Joe Wicks is helping patients prepare for surgery by improving their fitness with new “prehabilitation” exercise videos.
Experts hope that the new videos created by the fitness star will also help people recover faster after pre-planned operations.
Wicks has worked with experts at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust to create videos of exercises for people to do while they are waiting for care.
The two 10-minute clips, which have also had input from the Centre for Perioperative Care and the British Geriatrics Society, are designed to help increase physical activity, particularly among older people.
More than six million people are waiting for pre-planned care in England.
Experts said that increased activity and improved lifestyle choices ahead of surgery, sometimes called prehabilitation, can help reduce the risk of complications after surgery.
People who have heart and lung problems, have two or more long-term conditions, and those who are living with frailty are particularly at risk of complications.
“You’ve got to prepare yourself for the operation, but that’s just one part of the process,” Wicks said.
“Use that as a runway to get as strong as you can so when you’ve had the operation, if you are off your feet for a couple of weeks, you’re going to regain your fitness and strength a lot quicker than if you’ve just been sedentary for the whole year.”
He added: “I’ve always believed that movement is medicine, and the medical evidence now backs that up.
“These simple exercises will help anyone who is waiting for an operation to give themselves the best chance of a quicker recovery afterwards and get back to their loved ones.”
Professor Jugdeep Dhesi, consultant geriatrician at Guy’s and St Thomas’, said that physical activity is “so important” for people who are waiting for an operation.
Prof Dhesi, who is also president of the British Geriatrics Society and deputy director at the Centre for Perioperative Care, said: “Doing any exercise or even just walking more before an operation will really help reduce complications, help people get better faster and importantly get back to their own homes quickly.
“Use whatever time you have before your surgery to get yourself as fit as possible – try to eat well, stop smoking, reduce drinking and importantly build as much movement as possible into your day.
“Walk up your stairs a few times a day, pop to the corner shop, do some exercises with your family members – anything that will increase your activity levels. Doing this for even a few minutes a day, two weeks before your operation can make a real difference.
“This is a really cheap medicine.”
The fitness sessions have been designed for people with different activity levels.
There are 10 exercises in each routine, one of which is chaired-based and the other is low impact.
They include side kicks, chair kicks, reverse lunges and squats.
The videos are available on Wicks’ Bodycoach YouTube channel.