By Lauren Jackson, Physiotherapist

The time has come. The new year is here and that means one thing. Or a few things. New Year’s resolutions. The “ins and outs” for 2025. The gyms get busy, the sale of chocolate and junk food plummets and people ditch late-night scrolling for bedtime reading.

I’m a firm believer that you don’t need the start of a new year to make better choices and develop better habits; however, it can be the motivation people need to make real change. For those chronic pain sufferers that I see in clinic, it’s a time to truly get on top of things and take action to move towards a pain-free life. It’s time to stop gritting your teeth through the pain and relying on pain medication to see you through another day. Let this year be the year you eradicate your joint pain!

Resolution #1

Morning movement. First things first, before breakfast or your morning coffee, move your painful joint! Avoid getting out of bed as soon as your alarm goes off without some joint preparation work. You may not want to designate this time to a full exercise routine so instead, use it to complete just one exercise. This should be a low-impact, slow and controlled exercise which focuses on mobilising your joint. It could be lying heel slides for knee pain, posterior pelvic tilts for low back pain and pendulum swings for shoulder pain. It’s vital to activate the musculature surrounding your painful joint to prep it for the day whilst initiating the release of synovial fluid to lubricate those tissues to minimise pain and stiffness. Let’s get rid of that morning hobble!

Resolution #2

Ditch the short-term fads and say hello to long-term, consistent supplementation. The supplementation market is saturated and it’s easy to bounce from one to the next throughout the year when you don’t see results right away. However, it is important to have patience to see real results and you need to trust in an evidence-backed supplement and you need to stick with it. I will always recommend Flexee to my patients as it contains ingredients that have been rigorously tried and tested with sufficient research supporting their use. Flexee features the groundbreaking ingredient Ovomet which houses over 400 proteins, elastin and collagen to help replenish and rejuvenate the nutrients required for healthy joints. Make this the year that you finally take your joint health supplementation seriously. Because why wouldn’t you?

Resolution #3

Don’t set yourself up to fail. Oftentimes, people will try to do a complete 180 in January and turn their lives upside down. This isn’t sustainable and frequently leads to feelings of failure and slipping straight back into bad habits. The most common mistake I see in clinic is patients setting themselves an unrealistic exercise regime. If you’ve just started seeing a health practitioner for your joint pain, don’t try and go from 0 to 100. Completing one hour of exercise, 7 days a week may become unmanageable. An experienced health professional thoroughly understands exercise compliance and is unlikely to prescribe more than 3-5 exercises to target your joint pain. This should take you no longer than 15-20 minutes to complete. The gold standard would be to complete these exercises every day, but instead of jumping straight in, aim to create sustainable habits by building up your exercise frequency slowly. Start with 3x a week. Once you’ve maintained this frequency for 1-2 months, maybe add an extra session. Once this exercise programme becomes habitual and part of your routine, it will become long term. Remember, consistency is key, not volume!

Resolution #4

Prioritise your hydration. I don’t just mean drinking 2 litres of water daily. Proper hydration means replenishing vital minerals that support muscle function. These include compounds such as sodium citrate, potassium citrate and magnesium citrate—a more commonly used phrase to describe these compounds is the term “electrolytes”. Electrolyte balance is crucial for supporting muscle function and recovery. Together, these minerals help maintain electrolyte balance, reduce exercise-induced fatigue and promote efficient muscle recovery, making them invaluable for individuals undergoing rehabilitation. When starting a new exercise routine, you may very well encounter achey muscles as they are working hard to get stronger! By keeping your electrolytes topped up, you can reduce muscular ache and fatigue which minimises the likelihood of you giving up on your new exercise regime altogether! You can find electrolyte drinks in most supermarkets so there’s no excuse as to why you can’t take your hydration to the next level!

Resolution #5

Do less. Most New Year’s resolutions focus on doing more. Do more exercise, drink more fluids, read more, sleep more. The list goes on. But when it comes to joint pain, it is also important to do less. The first thing I would urge you to do less, is sitting. Sit less. Prolonged sitting deactivates important muscles around your hips and low back which support your spine and joints. Switching these muscles back on can be a difficult and lengthy process. Unfortunately, life in the 21st century often means we sit for a large proportion of the day whilst working, commuting or relaxing in front of the telly in the evening. To minimise the time spent sitting, try and incorporate a movement break every 20 minutes whilst working (this could simply be walking to the loo or over to the window to check the weather). You could also opt to stand on the commuter train rather than sit or invest in a standing desk whilst working from home. The second activity I would advise to do less, is high-impact activity. Now don’t get me wrong, there is a time and a place for high-impact exercise like running. But unfortunately, this type of movement does not equate to healthy joints (if not supported with strengthening and activation exercise). In order to prioritise your joint health and reduce pain, choosing low-impact, strengthening exercise over high-impact activities like running is crucial.

If you haven’t had a chance to think about your New Year’s resolutions for 2025 then I hope this has given you some food for thought, especially if you’ve found the festive period to be a bit hard on your joints. Let’s make 2025 the year that you banish joint pain once and for all!