How to Effectively End and Prevent Joint Pain

 “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Ben Franklin once said that famous line and it has a lot of relevance to us physically active folks, especially to athletes and weightlifters.

People will rush to buy muscle builders, protein powders, hormone boosters, fat burners, and the like, but they often overlook strategies and products to improve general health and longevity, like preserving joint health.

Well, anybody who has spent some time in the gym training hard knows how vitally important healthy joints are.

More than 52 million Americans suffer from arthritis, and if your joints are inflamed or damaged, all aspects of your performance decline.

When your knees, hip, and shoulders ache, you lose speed, strength, power, and agility; you have to stop doing certain exercises and activities; you can’t handle weights you once could; and you often have to learn to deal with constant, nagging aches and pains.

Healthy joints are one of those things people just don’t fully appreciate until they’re gone.

Well, in this article, you’re going to learn the most common causes of joint pain and how to naturally and safely treat and prevent it.

What Causes Joint Pain?

Joints are places in the body where two bones connect and, in most cases, they provide structural support and allow for movement.

For example, your hip joint connects your femur to your pelvis, your knee joint connects your femur and your tibia, and your shoulder joint connects your shoulder blade to your arm (humerus).

Structurally speaking, there are three types of joints: fibrous, cartilaginous, and synovial joints.

• Fibrous joints are connected by a dense connective tissue called collagen. These joints are all called “fixed joints” because they don’t move.

Examples of fibrous joints are those found between the bones of the skull and between certain long bones in the body like the radius and ulna.

• Cartilaginous joints are connected by cartilage, a stiff, collagen-rich connective tissue. Cartilaginous joints allow for more movement than fibrous joints.

Examples of cartilaginous joints are the discs between your vertebrae and the first sternecostal joint, which is where your first rib connects to the breastbone.

• Synovial joints are the most common movable joints in mammals. They are connected by intricate structures consisting of a cavity filled with fluid, a capsule enveloping it, cartilage, and, depending on the joint, various other tissues like discs, pads, tendons, ligaments, and fluid-filled saclike structures (bursae) that further reduce friction.

That’s quite a mouthful to process, so here’s an image to help:

Examples of synovial joints are elbow joints, shoulder joints, wrist joints, knee joints.

What, then, causes the discomfort, aching, and soreness of joint pain?

Well, common causes include…

• Arthritis (which we’ll talk more about soon)
• Bursitis (inflammation of the bursae)
• Tendonitis (tendon inflammation)
• Tendon and/or ligament injury (strains and sprains)
• Muscle strains
• Bone injury (fractures and breaks)
• Dislocation

Let’s get more specific though and talk about the most common joint pains people struggle with.

What Causes Knee Pain?

Knee pain is widespread and especially prevalent among athletes.

Common causes for knee pain are, as noted above, strains and sprains, cartilage tears, and tendon inflammation, but the complex nature of the knee joint makes it susceptible to other problems.

For example…

• Repeated bending and kneeling can aggravate the fluid-filled sac over the kneecap.
• Illiotibial band syndrome, which is pain caused by the aggravation of the illiotibial (IT) band–a swath of fibrous tissue (fascia) that extends from your hip to the outer part of your knee.
• Muscle imbalances and tightness and misalignment of the legs.
• Inflammation of the tendons surrounding your knee (patellar tendonitis is particularly common).

What Causes Hip Pain?

Like with knee pain, the most common causes of hip pain are arthritis, bursitis, tendonitis. Muscle imbalances are quite common as well.

One of areas of the hip joint that often gives athletes problems is the sacroiliac joint in the pelvis.

Here’s what it looks like:

The sacroiliac joint is designed to transfer forces to and from the lower spine into the hip and legs and when it gets aggravated or injured, pain is felt in the lower back, hip, and/or legs.

The squat motion puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the sacroiliac joint, which is one of the reasons why many weightlifters in particular struggle with sacroiliac pain.

The shoulder is an intricate, extremely mobile (and rather amazing, really) joint.

It moves the shoulder forward and backward and allows the arm to move in a circular motion as well as up and away from the body.

The structure of the shoulder joint is a “ball-and-socket” design with three main bones cushioned by a layer of cartilage: the humerus (the long bone running from your shoulder to your elbow), clavicle (collarbone), and scapula (shoulder blade).

There are two main joints in the shoulder:

• The the acromioclavicular joint. This connects the highest part of the scapula– the acromion–and the clavicle.
• The glenohumeral joint. This is comprised of the ball-shaped top of the humerus and the socket on the scapula.

Here’s how they look:

The shoulder’s impressive range of motion is produced and regulated by the rotator cuff, which is comprised of four muscles and their tendons: the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis.

Here’s a visual:

Rotator cuff injuries are more common among weightlifters than the rest of the population for a couple of reasons:

• Many people, and guys in particular, do a lot of bench pressing and shoulder pressing and not enough pulling. This causes an imbalance between the anterior and posterior muscle groups in the torso.
• Many people also bench press with improper form, which puts the rotator cuff muscles in a compromised, injury-prone position.

What is Arthritis?

Many people mistakenly think that arthritis is something unavoidable and inevitable–that we will all succumb to at some point in our lives.

Well, while we do have to accept our bodies will eventually wear out, if we take good care of our joints, they can remain healthy and functional for a long, long time.

As you know, your joints are lined with the flexible tissue cartilage, which lubricates them and absorbs physical impacts. Healthy cartilage preserves ease of motion and keeps your joints pain free.

Many people assume that regular exercise must accelerate cartilage loss through repetitive use and general wear and tear. Research shows otherwise, though.

Forms of exercise usually assumed to be harmful to your joints like weightlifting and long-distance running are not associated with cartilage loss. In fact, regular exercise appears to help preserve healthy cartilage levels.

Why, then, do so many long-term exercisers and athletes seem to suffer from joint problems? And what can be done about it?

Well, to answer those questions, let’s take a closer look at how joints lose their structural integrity, eventually resulting in arthritis.

Two common forms of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, which involve painful inflammation of the joints resulting from the gradual loss of the cartilage.

Osteoarthritis has been long believed to be a natural consequence of aging, and rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that results in joint inflammation and destruction.

Well, we now know that both conditions are at least partially caused by an unwanted destructive immune response to joint collagen that eats away at the joints. What happens is your body’s immune system incorrectly targets and attacks joint cartilage as a foreign, unwanted substance.

This can become a vicious cycle: the assault slowly destroys the joints, which causes even more inflammation, which triggers a larger immune response.

Theoretically, then, if we could stop this internal assault on your joints as well as reduce existing joint inflammation, we could dramatically improve your joint health and reduce the risk of disease and dysfunction, including arthritis.

And that’s exactly what research suggests.

Studies show that, in people with arthritic conditions, reducing inflammation and “teaching” the immune system to stop attacking proteins found in joint cartilage can significantly improve joint health and function and decrease or even eliminate pain and swelling.

There are several supplements proven to help with this. We’ll talk more about them soon.

Is Weightlifting Bad For Your Joints?

The assumption that weightlifting will degrade your joints over time makes sense at first glance.

When you’re squatting, pushing, and pulling hundreds of pounds week after week, you have to wonder how healthy it is for your joints.

Fortunately, research doesn’t support these fears.

For example, this study was conducted a few decades ago with 25 competitive weightlifters.

These subjects spent a lot more time training and lifted a lot more weight than you or I probably do, and researchers were surprised to find that on the whole, their joints were as healthy or even healthier than other people their age.

Furthermore about half of the subjects admitted they were using anabolic steroids, which means their joints were subjected to loads beyond what would be normally possible.

It’s worth noting that the Olympic lifters had the most joint problems out of the group. This isn’t surprising given the risky nature of these movements and the sheer amount of weight that competitive lifters move around.

One other point worth noting is researchers found that previously injured joints were more susceptible to joint degeneration than healthy joints. So if you’ve sustained joint injuries in the past, lifting heavy weights week after week may cause them to get worse.

These findings are in line with other research conducted specifically on the squat and deadlift, which are two of the most maligned and, ironically, effective, exercises you can do.

• Even in extreme cases of squatting, such as powerlifters lifting 2.5 times bodyweight, the compressive forces placed on the knee and its tendons are well within its ranges of ultimate strength.

In one study, the highest ACL force recorded when squatting was a mere 6% of its ultimate strength). Highest recorded PCL forces were well within natural strength limits as well.

There’s quite a bit of research that suggests that strength training, and squatting in particular, is an effective treatment for osteoarthritis, both in terms of reducing pain and improving function.

• Research conducted by scientists at the University of Waterloo used real-time x-ray imaging to watch the spines of elite powerlifters while they fully flexed their spines with no weights and while they deadlifted over 400 pounds.

With the exception of one subject, all men completed their deadlifts within the normal range of motion during full flexion. Ligament lengths were unaffected, indicating that they don’t help support the load but instead limit range of motion.

A study conducted by researchers at the University of Valencia found that the deadlift is an extremely effective way to train the paraspinal muscles, which run down both sides of your spine and play a major role in the prevention of back injuries.

So then, if weightlifting isn’t inherently bad for your joints, why do so many weightlifters seem to have shoulder, knees, and lower back problems?

How to Ruin Your Joints With Weightlifting

Despite common misconceptions, weightlifting just isn’t a very dangerous activity. You’re far more likely to get injured playing just about any sport than you are lifting weights.

That said, like with any physical activity, there’s always a risk of injury and the occasional ache or strain is inevitable.

Well, when it comes to weightlifting, the two best ways to get hurt is…

1. try to lift too much weight; and…
2. train with poor form.

These are the cardinal sins of weightlifting, and are what give it and the big, compound exercises a bad reputation.

You see, weightlifting just isn’t a forgiving activity if you don’t “respect” it. Get sloppy with heavy weights and bad things can happen. This doesn’t just apply to free weights either–machines can be just as “dangerous” when used improperly.

So, take the time to learn proper form and leave your ego at the door when you lift, and you’ll dramatically decrease your chance of getting hurt.

Go for that extra rep on your squat or deadlift…but don’t turn into a hunchback or turn the exercise into a Good Morning. Try to hit that PR on your bench press…but don’t flare your elbows to your ears.

Another way to get hurt is to ignore pain.

“No pain, no gain,” right? Not really.

Muscle soreness and the “burn” caused by lactic acid are very different than pain. Pain means something is wrong and trying to muscle through it is asking for trouble.

The key to dealing with pain is first, stopping whatever you’re doing, and second, treating it like an injury until it’s better.

Avoid exercises that aggravate the affected area, apply ice and heat accordingly, and let it heal.

If that means no deadlifting or squatting for a few weeks, so be it. Find alternative exercises that you can do pain free.

And trust me, I know that backing off while your body heals can be annoying. But hurting yourself and losing months of progress is much more frustrating.

5 Effective Joint Pain Remedies You Need to Try

Ask the wrong “expert” about what you should do to relieve your joint pain and you’re going to hear drugs or surgery or both.

The problems with anti-inflammatory drugs are they just mask the problem and long-term use is a bad idea.

The problem with surgery is obvious: it’s a traumatic, risky experience that we would all rather avoid if at all possible.

Well, short-term use of drugs can give some relief and some situations necessitate surgery but if yours doesn’t (and a good sports doc can tell you), there’s a good chance the following 5 pain-relief strategies can help.

Mobility Exercises

“Unsticking” soft tissues (muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin, and fascia) and improving movements patterns and range of motion can be very effective in relieving joint pain.

The type of exercises that accomplish this are commonly referred to as “mobility exercises,” and the right ones can work wonders.

Check out this article to learn more about how to use mobility exercises to reduce or even eliminate your joint pain.

Rest, Ice, and Heat

The most important part of recovery is rest.

That doesn’t mean immobility but it does mean you have to not do things that are going to impair healing and recovery.

Violate this simple principle and injuries can become chronic and debilitating.

Once a joint has fully healed and you’re ready to start training again, it’s a good idea to start with lighter weights and see how you feel over the next several days (no pain is a good sign), and gradually work back into your normal routine.

Ice helps you recover by reducing inflammation and swelling as well as internal bleeding from injured capillaries and blood vessels.

As long as there is pain and inflammation, ice will help.

Don’t apply ice for more than 15 to 20 minutes at a time, but you can rotate on and off all day.

Heat stimulates blood flow, which helps your body bring nutrients to and remove waste products from the area faster.

Heat shouldn’t be introduced immediately following an injury, however.

The general advice is to ice only for the first 3 days to bring down swelling and, once this has been accomplished, introduce heat. Alternate between 15 to 20 minutes of ice and heat.

Acupuncture

As you know, abnormalities in soft tissues can cause joint pains, and research shows acupuncture can help treat this.

Specifically, needling can help release “trigger points” in the body, which are tight, painful areas of muscle that refer pain to other areas of the body.

For example, when you press on a trigger point in your neck, you might also feel pain in your shoulder (I’ve personally experienced that one).

The key here is obviously the skill and knowledge of the acupuncturist. Look for someone trained in using acupuncture for myofascial release.

Massage

Like acupuncture, research shows that massage is another effective strategy for releasing trigger points.

This can not only relieve pain but can help prevent muscular problems from developing in the first place that can, in time, cause joint pains.

Arnica Gel

Arnica gel is produced from the Arnica Montana plant and has long been used to treat inflammation and pain in the muscles and joints.

Research shows that arnica gel can be an effective way to reduce joint pain. In fact, it can be equally as effective as ibuprofen in alleviating joint pains associated with arthritis.

Here’s the product I use when I have joint pain: