The best exercise for joint pain – 10 head-to-toe exercises

By health writer, Karen Evennett.

Last year 13.4 million people in the UK used painkillers for joint and muscle relief, with 3.4 million using them once a day or more. Natural remedies containing herbs such as Sigesbeckia orientalis, can make a huge difference to your daily comfort – but experts recommend that you also bring these specific joint relief exercises into your daily life…

The Best Exercise for Joint Pain

1. HEAD
Don’t let joint pain become a headache.
Tension in your nodding joint – where your head meets your spine – is a common trigger for headache. Release it with this simple Alexander exercise.
With the crown of your head aiming towards the ceiling, use your nose like a pencil to draw tiny figures of eight in the air. Start small, gradually making your circles bigger. Do normal figures of eight, then imagine you’re turning them on their sides to draw them horizontally.

2. NECK
Relieve a stiff neck.
This is another classic trigger for headache. With your head upright, gently turn it from side to side, aiming to move it past your shoulder. You should feel the muscles on the outside of your neck gently stretching. Repeat three times.

3. SHOULDERS
Treat yourself to a relaxing shoulder roll.
To release tension in your shoulders, shrug them high, then let them gently fall. Repeat 5 or 10 times.

4. WRISTS
Protect yourself from joint pains in your wrists.
Joint pains in your wrists can be caused by repetitive daily movements for example while cooking, knitting, painting, texting, or working at a computer. Press your palms against a wall with your arms out straight. From this position, rotate your hands inwards, then upwards, and finally outwards. Hold for 10 seconds in each position.

5. THUMBS
Stretch out an achy thumb joint.
The best exercise for joint pain in your thumbs to helps restore mobility: hold your hand out, with your palm up, then bend the tip of your thumb towards the base of your index finger. Next, bend your thumb from its base to gently stretch across your palm. Hold both stretches for 30 seconds.

6. HIPS  
Keep your hips pain-free.
Spending most of your day sitting – which most of us do – can lead to tight hips. To loosen up and bring relief for joint pain and stiffness, try this simple yoga hip-opener.
It’s called Happy Baby, and that pretty much sums up what it looks and feels like. Lie on your back, and bring your knees into your chest. Grab hold of your feet and open your knees wide. Keep pressing your feet into your hands while also pushing your feet away from your body. Take long, deep breaths, maintaining the posture for at least 30 seconds before gently releasing your legs back to the floor.

7. KNEES 
Protect against knee pain.
If your knees feel sore and tender, try strengthening the muscles around them with this simple Alexander exercise.
Stand with your back spread against a wall, heels 2cm from the skirting, and the crown of your head upright. Bend your knees forward and apart from each other as your back slides gently down the wall. It shouldn’t hurt – if you feel any pain in your knees you’ve gone too low. Hold your lowered posture for less than a minute and then gently rise back to your start position. Do this twice a day.

8. ANKLES
Ease ankle and calf pain.
As relief for joint pain and stiffness caused by inflammation in your Achilles tendon try this simple staircase exercise.
Stand on the bottom step of the stairs, holding onto the handrail for support. Now, with your heels off the edge, rise up onto your toes, then very slowly lower the leg that’s hurting until your heel is below the step’s edge, then bring it back to the start position, in line with your other leg. Repeat 25 times, twice a day.

9. FEET
Prevent and treat sore and painful joints in your feet.
Each of your feet is made up of 28 bones, 30 joints and over 100 muscles, ligaments and tendons that work together to support you. To give all these components mini workout, place a sheet of tissue paper or a towel on the floor and use your bare toes to scrunch it for two minutes at a time, twice a day.

10. TOES 
Strengthen your toes.
Your second great foot strengthener is worth doing in tandem while you’re toe scrunching. Stand facing a wall and using one hand against it to support yourself. Rise onto your tiptoes and stay on them two minutes.

The above list of the best exercise for joint pain will hopefully help you. You could also try Phynova Joint and Muscle Pain Relief Tablets, a traditional herbal medicinal produced used for the relief of: backache, minor sports injuries, rheumatic or muscular pains, and general aches and pains in the muscles and joints based on traditional use only. Click here to find out more.