Exercise conditioning in middle-aged men after 10 days of bed rest

Abstract

Of 12 healthy men with a mean age 50 ± 4 years who had been at bed rest for 10 days, six were randomly assigned to perform individually prescribed physical exercise daily for 60 days after bed rest (exercise group) and six simply resumed their customary activities (control group). Exercise group subjects were significantly more active than control subjects during this interval (p < .05). Despite these differences in the cardiovascular response to exercise, peak oxygen consumption in both groups returned to before-bed rest levels by 30 days after bed rest, and this was accompanied by significant (p < .05) and similar increases in resting left ventricular end-diastolic and stroke volume in both groups. Simple resumption of usual physical activities after bed rest was as effective as formal exercise conditioning in restoring functional capacity to before-bed rest levels.