from University of Birmingham
Most of us have heard the term “rehabilitation” for patients following surgery. But what about prehabilitation? It is just what the word implies—a program of targeted exercise prior to elective surgery. Researchers at Britain’s University of Birmingham asked a group of older adults to engage in four sessions of weight-lifting exercises for one week, then they were prescribed one-week of bed rest, roughly the equivalent of a hospital stay after surgery. Prehabilitation for a short time works, but it may not completely avoid the muscle atrophy that occurs in older people confined to bed after surgery, so researchers suggest a longer period of strength training may lead to a quicker recovery from surgery.