Arthritis? Try Joint-Friendly Senior Fitness Classes in NoVA

Head to Alexandria’s Chinquapin pool any Tuesday or Thursday morning and you will see a group of mostly older women chatting and laughing. They’re in the Aquatic Exercise for Seniors class, and some have arthritis or joint pain. Arthritis affects nearly half of all people 65 and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When you have inflammation problems, it can be difficult to get moving, but experts say doing so makes a huge difference. Water classes, yoga, and tai chi are among the recommended activities to increase flexibility, mobility, and strength.

Marianne Niles spent years in a sedentary job until retiring at 77. The Alexandria clinical psychologist had a family history of arthritis, as well as knee and back pain. Her daughter Marissa encouraged her to join the aquatics class.

“It’s made a huge difference in my life,” says the almost-79-year-old. “I was having symptoms that crimped my lifestyle.”

Susan Borinsky, 77, of Alexandria, has been taking the class for about 12 years, first as just a way to exercise, then to help with lower back pain and a knee replacement. “As you get older, you’re much more conscious of your health,” says Borinsky, who adds that her arthritis isn’t crippling.

“It’s really nice to be with people your own age. Everybody has the same issues. There’s no competition. Everybody has good feelings and wants other people to be doing well. It’s a wonderful atmosphere,” says Borinsky, a retired Department of Transportation worker.

“Every time I go to a class, I come out afterward feeling like my whole body has been loosened up,” Borinsky adds.

She and Niles are among the 56 percent of Virginians 65 or older who have arthritis. “The good news is Northern Virginia had the lowest prevalence,” says Mona Burwell, arthritis coordinator for the Virginia Department of Health.

In NoVA, 19 percent of senior citizens have some form of arthritis (there are more than 100 types). That compares with about 36 percent in Southwestern Virginia, the region with the highest percentage of seniors with achy joints, Burwell says.

In the Pool

Candice Kaup, founder of On the Move, is a chief exercise therapist and integrative health practitioner who has been teaching aquatics in Alexandria for 25 years. Her 45-minute classes, which Niles and Borinsky both take, start with different types of five-minute warmups. “And then for about 35 minutes, we’re working very specifically on cardiovascular health, flexibility, strength. We weave balance in there also,” she says.

“You gain your flexibility at the end of your workout after your heart rate has been up, your body temperature,” she says. “The synovial fluid has been released from your joints. That’s really … where you maximize your flexibility gains. We do very targeted static and dynamic stretching at the end, and a lot of times we’re doing balanced stuff with that.”

Water exercise is an “adjustable modality,” Kaup says. “You really feel the difference when you’re in the pool. It’s like a built-in weight room. … Your body weight is supported so movements that you might not be able to do on land because gravity pulls you down, the buoyancy pulls you up and helps with that range of motion.”

The water gives bi-directional resistance you don’t get on land. Kaup says the pool also affords those with osteoarthritis safety because they’re not going to fall while in the pool.

“The person with a knee arthritis or hip arthritis, we wouldn’t be able to do a whole lot of things on the land,” says Dr. Sushanth Taresh Kashyap, a physical therapist at the Sentara Therapy Center in Woodbridge. “But when they’re doing the same thing in the water, we’re eliminating the body weight on the joints.”

When seeing patients with degenerative conditions like arthritis, Kashyap often adds morning water exercises to their regimens to help with stiffness. “It’s not going to reverse completely. It’s just a management. It’s maintenance, rather than curing them completely,” he says, adding that he looks for functional gains.

People can start out with simple moves. “Walking inside the swimming pool is a great exercise,” he says. As you walk forward, backward, and sideways, you work different muscle groups. The same goes for marching in place and kicking.

Kaup, who also works privately with clients referred by doctors after operations, says some dislike exercise. But attitudes change as they gain flexibility and strength. “Now, they’re moving, like their functional daily movement — they can live without pain, which … for me is the most rewarding thing.”

On the Land

Holly Bailey, manager of the Ashburn Senior Center, recommends any exercise that is low-impact and joint-friendly for older people with arthritis.

“We really like chair yoga. It’s more inclusive. People who can’t get up and down off the floor don’t have to get up and down off the floor, which is sometimes an issue,” says Bailey, a clinical exercise physiologist. “The average age at Ashburn Senior Center is 75. And we easily have 50 people in our chair yoga, two days a week.”

Bailey teaches Loudoun County’s uber-popular SAIL class (Stay Active and Independent for Life). It combines aerobics, strength, and stretching exercises to help older people reduce their risk of falls. Her advice before joining a class: Talk to your doctor.

“All exercise should be gentle on the joints and participants should be aware of their limits,” Bailey says. She and Kaup agree that it’s really important to talk with the instructor and ask for modifications.

“We have a lot of people who take line dancing and Zumba Gold here and will often say, ‘Well, I’m not really getting strenuous exercise.’ I said, ‘You are. You’re doing line dancing for an hour-and-a-half. That’s a long time to do line dancing.’ They’re being active, [which] is key.”

Stretching Out

Bailey says tai chi and yoga are good options for exercise. Kashyap agrees. “Yoga and tai chi chuan can be helpful in terms of mobility and flexibility, not so much with respect to the strength aspect,” he says. Carole Toulousy-Michel, who previously taught yoga classes at Fairfax County recreation centers with an emphasis on women’s wellbeing and osteoporosis, currently teaches a Bones, Balance, and Cognition class through NoVA’s Sun & Moon Yoga Studio via Zoom from Rome, Italy.

Arthritis is the manifestation of a bigger picture about the aging process, says Toulousy-Michel, a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. She says arthritis builds gradually because of epigenetics, cellular aging, the body’s systems aging, and structural aging.

“Your posture matters at any age,” she says. “Many ailments accrue from bad posture, and arthritis is one of them, with uneven wear and tear on joints.”

But she finds when people start yoga and hold their fingers and hands in a certain manner, their brain functions are stimulated and their endocrine systems get recalibrated.

“Students may start feeling different almost immediately: more mobility in the joints that felt ‘stuck,’ more lightness along the spine and expansion in the chest. The created brain activity gives way to mindfulness, cognitive stress is relieved, and the mind feels regenerated with focusing, coordinating, and balancing postures.”

To get active, those with arthritis and inflammation issues should look for something they like. “The best exercise is the one that each individual person will do,” says Bailey.

“What exercise helps you realize is that you can make changes,” says Niles. “You’re not destined to continue having a reduction in your ability to enjoy things, to move, to be steady on your feet.”

Feature image by Emily Bielen, City of Alexandria

This story originally ran in our July issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.