Lift, love, live. Strength training that you enjoy for a healthier lifestyle
Having strong muscles is important for people with rheumatoid arthritis, but only up to 14% regularly do strength training exercises, even among those with well-controlled disease. Strength training has a lot of important benefits for people with rheumatoid arthritis. In addition to reducing pain and fatigue, it also lowers the risk for cardiovascular disease, a leading cause of death in this population. In the I START project, we want to find out what helps people with rheumatoid arthritis to take up strength training. Ultimately, this work will help develop effective strategies to empower people to take part in this type of activity in order to improve their health
The Program involves:
In collaboration with our Arthritis Patient Advisory Board members we will:
- Summarized the research on a) how to increase strength training participation and b) how to customize physical activity prescriptions to the individual
- Interviewed people with rheumatoid arthritis to gain a better understanding of how we can help promote strength training and write better physical activity prescriptions and
- Based on what we found in steps 1 and 2, we are developing tools to support health and exercise professionals to prescribe and people with RA to participate in strength training. See https://m4a.kin.ubc.ca/ for updates as we progress!
If you would like to take part in this study or seek more information, please contact:
Jasmin Ma at 604 207 4031 or Email: jma@arthritisresearch.ca
Funded by The Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and The Arthritis Society
Principal Investigator:
Jasmin Ma, Arthritis Research Canada; University of British Columbia (Vancouver)
Co-Investigators:
Alison Hoens, Arthritis Patient Advisory Board, Arthritis Research Canada
Karen Tsui, Arthritis Patient Advisory Board, Arthritis Research Canada
Louella Sequeira, Arthritis Patient Advisory Board, Arthritis Research Canada
Shanon McQuitty, Arthritis Patient Advisory Board, Arthritis Research Canada
Jon Collins, Arthritis Patient Advisory Board, Arthritis Research Canada
Sadiq Jiwa, Arthritis Patient Advisory Board, Arthritis Research Canada
Keeva Duffey, Arthritis Patient Advisory Board, Arthritis Research Canada
Linda Li, University of British Columbia (Vancouver); Arthritis Research Canada