What exercise does in rheumatoid arthritis. Weight training calms the disease down. Interval training builds fitness. Neither one replaces your medication.
Quick answerWeight training calms rheumatoid arthritis down, and the pooled effect on the DAS-28, a disease activity score built from a 28-joint count, a blood marker of inflammation, and your own health rating, was −0.69 across seventeen trials. Hard interval training builds heart and lung fitness, and that fitness is the best single clue to who dies of heart disease. Neither one replaces your drugs, and neither stops joints from wearing away.
Read those figures as averages over many people, not as a promise about you. An effect that size counts as middling, so the usual person got better and the usual person didn't go quiet, and the range around the figure reaches almost to zero. One thing didn't improve in the pooled numbers, and that thing is pain, which surprises people because they expect pain to go first. What the trials do settle is that supervised exercise is safe even when the disease is active, and that it doesn't speed up the damage.
What the research found.
Weight training lowered disease activity on the DAS-28, a score built from a 28-joint count, a blood marker of inflammation, and your own health rating, at a pooled figure of −0.69 across the trials reviewed. The true value is somewhere from −1.26 to −0.11. That comes from seventeen randomized trials covering 1,010 patients between them, which is a reasonable body of evidence for a question like this.
That review also found a blood marker of swelling fell, and the marker is the sedimentation rate. The figure was −0.86, with a true value somewhere from −1.65 to −0.07. Pain, scored on a line, didn't reliably improve across those seventeen trials, and that's the result most people find hardest to accept.
Wen and Chai, Medicine, 2021
One trial put 87 people with rheumatoid arthritis through twelve weeks of hard interval training plus strength work. Their fitness rose by 3.71 mL/kg/min more than it did in the people who were only told to stay moderately active for 150 minutes a week. Both groups were exercising, so that figure compares structured hard training against general advice, and not exercise against nothing.
Bilberg and colleagues, British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2024
The movements, and what the trials behind them used.
Everything below is a prescription, and where a trial set the intensity the tier tells you which trial it was. Where no trial set it, the tier says so rather than borrowing a number from somewhere else and hoping you don't ask. The demonstration videos are her own, and each one loads only when you press the button.
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Resistance training has the best evidence of anything on this page for calming rheumatoid arthritis down, and that took decades to be believed. One review pooled seventeen randomized trials covering 1,010 patients, of whom 512 trained and 498 did not. Disease activity on the DAS-28, the disease activity score combining a 28-joint count, a blood marker, and your own health rating, fell by a standardized mean difference of −0.69, with the true value somewhere from −1.26 to −0.11.
The review found the sedimentation rate improved too, at −0.86 on a true value from −1.65 to −0.07. Pain scored on a line did not reliably improve in that pool, and that is the result people find hardest to accept, because most of them came to exercise hoping it would go first. Nothing there replaces a drug, because no trial in the review measured whether joints wear away on an X-ray.
This tier is bodyweight only and it comes before any of the trials, which enrolled people already able to train against a load. Build the five patterns here until you could repeat the session the following week without dreading it. Everything in the tiers below is one of these five movements with weight added to it.
Sit back and down as if reaching for a chair behind you
Keep the chest lifted and the eyes forward, not on the floor
Knees track over the toes rather than collapsing inward
Lower until the thighs are parallel, or as far as is comfortable
Push through the whole foot to stand, squeezing the glutes at the top
Swelling in a knee limits how far down you can go, and squatting to a chair or a box solves that without losing the movement. Sit briefly, then stand again. What gets loaded in the tiers below is the pattern rather than the depth, so a shortened range is a reasonable place to train from for as long as you need it.
Stand tall with the feet together and the hands on the hips
Step one foot backward and land on the ball of that foot
Lower the back knee toward the floor, both knees near ninety degrees
The front knee stays stacked over the ankle rather than past the toes
Push through the front heel to return to standing
A reverse lunge asks less of the knee than a forward lunge does, because the deceleration happens at the hip instead. That is the reason this pattern is here and the forward one is not. Hold a wall or a counter with one hand for the first few weeks if balance is the limiting thing.
Feet hip-width apart with a soft bend in the knees
Slide the hands down the thighs as the hips push backward
Keep the back flat, as though a broomstick ran along the spine
Lower to a deep hamstring stretch, then drive the hips forward to stand
This is the deadlift pattern and it is worth owning at bodyweight before any load goes near it. The loaded trials in the review all built on movements like this one. Getting it wrong under a heavy dumbbell is how a training week turns into a sore back and a month off.
Start at a wall, then a countertop, then the knees, then the floor
Hands slightly wider than shoulder-width, fingers spread
Lower the chest toward the surface with the elbows at about forty-five degrees
Keep the body in one line from the head to the heels
Push away to return, breathing out on the push
Wrist involvement is the usual reason a flat palm hurts here, and there are two ways around it that keep the movement. Make fists on a padded surface, or use push-up handles, and either one keeps the wrist neutral instead of extended. Tell whoever looks after your hands that you are loading them, because a hand therapist will often want to watch one set and adjust the grip before you build the habit around it.
Arms in a goalpost position, elbows at shoulder height and bent ninety degrees
Press the hands straight overhead until the arms are extended
Lower back to the goalpost over two seconds
Keep the ribs down and the core braced without arching the lower back
Once this is easy, three to five pounds in each hand is the next step and it is a small one. That is the pattern the loaded shoulder press in the tiers below is built from. Shoulder involvement that limits overhead range is a reason to press to a lower height rather than a reason to skip the movement.
1:00
This is the intensity most of the seventeen trials worked at, and one of them is worth naming. Häkkinen and colleagues trained seventy patients with recent-onset disease twice a week for two years, at 50 to 70 percent of repetition maximum. Strength rose in every muscle group examined, disease activity and walking speed improved, and bone density at the hip and spine rose in the training group while it fell in the controls.
Hold a dumbbell or kettlebell at the chest with both hands, elbows tucked
The same squat pattern, sitting back with the chest up
The weight in front acts as a counterbalance, which makes depth easier
Three seconds down, then drive up with intent
Finding your working weight is arithmetic rather than guesswork, and it takes one honest test. If the heaviest single squat you can do with good form is fifty pounds, then 60 to 70 percent of it is thirty to thirty-five pounds. Retest every six to eight weeks, because the number moves as you get stronger and a stale number is a wasted session.
Hold dumbbells in front of the thighs with the palms facing you
Push the hips back, sliding the weights down the legs
Stop at a deep hamstring stretch, typically around mid-shin
Drive the hips forward to stand, squeezing the glutes at the top
Grip gives out before the hamstrings do when the hands and wrists are involved, and lifting straps fix that in about ten seconds. What this movement is for is the glutes and the hamstrings rather than grip endurance. Using straps is not cheating, it is removing the wrong limiting factor from an exercise aimed somewhere else.
Seated or standing, dumbbells at shoulder height with the palms forward
Press straight overhead until the arms are extended
Lower over two seconds back to shoulder height
Brace the core and keep the ribs down to protect the lower back
Shoulder involvement that limits overhead range has a good substitute, which is a high incline press with the bench at about seventy degrees. That keeps most of the loading and asks for much less range at the top. Swapping the movement is the better answer here, and dropping upper body work altogether is not.
1:30
This tier trains twice a week with full recovery between sessions, and it wants a rack, safety bars, and somebody nearby. Two of the trials in the review used what they described as high-intensity resistance training, in twenty-eight and twenty-four patients, and both reported large strength gains without the disease worsening. Read the note below before you decide this tier is evidence about the weight on your own bar.
Where the evidence doesn't exist
Neither of those two trials states a percentage of one-rep maximum anywhere in its abstract, and both describe the training only as high-intensity. A third trial was named alongside them on the earlier build of this guide, and it could not be found in any search of the literature. So the 80 to 85 percent on this tier is a training convention rather than a figure lifted from a paper, which is a real difference and the reason this note is here.
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Bar across the upper back rather than the neck, feet shoulder-width
Brace the core as if bracing for a knock, then descend under control
Full depth if your mobility allows it, with the hip crease below the knee
Drive up with intent, because intending to move fast recruits more motor units
Set the safety bars in the rack just below your lowest depth, every session, before the first repetition of the first set. Without them a failed rep is an injury rather than a nuisance. Never train to the point of failure on this movement without somebody in the room who knows how to strip a bar.
2:30
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Bar over the midfoot, feet hip-width, hands just outside the knees
Flat back, chest up, shoulders over or slightly in front of the bar
Push the floor away with the legs and let the bar rise with the hips
Lock out tall with the hips forward and the shoulders back
A mixed grip, or a pair of straps, keeps hand involvement from ending a set before the legs have done any work. The posterior chain is what this trains, and grip only holds you to the bar. Fix the grip rather than lowering a weight that the legs and the back are perfectly able to move.
2:30
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Bar at collarbone height in the rack, grip just outside the shoulders
Brace the core, squeeze the glutes, press the bar straight overhead
Move the head back to let the bar pass, then push it through once clear
Lock out with the bar over the midfoot so the joints are stacked
Shoulder range that will not reach a full lockout is a reason to change the movement rather than to grind at it. A landmine press or a high incline barbell press loads the same muscles through a range your shoulder has. Ask a physiotherapist to watch one set before you commit to either substitution.
2:30
Aerobic work does a different job from the resistance tab, and running the two together is the most common mistake made about this literature. One trial put eighty-seven patients through twelve weeks of interval training with strength work, and compared them against people given advice to be moderately active for at least 150 minutes a week. Fitness rose by 3.71 mL/kg/min more in the training group, and disease activity on the DAS-28, the score that combines a 28-joint count, a blood marker, and a health rating, did not improve.
Take that pairing seriously, because it tells you what each modality is for. Interval training is a fitness intervention in this disease rather than a disease-modifying one, which is what the resistance tab is for. Both groups in that trial were exercising, so the figure compares structured hard training against general advice rather than exercise against nothing.
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Brisk walking, cycling, swimming, or an elliptical, whichever the joints tolerate
You should be able to hold a conversation but not sing
Estimate maximum heart rate as 220 minus your age, then take half to seven-tenths of it
Start at fifteen to twenty minutes if deconditioned and build over four to six weeks
Weight-bearing cardiovascular work aggravates hips, knees, and ankles in some people, and cycling or swimming gives the same fitness benefit with far less joint loading. Choosing one of those is not a lesser option. Pick whichever you will still be doing in a year, because consistency beats the theoretical best choice every time.
This is the protocol from the trial above, and it is the one modality here with a dedicated randomized trial in this disease. Four minutes hard, three minutes easy, four times through, with a warm-up and a cool-down either side. Do it on a bike, a rower, or an elliptical, because all three ask less of the joints than running does.
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Warm up for five minutes at an easy pace
Four rounds of four minutes hard, with three minutes of active recovery between them
Keep moving through the recovery. Don't stop completely
Cool down for five minutes, then stretch
Four to six weeks of moderate aerobic work first is what makes this tier survivable, and the trial enrolled people whose disease was well controlled. Drop back to moderate intensity during a flare and pick this up again once it settles. Tell your rheumatology team you are doing interval work, because it changes what a rise in fatigue means.
3:00
One network meta-analysis compared ten kinds of exercise against each other, across thirty-four trials and 2,435 patients between them. Pilates ranked first for pain, at a SUCRA of 91.8 percent, which put it ahead of every other modality the analysis compared. That is where the resistance evidence is weakest, which is the whole reason this tab exists.
What Pilates asks of you is core stability, controlled breathing, and small ranges done well. Not one of those loads an inflamed joint heavily, and all of it is trainable on a bad day when a barbell is out of the question. Twenty to twenty-five minutes three times a week is the shape of the flow below.
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Lie on your back with the knees bent and the hands on the lower ribs
Inhale through the nose and feel the ribs expand sideways rather than the belly rising
Exhale slowly through pursed lips, drawing the navel gently toward the spine
Engage the pelvic floor lightly on each exhale
3:00
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Exhale and tilt the pelvis, pressing the lower back flat into the floor
Inhale and release to neutral, with the natural curve back in the lower back
After eight tilts, peel the hips off the floor into a bridge on the exhale
Roll up one vertebra at a time, hold three seconds, then roll back down
3:00
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Tabletop position, both knees bent over the hips with the shins parallel to the floor
Hold the core engaged and lower one toe slowly to the floor
Return to tabletop and alternate sides
Extend the lowering leg fully straight once this is easy
The lower back stays pressed into the floor for the whole of this one, and an arch is the signal that you have gone too far. Reduce the range instead of pushing through it. That arch is the thing this movement exists to teach you to notice, so catching it is progress rather than failure.
4:00
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Hands and knees, wrists under the shoulders and knees under the hips
Inhale and drop the belly, lifting the chest and the tailbone
Exhale and round the spine upward, tucking the chin
Thread one arm under the other, lowering that shoulder toward the floor
Weight-bearing on a flat palm is the part wrist involvement objects to, and there are two ways around it here. Make fists, or come down onto the forearms over a bolster. Both keep the thoracic spine moving, which is what the movement is for.
4:00
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Lie on your side with the hips stacked and the bottom arm under the head
Lift the top leg to hip height, then ten small circles forward and ten backward
Bend both knees ninety degrees and open the top knee with the feet together
Ten clamshells each side, working the hip abductors
4:00
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Sit tall with the legs extended wider than the hips and the feet flexed
Inhale to sit taller, then exhale and round forward past the toes
Stack back up one vertebra at a time, six times
For the saw, twist and reach the opposite hand toward the outside of the foot
4:00
In that network meta-analysis of thirty-four trials, tai chi ranked first for disease activity on the DAS-28, the score built from a 28-joint count, a blood marker, and your own health rating. The analysis reports a figure for it, and the figure was truncated in the record this site holds, so no number appears here. What can be said is the ranking, and the full text needs pulling before anything more precise goes on this page.
Ten to fifteen minutes daily is the dose, done slowly and without stopping between movements. Learning this from a qualified instructor or an established video series beats learning it from a page, and what follows is the sequence to ask for. No video is attached here yet, because it hasn't been filmed yet.
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Feet shoulder-width, knees slightly bent, weight even through both feet
Hands at the sides, shoulders relaxed and dropped
Breathe deeply for thirty seconds before anything moves
Inhale and raise both arms to shoulder height with the palms facing down
Exhale and press the palms gently downward, bending the knees a little deeper
2:00
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Hold an imaginary ball, one hand on top and one underneath
Step forward on the same side as the top hand
The top hand sweeps up and out while the bottom hand presses down
Transfer the weight fully onto the front foot and let the back foot pivot
Power in this movement comes from the legs and the rotating waist, and the arms are moved by the torso rather than moving on their own. That distinction is the whole difference between tai chi and waving your arms about. If your shoulders are doing the work, slow the movement down until the waist takes it back.
3:00
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Face forward and move the weight smoothly left and right
As the weight goes left, the left hand rises to face height and the right drops to the hip
As the weight goes right, the hands trade places
The eyes follow the upper hand and the waist turns with each transfer of weight
3:00
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Step forward as one hand sweeps past the knee
The other hand pushes forward from beside the ear with the palm outward
Transfer the weight onto the front foot as the push completes
Step forward on the other side and repeat
Ankle or knee involvement that limits the stance is a reason to shorten it rather than to skip the movement. What this sequence is for is the flow and the breathing, and the depth of the stance contributes very little to either. A shorter stance done smoothly beats a long one done stiffly.
3:00
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Bring the feet to shoulder width with the arms opening wide to each side
Cross the wrists in front of the chest, right over left, palms facing you
Hold for three deep breaths
Uncross and lower the hands slowly on the exhale, then be still for thirty seconds
2:00
One study measured seven days of movement in sixty-one patients with rheumatoid arthritis using accelerometers. Sedentary time, and the number of sedentary stretches of twenty minutes or longer, both correlated with a higher ten-year cardiovascular risk score. Light activity tracked the other way, and both associations held whatever the person's moderate to vigorous activity added up to.
That independence is the finding worth acting on, because it means a morning workout does not undo the rest of the day. The authors conclude that keeping sedentary stretches under twenty minutes may lower long-term cardiovascular risk in this disease. Nothing below has been tested as a protocol in anybody, and each one is a way of breaking a stretch that the study measured.
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Stand fully and sit back down ten times from your chair
Contracting muscle pulls glucose from the blood without needing insulin
1:00
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Walk briskly across the room and back, three times
Restoring blood flow supports the lining of the vessels
1:30
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Ten full squats at the desk, with the form from the foundation tier
Contracting muscle releases signals that reach the liver and the vessels
1:00
This one hasn't been filmed yet.
Walk up one or two flights at a moderate pace, then walk back down
The rise in cardiac output drives a pulse of blood flow to the brain
1:30
What the research shows
For decades doctors told people with rheumatoid arthritis to go easy, and the worry behind that advice sounded sensible enough. Load a swollen joint and you might wreck it, which is what everybody assumed without having tested it. The trials went the other way, and they went there consistently.
Weight training and aerobic training have both been tested in people whose disease was active at the time. They improve disease activity, fitness, and how well people move, and not one of the trials found that they speed up joint damage. That last point is the one that overturned the old advice.
The clearest result is for weight training, from a review that pooled seventeen randomized trials covering 1,010 patients. Weight training lowered disease activity on the DAS-28, the score built from a 28-joint count, a blood marker of inflammation, and your own health rating, at a pooled figure of −0.69, with the true value somewhere from −1.26 to −0.11. It lowered the blood marker of swelling too, which is a middling effect rather than a large one, and the range around it runs close to zero at one end. So it deserves neither a shrug nor a sales pitch.
Why this counts for more than comfort
Rheumatoid arthritis raises your risk of heart disease by a considerable margin, and that fact is the reason this section sits where it does. Low heart and lung fitness is one of the strongest links in that chain. This is the point where exercise stops being about comfort and starts being about something harder.
Fitness is something you can change, and most of what appears on the heart risk list is not. Your age isn't negotiable and neither is your family history. That leaves fitness as the one item on the list you can move yourself, and it's worth more attention than it usually gets.
One trial across several centers took 87 people with rheumatoid arthritis and split them in two. Half got twelve weeks of hard interval training with strength work, and the others were told to be moderately active for at least 150 minutes a week. The training group gained 3.71 mL/kg/min more fitness than the other group. Note that both groups were exercising, so that figure compares structured hard training against general advice, and not exercise against nothing.
Which type, and how much
A 2025 review compared ten kinds of exercise across 34 trials covering 2,435 patients. It ranked them by outcome rather than crowning a single winner, and mixing aerobic work with weights did well across several measures. Most of this research points in one direction, and the honest summary is short.
The difference between one kind of exercise and another is smaller than the difference between doing something and doing nothing. That's worth holding onto when somebody tells you one modality is the answer. Pick the form you'll still be doing in a year, because adherence beats optimization at this stage.
The 2018 EULAR advice is worth knowing about, because it gives people with inflammatory arthritis the same activity targets as everybody else. It doesn't hand them a smaller goal, which was a deliberate choice and changed how many rheumatologists talk to patients. In practice that means aerobic work most days plus strength work twice a week, adjusted for what your joints will take rather than dropped because of them.
What exercise doesn't do
No trial in this set has shown that exercise stops joints wearing away on an X-ray, and your drugs do stop that. What these trials measure is disease scores, blood markers, fitness, and function. A joint that holds its form over twenty years is a different outcome, and it has never been measured here.
So anybody selling exercise as a swap for methotrexate or a biologic is going past the evidence rather than reporting it. Act on that advice and you risk damage that nothing later can undo. Exercise works next to your treatment, and that's a real gain rather than a consolation prize.
Pain is the other honest limit, and it surprises people because they expect pain to improve first. In the pooled weight training numbers the blood marker improved and pain scored on a line didn't reach the mark. Pain in arthritis you've had for years has more than one source, so current swelling is only part of it, and pain can sit still while other things get better. Knowing that up front makes the first few months easier to push through.
Starting, in practice
Begin below what you think you can manage. The most common reason people quit is starting at a level they couldn't repeat the following week, which is a pacing problem rather than a willpower one. Two weight sessions a week is the dose most of these trials used, and bodyweight moves count if a gym is out of reach.
Add weight or reps slowly and in small steps, and expect the first two weeks to feel harder than they look from here. That early difficulty is the part most people misread as a sign the disease is worsening. Sore muscles for a day or two after you start are ordinary, and they aren't a flare.
Flares make this harder and they don't have to end it, so cut the load, move to a pool, or work the joints that are behaving. Any of those keeps the habit alive through a bad spell, and the habit is the thing you are protecting. Tell your rheumatology team what you're doing, because a physiotherapist who knows your joints can build a better plan than any page can.
Questions patients ask.
Will exercise make my rheumatoid arthritis worse?
The trials say no, and both weight training and interval training have been tested in people whose disease was active. Neither made the disease worse, and neither sped up joint damage. Sore muscles for a day or two after you start are normal, and they aren't a flare. Stop and call your rheumatology team if one joint turns hot, swells up, or gets sharply more painful.
Which kind of exercise works best for rheumatoid arthritis?
Weight training has the best evidence for calming the disease, and interval training has the best evidence for heart and lung fitness. One review pooled 34 trials covering 2,435 patients and compared ten kinds of exercise against each other. Mixing aerobic work with weights ranked high across the board, so doing both is a reasonable reading of that review rather than a stretch. Pick the form you'll still be doing in a year.
Can exercise replace my methotrexate or biologic?
No, and nothing in this research hints otherwise. Exercise trials measure disease scores, fitness, and how well you move, and they don't measure joints wearing away on an X-ray. No trial has shown that exercise stops the joint damage your drugs stop, so quitting your drugs to rely on exercise risks damage no later treatment can undo. Exercise works next to your treatment, and that's a real gain rather than a booby prize.
Why does exercise help my inflammation but not my pain?
That split is real in the pooled numbers, where the blood marker of swelling improved and pain scored on a line didn't. In arthritis you've had for years, pain has more than one source, and the way your brain handles pain is part of it. So is your sleep, and so is the damage the joints already hold. Exercise can improve how you move and how tired you feel while pain sits where it was, and many people take that trade.
How much exercise should I do?
The 2018 EULAR advice gives people with this arthritis the same targets as everybody else rather than a smaller goal. In practice that means aerobic work plus strength work twice a week. The trials that calmed the disease used two or three supervised weight sessions a week and ran eight to twelve weeks. Start below what you think you can do, and then build from there over weeks.
References.
Wen Z; Chai Y. Effectiveness of resistance exercises in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: A meta-analysis. Medicine. 2021;100:e25019. 10.1097/MD.0000000000025019SR + MA
Bilberg A; Mannerkorpi K; Borjesson M et al. High-intensity interval training improves cardiovascular and physical health in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a multicentre randomised controlled trial. British journal of sports medicine. 2024;58:1409-1418. 10.1136/bjsports-2024-108369RCT
Zhang Y; He Z; Yin Z et al. Effect of Exercise Interventions for Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials. Journal of pain research. 2025;18:5109-5126. 10.2147/JPR.S537227NMA / SR
Rausch Osthoff A; Niedermann K; Braun J et al. 2018 EULAR recommendations for physical activity in people with inflammatory arthritis and osteoarthritis. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. 2018;77:1251-1260. 10.1136/annrheumdis-2018-213585EULAR recommendations for physical activity in people with inflammatory arthritis and osteoarthritis
Häkkinen A; Sokka T; Kotaniemi A et al. A randomized two-year study of the effects of dynamic strength training on muscle strength, disease activity, functional capacity, and bone mineral density in early rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis and rheumatism. 2001;44:515-522. 10.1002/1529-0131(200103)44:3<515::AID-ANR98>3.0.CO;2-5RCT
Lemmey AB; Marcora SM; Chester K et al. Effects of high-intensity resistance training in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized controlled trial. Arthritis and rheumatism. 2009;61:1726-1734. 10.1002/art.24891RCT
Flint-Wagner HG; Lisse J; Lohman TG et al. Assessment of a sixteen-week training program on strength, pain, and function in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Journal of clinical rheumatology. 2009;15:165-171. 10.1097/RHU.0b013e318190f95fRCT
Fenton SAM; Veldhuijzen van Zanten JJCS; Kitas GD et al. Sedentary behaviour is associated with increased long-term cardiovascular risk in patients with rheumatoid arthritis independently of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. BMC musculoskeletal disorders. 2018;18:131. 10.1186/s12891-017-1473-9Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from 61 patients in the Physical Activity in Rheumatoid Arthritis study
This page gathers the published research on this subject into one place. The studies behind
it were published between 1989 and 2026, and every figure
links to the paper it came from. Those studies were peer reviewed. This summary of them was
not. Dr. Sarah Luebker is reviewing these pages one at a time and has not reached this one yet,
so it carries no medical review date and nothing here is her opinion or her advice to you. Each
page gets updated as she reaches it. It is here in the meantime because the science is worth
having in one organized place that is easy to find and easy to read.
Talk to your own clinician before acting on any of it.
