By: Thomas Pickering, MD, DPhil, FRCP, Director of Integrative and Behavioral Cardiology Program
of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.

A regular exercise program is recommended for many reasons, among which is that it helps to lower blood pressure. A question for people who also have arthritis is whether an exercise program will make their arthritis better or worse, and which type of exercise is preferable. An important new study called FAST (Fitness Arthritis and Seniors Trial) has provided some answers.

A total of 439 people over the age of 60 who had arthritis of the knees were allocated to one of three groups. One took part in a walking program (10 minutes warm-up, 40 minutes brisk walking and 10 minutes cool-down, three times a week for 18 months. The second group did a resistance training program for the same length of time; the program was designed to strengthen both arm and leg muscles, and included exercises such as leg raising with weights, press-ups and dumbbells for the arms. The third group was a comparison (control) group, which got a health education program but no formal exercise training.

At the end of 18 months, the symptoms of pain and disability were less in both the exercise groups than in the control group, and the general mobility was also improved. There was no advantage of one exercise program over the other. X-rays of the knees did not show any adverse changes from the exercise programs.

Doctor’s comments

This study shows that another of the many benefits of a regular exercise program is to relieve arthritis pain and improve mobility. Resistance training was no better than a simple walking program, and since aerobic exercise such as walking provides better cardiovascular benefits, it should be generally recommended over resistance training.

Where it was published