I am a Pilates Instructor and one of my clients is a lovely 60+ years old lady who suffered from arthritis when she was a teenager and has lived with this condition all her life. She came to me desperate to try and change her situation of limited mobility. We go through a series of exercises to loosen up the joints, mobilise the spine and strengthen the core muscles. As opposed to lying on the mat, we sit on the armchair and I have now started using the Swiss ball. All props such as flexband, circle and small ball are fantastic tools. She is very happy and has gained a lot of confidence and takes the lessons she learns home with her and carries on doing the exercises by herself. Gentle is the key and so is repetition. As an instructor it is amazing to be able to bring happiness and wellness in a client's life.

I know that this was aimed for the senior crowd. I couldn't help applying it to myself due to severe neck/shoulder pains. I've downloaded so many apps. I finally chose a 'simple' exercise. I bypassed the stretches and went straight to the 'sitting down and lifting legs off the floor' exercise. Sounds simple to me. First try, I felt my neck hurting. I ignored it and continue to TRY to do the 8 repetition. Finally stopped when the neck pain was so bad. Ahem.... I did practically everything the opposite of what you just wrote. I was thinking of that: No pain, No gain. Obviously, that is wrong.

I always get it confused on when to use the hot pack and the cold pack. Good idea - hot pack before the exercise to loosen up, and cold pack afterwards to soothe.