A short-term program of exercise before surgery does not effectively counteract the muscle-wasting effects of recovery bedrest in older adults, a new study finds. But longer-term strength “prehabilitation” may be protective, investigators say.
Senior study participants performed four sessions of weightlifting exercise in one week using only one leg. Afterward, they had five days of bed rest to mimic typical elective surgery recovery time. The investigators were surprised to find that both legs showed an equal amount of muscle loss, reported corresponding author Leigh Breen, Ph.D., of the University of Birmingham’s School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, in the U.K.
“Although short-term prehabilitation offers a cost-effective and easy-to-implement strategy, it does not prevent muscle wasting among older adults undergoing bed-rest,” Breen said. “This muscle loss may be extremely hard to recover from and can lead to long-term health and disease complications.”
The findings suggest that older adults who are scheduled for elective surgery should undertake a longer-term, sustained program of targeted strength exercises, the authors wrote.
“In the same way an athlete would train before a race or a competition, exercise training before hospitalization is likely to be highly beneficial to older adults undergoing elective surgeries,” concluded lead author Benoit Smeuninx, Ph.D., of Monash University in Australia.
The authors this summer released another study showing that seniors who have never exercised regularly have the same ability to build muscle mass as highly trained athletes in the same age group.
