Physical activity

Adults who exercise are more likely to have health and brain benefits.  Some exercise is better than none, but the recommendations are to be active daily with at least 2 ½ hours of moderate exercise in bouts of 10 minutes of more.  An example of this would be to undertake 30 minutes 5 days a week.

We would advise all patients to start by increasing their current physical activity by 50%.  Think of preparing for your operation like training for a marathon- you need to put the effort in to prepare your body for the stress of surgery.

Following the operation you will need to be out of bed into a chair on day 1.  You will be sore but it is important to get your muscles and circulation going again to minimise complications.  From day 2 you should be walking twenty metres twice a day.  On discharge home you should aim to get back to your usual level of physical activity as soon as possible.

Please see the physical activity guidelines linked on the left of this page.