Zimmer frame, so that you can take some of the weight off your knees and ankles without limiting your movement.
If you are finding it hard to walk, or just hard to get out of the house, then seated exercises can be beneficial. A pedal exerciser that allows you to exercise your legs while seated on a chair is a good way to build up strength and mobility in your feet and ankles.
We have a range of pedal exercisers, from simple devices with no resistance, to ones with exercise programs and variable resistance built in. One of the other benefits of exercise on joints is that it improves blood flow.
However, you do not need to exercise to boost blood flow (although it is the best solution), as instead you can use products such as the EMS Foot Massager and Circulation Booster.
Some of the best knee supports have EMS built in to provide additional stimulus - the EMS Supportiv Knee Support is one such example. It can help reduce both pain and inflammation, both of which cause rapid reduction in mobility.
If you are experiencing signs of reduced mobility now, then it may be time to invest in some good quality Joint Supports and try to increase activity levels, to regain mobility and boost strength.