Intermountain program helps seniors fight joint pain, recover from surgery

MURRAY – Ruth Norton has had her fair share of health challenges, including double-knee surgery, open-heart surgery and breast cancer.

But it’s her focus on fitness that’s helped her get back on track.

“I feel better now than I did before anything happened to me,” she said.

The 72-year-old is an active participant in Intermountain Health’s ArthroFit program, a course designed to help senior patients prevent, prepare for, and recover from surgery. The classes are led by skilled instructors and trainers who help the patients through various joint-protective exercises.

“It’s a circuit-type format,” said Dale Aguirre, manager of the TOSH Arthritis Clinic. “They’ll go to a station, perform the exercises and then rotate to the different stations. It’s a whole-body approach – we know it takes the entire body to have greater health and to progress that patient back to doing their things that they like to do.”

Aguirre said the goal of ArthroFit is to keep seniors moving.

“When someone starts to have pain, your natural response is to stop doing things, which is probably the worst thing you can do for yourself,” he said. “We show them that they can move and that it’s not too painful and it’s really beneficial, and they actually see a huge decrease in pain, some to the point where they will opt out of surgery because they start feeling so well.”

Norton said staying active allows her to continue to do what she loves.

“This changed my life and how I treat my body and how I look at life,” she said. “It’s made all the difference in the world. I’m able to play hard with my grandchildren and chase them around the yard and just have a ball.”

The Intermountain TOSH ArthroFit program offers both in-person and virtual classes. To see if ArthroFit is a good fit for you, call 801-314-2210 or visit intermountainhealth.org.