Exercise rehabilitation is crucial in helping patients recover from surgery. There is much evidence to suggest that getting someone up from bed and moving on their first day post-surgery, has great benefits. It can be easy to lose strength lying in bed all day so a patient needs to regain physical function by being challenged to walk further every day and completing upper limb exercises.
How can a physiotherapist help?
A physiotherapist can conduct an initial assessment to gain information from the patient and set benchmarks, looking at both subjective (eg pain) and objective (eg range of motion) measures. A basic exercise test would be conducted to see what their baseline level of fitness is so that a personalised exercise program can be prescribed. The physiotherapist will consider the patient’s goals and what they want to achieve. Exercises may include treadmill walking, stair climbing, stationary bike cycling as well as lower & upper limb exercises and stretching.
The long term benefits of a post-hospital rehabilitation program include improved survival rates, endurance, stability, mobilisation, pain relief and cardiorespiratory fitness. Patients who participate in a rehabilitation program after discharge from hospital have been shown to be 40% less likely to come back into hospital within the year and 25% less likely to die from a heart attack. Other gains include improved mental health as well as prevention and improvement of cholesterol, blood pressure, obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Please speak with us if you or someone you know has recently had an illness or injury or is recovering from surgery. We would welcome the opportunity to help get you back on track and living an active life.