Can you improve the health of another part of your body by exercising that part? It may seem unlikely, but this idea has been linked to the effects of chronic illness, stroke, and even breast cancer surgery. It is becoming popular among scientists looking for new ways to manage
Now, researchers at the University of Texas in El Paso are testing a remarkable new theory that osteoarthritis patients may be able to relieve knee pain by strengthening their arms.
Last week, researchers began a new clinical trial. In this study, 60 men and women who frequently experience pain due to knee wear and tear will try different exercises to see which ones provide the most relief.
The trial is scheduled to end in 2025 and shows that regular 20-minute arm exercises (using an “arm cycle” machine like those found in gyms) relieve knee pain and improve mobility better than leg cycling. We plan to test whether it is good for increasing.
The aim was to replicate the results of a previous small study that suggested arm cycling was more effective than walking on a treadmill at relieving knee pain.
Regular, moderate exercise is one of the best ways to manage knee pain due to arthritis, as it strengthens the muscles around the joint and reduces pressure on the injured area.
However, walking or jogging can put a lot of stress on the knees, making it difficult for some people to move. Commenting on this approach, Uzo Ehiogu, consultant physiotherapist at the Royal Orthopedic Hospital in Birmingham, said: “There is no clear mechanism by which arm exercises are likely to target knee pain.” Masu.
“What’s probably happening is that after a 20-minute arm workout, patients feel healthier, more confident, and more mobile, which may reduce the sensation of knee pain. is.”
However, in some cases, training one limb can have a direct and interesting effect on the opposite limb.
Recent evidence of this came in a study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports in July.
Researchers at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan, recruited 30 volunteers and had them hold one arm completely still for hours at a time while flexing the muscles in their free arm. Some people did not move their arms.
After a few weeks, those who contracted the muscles in their moving arms had only a 2% decrease in the muscles in their non-moving arms.
However, in the no-exercise group, stationary arm muscle wasting was 28%.
This effect is known as muscle reciprocal education, where muscles on one side of the body benefit from the activity of muscles on the opposite side. It is routinely used in sports medicine to reduce rapid muscle loss during injuries.
Studies show that an arm injury caused by a sling can result in a loss of up to 60% of muscle strength within the first five weeks. “However, if you do regular exercise of the other limb, or ‘contralateral’ training, muscle wasting is significantly reduced,” says Ehiogu.
It is not clear exactly how muscle mutual education works. One theory is that this is a “ripple effect,” in which intensive training of the healthy limb (such as lifting weights with your arms or squatting with one leg) also creates new connections between the brain and the injured limb. It is said that it will be done.
But the key to success is increasing resistance, or forcing the normal limb to work harder than it normally would by lifting heavier weights, said Ehiogu, a spokesperson for the Chartered Institute of Physical Therapy. states.
“You have to work at 80 to 85 percent of your maximum capacity,” he says. “So if he normally does 10 reps at 50 percent of his max, instead he should aim to do five reps at 80 or 85 percent of his capacity.
“You can’t get the crossover effect without increasing the resistance.”
One of the most interesting examples of this phenomenon is mirror therapy, which is used for stroke patients who are paralyzed on one side.
The damaged arm is placed inside a box with a mirror on the outside. The patient then looks at the same arm in a mirror and performs a series of exercises on the good arm to improve muscle strength and grip strength.
This “tricks” the brain into thinking it is moving the injured arm and strengthening connections with the nerves and muscle fibers within it.
A 2018 review of mirror therapy in stroke treatment by Cochrane (reviewing the evidence for treatments) concluded that movement of paralyzed limbs improved enough for patients to perform daily activities such as cleaning.
A study published in June in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship by China’s Fudan University found that mirror therapy can also help women with limited shoulder function after breast cancer surgery or radiation therapy.
Both treatments can result in immobility and pain as a result of tissue removal, nerve damage, and scarring. In this study, half of the 79 participants exercised their unaffected arm daily while looking in the mirror. The rest did the same thing without the mirror.
After eight weeks, the mirror group had greater range of motion in the affected arm than the other groups. “Breast cancer survivors can try mirror therapy for effective shoulder rehabilitation,” the researchers said in a report on their findings.
