The positive impact of exercise on your arthritis - What our research tells us

We know that movement can be hard for people with arthritis, and that there is a lot of mixed information available. That’s why we’ve funded over £17M into exercise and movement research over the past 15 years to help tackle pain, keep our joints strong, and reduce our risk of arthritis and other diseases.

Exercise can reduce pain and improve quality of life for people with arthritis

When people with arthritis experience pain, it can feel instinctive to rest. However, this may not always be the best approach.

Our researchers at the Pain Centre have demonstrated that not only are certain types of exercise safe for people with arthritis, but they can also be as effective in reducing pain as taking painkillers like paracetamol or ibuprofen.

One reason is because exercise can reduce something called central sensitisation, a process that can make our bodies more responsive to pain signals. Their research suggests that, while many forms of exercise can dampen this effect, the most beneficial types of movement are those that combine stretching with some resistance training.

This helps explain why evidence-based exercise programmes, like ESCAPE-Pain, backed by Versus Arthritis research, are effective for helping reduce hip, knee and back pain in people with arthritis. ESCAPE-pain stands for ‘Enabling Self-management and Coping with Arthritic Pain using Exercise’. It is an evidence-based, cost effective, group rehabilitation programme, delivered over six weeks by physiotherapists, for people with chronic joint pain.

Policymakers and healthcare providers in the UK and worldwide use our research as part of developing recommendations for managing joint pain, including in guiding primary care healthcare professionals support patients with chronic pain in Canada and also by the World Health Organisation.

Exercise can help to protect your joints and prevent musculoskeletal decline

In osteoarthritis, the cartilage in our joints becomes thinned and rough. But doing a small amount of regular, meaningful exercise can help promote cartilage growth. Our Sport and Exercise Centre researchers have found that quick high impact movements, such as hopping, stimulates bone growth and cartilage development, which helps keep them healthy and strong, and reduces pain.

Researchers at our Sport, Exercise and Osteoarthritis Centre have also contributed to international guidelines for the management of osteoarthritis, which recommend a holistic, patient-centred approach that supports people with osteoarthritis to exercise. This includes mind-body forms of exercise like tai-chi and yoga, which they consider safe and effective for all individuals with knee osteoarthritis, regardless of other conditions they may have.

Try some of our evidence-backed exercises to keep your joints healthy

Further, the Centre has looked at how high levels of exercise affects a person's chance of developing osteoarthritis. They’ve found that the risk of developing osteoarthritis in our upper and lower limbs is the same between Olympians and the general population. Another study from the Centre which pulled together lots of research on running and arthritis also found no clear link between osteoarthritis and running. This means that no good evidence currently exists to show that running damages your knees and specifically causes arthritis.

Actually, our researchers have found that if you run at a level that’s in tune with your body, it may in fact strengthen your joints and potentially protect against osteoarthritis developing into more severe forms. If you’re considering moving more, it’s important to pace yourself, rest when you need to, and incorporate exercise gradually into your lifestyle because joint injury is a risk-factor for developing osteoarthritis later in life.

Feeling inspired to move more? Find tips and information to help you start in our exercise leaflet

Our Ageing Centres have shown that the way our body ages as we get older is not fixed – regular exercise has the power to halt and even reset our ageing clock for certain organs. They found that keeping active into old age prevents many aspects of musculoskeletal decline. In fact, resistance exercise training is one of the most effective ways to prevent decline in muscle mass and strength as we age.

Watch the video below to try out resistance band training and find out more about the full series of resistance exercise training videos.

Get yourself moving

We want to bust the myth that exercise causes or worsens arthritis. In fact, our research has shown that doing exercise is one of the best ways you can prevent arthritis and manage its symptoms and is vital to ageing healthily. Try some of the links above to get yourself moving more in 2025!