Arthritis: What Exercises Work

I purchased this book for the hand and wrist exercises. In my 80's and I am taking guitar lessons. The Exercises are so far effective and have easy to follow instructions. The book itself first explains why exercises work, helps you set up a plan to follow, gives fairly easy to follow instructions and is full of illustrations where needed, i.e., non in the chapters on walking, swimming, bicycling, etc. It even includes a chapter on Meditation and three chapters on Exercising under Special Circumstances. While I am "new" to Arthritis, I feel this book gives me a way forward if my Arthrithis "expands".

The exercises in this book are very basic stretching and flexibility exercises. They work well for me when I am having flare ups of my joints. Normally I exercise more aggressively. There are many varied exercises in this book, exercises cover every motion of every joint. Would recommend.

Why? Has both pictures and description of movements and most important for me was that these exercises were suitable for people whose arthritis was quite severe and had not exercised as much as they should have-like mum mum! So we were able to select the right exercises for her and there were a number of different exercises for hands, legs, back, hips, hands, shoulders....this is sooo much better than some of the DVDs where the people demonstrating the exercises did to have arthritis or to severe at all. This is a great book to work with loved ones or for yourself, very gentle and effective.

Some parts of this book were good and some not so good. Part 3, 4 and 5 are good. Part Three talks about aerobic exercise and 4 and 5 give details on exercises you can do for specific body parts and in special situations. The instructions are clear and there are good diagrams. Unfortuately, they don't give any advice on how many repetitions to start with and how many to build up to and which exercise to move on to when a particular excercise becomes too easy. My problem is with Part 1. It has you go through some quizzes to put yourself in a "level" which they claim will help you pick or develop a program of exercises that suits your needs. But after you figure out your level, they never mention it again. There are two sample programs, one for level 4 (in bed) and one for level 2 (moderately active) and that's it. No program suggestions for the other levels and the excercises themselves are not given a label. A bit disappointing. But the exercises I am doing for my particular problem areas are good. I think the exercise sections make the book worth the money.

The authors provide very good instruction with easy to follow steps and illustrations. As a Pilates & fitness instructor, I bought this book in order to better understand and help my clients who suffer from arthritis. I now have an even better understanding of the importance of mobility for the arthritic person and the best movements for them.

Nothing new here.

Sobel and Klein present an exercise based text which is based on a survey. This book is a 200 page long paperback whose orientation is almost completely exercise. It is aimed at the person who wants to construct an exercise program for themselves and does not have an exercise coach. The beginning gives a history of the project which starts with walking then leads into how to select exercises for your individual program. There are all types of body exercises. They mention Ken Cooper and aerobics although, the orientation is not totally aerobic. Additionally, they mention Dean Ornish’ work. I think that this book is excellent for a person who wants to work alone. It is complete and succinct.

I suffered for 8 months with inflammatory arthritis in my knees. I saw doctor after doctor, had test after test. The only solution was Celebrex which gave me chest pain. I got this book at our library out of desperation; I felt too young to lose my mobility. I'm thrilled to say these exercises were outstanding and really DO help. Best of all, the are at least half a dozen helpful exercises for every joint area in the body starting at the top and going down - even the jaw is covered. My husband started the exercises for back & jaw (he's got TMJ) and they helped him as well. I can't thank the authors enough for compiling such an honestly helpful book. How refreshing to actually find something that does what it says it does. THANK YOU. I have some relief in life finally.

First, this book is in excellent condition. It was published in 1993 and is the size of a trade paperback. The ink drawings are clear and support the text, and the stretches and exercises are doable for those who are mobility impaired and out of shape (me). The instructions focus on gently getting started and how to gradually improve, which is damn hard to find in a book. Most go from “how to start” to “keep it up! You’ll feel great” which does not consider the uncertainty, frustration, and the tendency to overdo things resulting in injuries (again me). There are chapters on tracking your progress and pros and cons of different exercises (ex. swimming and biking) but I haven’t read them yet as I’ve been busy testing the stretches and saying “Hey, I can do that”! I recommend this book to everyone who are tired of hurting, tired of being stiff, tired of having no stamina, tired of having no strength, and tired of being tired. It’s September now, and next spring - gardening!

Not bad

Like the suggestion of exercises to do, will try them