Beyond the Surface of Joint Health: Why Movement is Key to Function and Performance

Joints are the unsung heroes of human movement. They are the conduits through which we express our bodies physically, allowing us to hike, play sports, work, and enjoy everything the lakes area has to offer.

We have well over 200 joints in our bodies, yet most of us pay zero attention to them until they start aching or stop moving the way we want them to.

If we want to keep our bodies feeling great for the long haul, we need to understand the basics of how joints actually function. When you understand a bit of the mechanics behind joint health, you can take active steps to stay healthy, perform at your best, and move pain-free for as long as possible.

Why Should You Care About Joint Health?

Being able to get up every day and move freely is a privilege. Going for a walk, playing with your kids, swimming in the lake, and competing in sports are all essential to living a full life. But when joint health degrades, these daily activities slowly become difficult or painful.

Prioritizing joint health accomplishes three major goals:

• Reduces Pain and Injury Risk: When joints throughout the kinetic chain are moving well, they distribute physical stress evenly in the body rather than letting one overused area take all the impact.

• Enhances Athletic Performance: High-level performance requires precise motor control. Healthy joints send clean sensory feedback to the brain, allowing for sharper, more efficient movement on the field, court, golf course, and beyond.

• Preserves Long-Term Mobility: Keeping joints active today protects cartilage and surrounding soft tissues from premature stiffness down the road.

The Two Pillars of Joint Health: Hardware vs. Software

To simplify what constitutes a healthy joint, we can break it down into two main components: The Hardware and The Software.

1. The Hardware (Soft Tissues & Surrounding Structures)

The hardware includes all the physical structures that make up a joint: bones, cartilage, ligaments, tendons, and fascia.

When you move, you apply mechanical stress to these tissues. This stress acts as a signal telling your body: "We are using these structures, so build them up stronger for next time."

However, soft tissue only gets stronger if you give it the proper recovery elements:

• Adequate Sleep & Rest: Allows physical tissue repair to occur.

• Hydration & Nutrition: Provides the raw building blocks for joint cartilage and tendons.

• Stress Management: Keeps systemic inflammation in check.

Think of your muscles: when you lift weights, they adapt to the load and grow stronger. Cartilage (like the meniscus in your knee) works similarly under compressive loads. While you can't see your cartilage changing in the mirror, movement is the only way to deliver nutrients and load to keep that tissue healthy. If you stop moving, soft tissues weaken and degrade.

2. The Software (The Nervous System)

While hardware gets most of the attention, it is useless without operating software. The "software" of your joints is your nervous system, specifically, the specialized nerve receptors embedded in and around the joint capsule.

These receptors act as a real-time communication loop with your brain:

• Movement Receptors (Mechanoreceptors): These sensors detect position, speed, and load. Moving your joints in various directions, speeds, and loads keeps these sensors firing, giving your brain a clear picture of where your body is in space.

• Pain Receptors (Nociceptors): These sensors send threat signals to the brain. There are various types of pain receptors responding to different stimuli.

These movement and pain receptors can have an interesting and impactful relationship. When managing pain, it is important to understand that movement can actually make it more challenging for pain receptors to send their signals to the brain. This means that when we exercise, our pain tolerance increases. But we need to remember, the opposite is true if we are not exercising regularly.

For athletes, clean joint signaling is critical. Your brain uses sensory input from your body to dictate how your muscles contract. If your joints send fuzzy or incomplete data to the brain, your muscles cannot contract efficiently during competition, leading to a decrease in performance.

Improving Joint Health in Detroit Lakes

Understanding both the hardware and software of joint health gives us insight as to why generic advice doesn't work for everyone. Effective care requires looking at the whole picture.

During a comprehensive evaluation at Edge Chiropractic & Performance, we dig into your history, current activity levels, and personal goals. From there, we perform a thorough movement exam and specific testing to find the primary limiting factor keeping you from moving well.

Based on those findings, we utilize a wide variety of manual therapy techniques during out treatment. This may include targeted joint mobilizations, adjustments, soft tissue work and more to decrease symptoms along with improving how well you move.

From there, we bridge the gap between treatment and real-world performance. We help you address lifestyle factors (recovery, load management, hydration) and provide a structured, individualized movement plan that accomplishes your goals and works with your schedule to ensure your joints stay healthy for the long haul. We now know the importance of movement in keeping our joints healthy, so let's make it a habit!

3 Big Takeaways for Healthy Joints

1. Movement is Fuel: If you want your joints to stay healthy, you have to use them. Start integrating small movement breaks throughout the day if you find yourself stationary for long periods.

2. Seek Variety and Load: Having your go-to exercise routine is good, but your joint receptors need diversity. Incorporate different types of training and movements to fully challenge your soft tissues.

3. Don't Ignore Pain: Pain changes how your brain controls movement, causing you to compensate and move less. These compensations and decreased activity can lead to more pain and less resilience.

If you are dealing with a lingering ache or want to optimize your performance for upcoming events, use the link at the bottom of the page and let's build a plan to keep you moving at your best!

Sources

Witherspoon JW, Smirnova IV, McIff TE. Neuroanatomical distribution of mechanoreceptors in the human cadaveric shoulder capsule and labrum. J Anat. 2014 Sep;225(3):337-45. doi: 10.1111/joa.12215. Epub 2014 Jul 9. PMID: 25040358; PMCID: PMC4166974.

Sperry MM, Ita ME, Kartha S, Zhang S, Yu YH, Winkelstein B. The Interface of Mechanics and Nociception in Joint Pathophysiology: Insights From the Facet and Temporomandibular Joints. J Biomech Eng. 2017 Feb 1;139(2):0210031–02100313. doi: 10.1115/1.4035647. PMID: 28056123; PMCID: PMC5253677.

Riemann BL, Lephart SM. The Sensorimotor System, Part II: The Role of Proprioception in Motor Control and Functional Joint Stability. J Athl Train. 2002 Jan;37(1):80-4. PMID: 16558671; PMCID: PMC164312.

Tschumperlin DJ. Mechanotransduction. Compr Physiol. 2011 Apr;1(2):1057-73. doi: 10.1002/cphy.c100016. PMID: 23737212.

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