Joint pain and inflammation is no fun for anyone. Both before and when the soreness kicks in, action is required — lest it should impact your work, sports activity, or other important parts of life. Follow these quick and easy hacks to minimize your discomfort, and stay as active as possible in your daily routine.

Practice extensive stretching

Keeping your body loose is key to preventing joint pain and inflammation. Start a regular stretching exercise, even if it’s very basic, to help your body move more freely with the daily rhythms of life. Apps like SworkIt can help you build (and stick to) a routine.

Stretching is especially important if you have a job that requires repetitive motion. Retail and supermarket cashiers, for example, often experience trouble in their wrists, elbows, and shoulders — while nothing is an end-all, be-all solution, stretching is sure to help.

Yoga can be a huge help in preventing joint pain and inflammation because it not only stretches out muscles and limbs, it strengthens them. Yoga is among the most approachable ways to keep your body consistently loose and toned, and the best part is that you can maintain a healthy yoga practice from the comfort of your home. Many top teachers like Yoga With Adrienne and Yoga By Candace have active YouTube channels with short practices for specific sports, conditions, and outcomes.

Watch your diet

We know, we know — the last thing you need is someone else telling you to eat healthy and watch your weight. But here’s the deal — extra pressure on joints is one of the leading enablers of osteoarthritis, and unnecessary weight, well, you can guess where this is going.

The good news is that being proactive on this front doesn’t have to mean a complete lifestyle overhaul. Start with small, manageable steps, such as swapping out unhealthy snacks high in salt, cholesterol or trans fats for better options. We ran down many of the best snacks for arthritis in this article, and all of them are an easy grocery run away.

To help you identify foods that need to be cut from the diet, check out this handy list of foods the cause inflammation.

And other toxins

It’s not just food that’s to blame for added pressure on your joints. Toxins such as cigarette additives, excess amounts of alcohol, and other unnatural additives only exacerbate the problem. If you’re a non-smoker, kudos to you — you’re one big step ahead of those who are. And while there’s certainly nothing wrong with enjoying a glass of wine, it’s important to listen to what country music legend Chris Young says — “don’t you ever cross that line.” Save the excess for your savings account, not indulgences (that’s a whole other conversation, we suppose).

Add a supplement

Okay, let’s switch directions here. Now that we’ve covered what you need to take out of your regimen, let’s talk about what to add in. In short — an anti-inflammatory supplement such as New Zealand Green Lipped Mussel Oil can work to offset some of the joint pain caused by your daily routine. It can also help to relieve the symptoms of more extreme joint pain such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. 

When choosing a supplement, be sure to pick one that is built from all-natural ingredients — and make sure that those ingredients are there for a reason. In GLX3, for example, we use only three ingredients — mussel oil from the best Green Lipped Mussels, New Zealand Olive Oil, and Vitamin E oil. All three add a layer of dexterity to both our supplement and your remedy, and there’s no worrying about additives or side-effects.

What to do when the pain kicks in

Regardless of how proactive we are, there are still going to be those days when our aching joints make themselves known. Don’t overreact — that’s only going to make the situation worse — but instead follow these quick fixes to, at the very least, keep the discomfort to a minimum.

• Have an ice pack ready to go. This is the first and, in many cases, biggest “quick fix” that you can always turn to. Icing aching joints, particularly in cases of tendinitis, can offset further inflammation and numb the pain. 10 to 15-minute intervals at multiple points throughout the day with the ice pack can also work as a preventative measure, especially if you have been particularly active in recent days.
• Follow the doctor’s orders. One of the most common mistakes people make when joint pain kicks in boils down to one word: impulsiveness. Anything within reach that might briefly numb the pain comes into play. This is not advisable — if you have joint pain and inflammation, build an action plan with your doctor that includes steps for what to do on those particularly sore days.

Pull out the recliner. If you have one, that is. The point here is to take it easy. Sometimes, your body just needs a rest.