FitnessFor answers
How should I prepare physically before my spouse’s planned surgery?
Before a spouse’s planned surgery, the useful training target is your own ability to walk, stand, carry ordinary household items, get up from the floor, and recover from a long day.
It cannot predict your spouse’s recovery needs, so their surgical team should define their restrictions and the help they need; your job is to arrive with more of your own physical reserve.
Sources: ACSM position stand: exercise quantity and quality, Guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour, Safe patient handling and mobility
Build the work your week may ask of you
Use step-ups or sit-to-stands for repeated standing and stairs, bridges or light Romanian deadlifts for hip extension and hinge control, and suitcase carries for grip and trunk control while you walk.
Add regular brisk walks, easy cycling, or another repeatable aerobic option. The goal is not a punishing pre-surgery challenge; it is a body that can keep doing useful work tomorrow.
Sources: ACSM position stand: exercise quantity and quality, Guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour
Prepare the environment, not a patient protocol
Ask the surgical team what equipment, home setup, transportation, and support will actually be needed. Their instructions—not a generic fitness page—govern your spouse’s mobility, lifting limits, transfers, and rehabilitation.
You can practice your own squat, hinge, carry, and floor transition before surgery. Do not rehearse or prescribe the recovering person’s exercises unless their clinician has taught and approved them.
Sources: Safe patient handling and mobility, Returning to activity after injury or surgery
One safety line
If your own training brings chest symptoms, faintness, severe breathlessness, or joint pain that does not settle, get individual guidance before increasing the plan.
The quiet value of preparation is having enough left to make the meals, take the stairs, and stay steady when your spouse needs company.
Sources
- ACSM position stand: exercise quantity and quality — Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2011
- Guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour — World Health Organization, 2020
- Safe patient handling and mobility — National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
- Returning to activity after injury or surgery — American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
- Exercise preparticipation health screening — American College of Sports Medicine, 2015