“I have rheumatoid arthritis,” says the 59-year-old Raleigh resident.

She found a solution less than five minutes from her front door: at the Optimist Park Pool.

“I came over one day and asked to see the pool,” says Lackey. “They were real friendly.”  And she discovered that the walking she tried to do around her neighborhood was so much easier on her joints in three feet of water.

Today, Lackey walks in the pool for one hour, three times a week. She’s dropped a dress size, she’s more limber, her joint pain has diminished, she sleeps at night and she’s taken the next step in her water rehab: She’s learning to swim.

Lackey’s example is a reminder to the estimated 50 million U.S. adults who suffer from arthritis: exercise can help.

“People who have arthritis are often scared to exercise because they think they will hurt themselves, but the condition will only get worse if people don’t get moving,” Valerie Walkowiak, medical integration coordinator at the Loyola Center for Fitness in Maywood, Ill.

Walkowiak says all all arthritis sufferers can benefit from some form of exercise, be it osteoarthritis — the most common form, in which cartilage deteriorates, leaving joints with no cushion between bones — and rheumatoid arthritis, in which inflammation causes joints to lose shape and alignment.

Some quick tips:

• All types of arthritis can benefit from stretching, to increase range of movement.
• Lifting light weights is good for building muscle strength, which can take pressure off joints.
• Aerobic exercise, such as walking is good. Start slow, she advises, with 10 to 15 minutes of exercise a day. “As your body adapts to the new routine, gradually increase duration to 30 to 45 minutes.”
• Other good exercise options for the arthritic: water aerobics, stationary cycling, gardening, swimming, yoga and Tai-Chi.

Walkowiak says to consult your doctor before starting an exercise routine. To optimize your results, she advises working with a therapist or personal trainer.

Lackey is sold on her new exercise routine, a routine that keeps on giving. The lack of pain she experiences from her one-hour water walks lingers for a good day or two.

“Oh, I feel good,” she beams. “I feel wonderful.”

Photo: Pools are especially good workout venues for arthritis sufferers.

The post The key to loosening up arthritic joints? Move ‘em appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

That’s the short version of the real story. What I wanted to say was: Daylight Saving Time was conceived so we’d have more time to play in the evening. The advent of Daylight Saving Time opens a world of recreational opportunities after work. Consider: Just two weeks ago, the sun set at 6:09 p.m. in Raleigh. Today, thanks to DST, the sun will set at 7:22 p.m. And civil twilight, more-or-less the point at which sunlight completely fades, isn’t until 7:47 p.m.; if you’ve got good eyes you can eek out nearly another half hour of fun.

Some thoughts on how you can put this new-found daylight to work.

Ride a bike

Daylight Savings Time marks the start of the group riding season for cyclists. Bike shops and clubs will start meeting during the week promptly at 6 p.m. for rides that initially won’t go much more than 25 miles but by mid summer could top 50. A favorite is the weekly (every Wednesday) Oh Melo Velo ride (pictured) out of Cary’s MacGregor Village. Ride leaders David Cole and Fast-Eddy-turned-Crash-Eddy Downing figure out the distance its participants can go before sunset at an average speed of 18 miles per hour. Tomorrow, for instance, on the first ride of the season, the sun sets at 7:23 p.m. Starting precisely (and they do) at 6 p.m., that’s 1 hour and 23 minutes of sun-kissed riding time. Assuming an 18-mile-per-hour pace, that means a 24.84-mile ride. Cole and Downing then devise a 24.84-mile route, complete with cue sheets.

Can’t maintain an 18-mph pace? No worries: The routes are out-and-backs; if you haven’t reached the turnaround within 41 minutes and 30 seconds (half of 1 hour and 23 minutes), you simply reverse course from where you are and return by sunset.

For other rides, consult your local bike shop, which either has its own after-work rides or can direct you to a local club that does. Good starting points include BikeCharlotte.com in the Queen City, Carolina Tarwheels in the Triangle, and Triad Cycling in the Triad.

Hit a state park

All winter, from November through February, North Carolina State Parks close their gates at 6 p.m. But come March, with naturally expanding daylight getting a boost from DST, the gates stay open an extra two hours — closing time isn’t until 8 p.m. That’s a whole lot of extra playtime. At such popular parks as Crowders Mountain, Umstead and Eno River, that’s extra time for hiking or trail running (and in the case of Umstead, mountain biking the 14 miles of bike and bridle trail).

Visit a greenway

Most greenways are, technically, open dawn-to-dusk. Right now that roughly means 7:30 p.m.. Greenways are especially good for taking a walk or heading out with the kids for a bike excursion. Click here to find the nearest greenway in a few select cities: Raleigh, Cary, Charlotte, Durham, Chapel Hill, Greensboro and Winston-Salem.

Explore your neighborhood

OK, so you still have to put in an 8-hour day at the salt mine. When the whistle blows at 5 p.m. you may, justifiably, be too pooped to contemplate driving somewhere to recreate. You have to: Your own neighborhood likely makes one of the best venues for a good 30-minute walk. See what’s in bloom and find out what the neighbors have been up to over the winter. (Not to mention venting the tension from a day of work.) Do it before dinner and you’ll likely suppress your appetite.

Explore your own backyard

With, say, a spade, a gardening hoe, some clippers. Gardening is highly underrated and under appreciated as a form of exercise. It not only can give you a good full-body workout, it’ll get those springtime chores out of the way, freeing up precious time on the weekends for more recreational pursuits.

Perhaps the best reason to take advantage of this extra hour of daylight at the end of the day?

It’ll get your mind off the hour you’re missing in the morning.

The post DST: Let the after work fun begin appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

In my youth — this would cover my first half century — I rarely stretched or warmed up. I’d show up for a bike ride with a minute to spare, hop on the bike and be off. I’d stand around kibitzing before a run while others stretched, then go from 0 to an 8-minute pace. Pickup basketball, tennis, whatever: Who had time to stretch? A young body and luck helped me pull it off.

Today, at 54, I stretch a lot. I have to.

I converted to stretching when I realized two things: It could, as I’d heard over the years, reduce my chances of getting injured. And investing as little as five minutes before a workout and 10 minutes after did improve my performance. On the latter count, stretching has proved invaluable in waking/warming/loosening up joints and muscles that become increasingly slow to come to life as the years pass. Stretching, as I discovered Saturday morning, also is invaluable in the recovery process. Let’s see, back’s stiff: a little downward-facing dog and warrior pose (classic yoga stretches) should clear that up. Calf and quad stretches helped counteract all the quick starts after fly balls. Shoulder stretches allowed me to simply move my arms after a day of believing I could still throw a runner out at the plate from right field. Twenty minutes or so of stretching and I wasn’t good as new, but I was able to function for the rest of the day.

Taking time to stretch is especially important as spring approaches, Daylight Savings Time knocks (it starts this Sunday, March 13), the days warm and your urge to emerge from winter hibernation kicks in. As I found Saturday, the stretches that helped me recover from playing softball with my daughter were different from the ones that help me prepare and wind down from a run or a ride. Knowing the right stretches for your activity of choice makes them all-the-more effective.

Here’s a look at activities you may be engaging in as the days warm, and Web sites where you can find appropriate stretches:

Basic stretching A jack-of-all-pursuits? The Mayo Clinic offers 10 basic stretches to cover a range of activities.

Cycling It’s not just the pedaling, it’s the time in the saddle and the toll it takes on your neck, your shoulders, your back. Deal with it here.

Gardening Laugh if you will at the prospect of warming up to weed — then spend the first 70-degree day of spring in the yard and see if you’re still in such a jolly mood the next morning. These 12 exercises from “Stretching,” by Bob and Jean Anderson should help your chances for working in the yard Saturday AND Sunday.

Golf Talk about a sport that can mess up an unprepared body quick! The Mayo Clinic offers a variety of stretches to prepare your body for the potentially torq-turous backlash of a 300-yard drive.

Paddling A good paddle stroke may be about technique over power, but it can still take its toll. Minimize the impact while maximizing your time on the water with these stretches from The Stretching Institute.

Softball This routine includes 20 stretches and takes 11 minutes, a reasonable investment in return for making it to work the next morning.

Swimming Even if you aren’t swimming competitively, it’s good to be limber before hitting the water.

Tennis The Stretching Institute offers three  exercises to “ improve your performance and do away with tennis injuries for good.

Walking Starting a walking program? This pamphlet of appropriate stretches from the American Heart Association should help.

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