Let's Move for Surgery

Have you seen our new Let’s Move for Surgery physical activity resources? We have been receiving excellent feedback from people awaiting or recovering from surgery about how useful they are finding them, and how being active helps them manage their pain.

“What a great idea. I have had bilateral total hip joint replacements 12 and 6 years ago. I attend three exercise classes a week to try and ward off any more replacements.”
– Let’s Move Facebook group member.

The movement videos include exercises for the hip, shoulder and knee. There’s also a full body strengthening and cardio workout, as well as advice and personal stories from people who have undergone surgery.

NHS Physiotherapist, Milly Abdullah performed the exercises in the videos alongside people with arthritis. We spoke to Milly to find out why she was keen to support the project and why these resources are so valuable.

“During the pandemic, I was involved in creating YouTube videos to continue to provide care to our patients through lockdown and redeployment. This project showed me how powerful videos can be in providing care, especially to those who may not be able to reach a hospital or attend a class. Videos are an extremely beneficial tool in reinforcing education and targeting some health inequalities. It has been great to be able to use my personal experience to be a part of this Versus Arthritis project. Versus Arthritis has amazing resources that I have provided to patients throughout my career. I regularly signpost patients to the VA website, especially in my current role where prehab and post-op care is a large part of my caseload. I
hope these videos are used by a range of healthcare providers to help people become more active around their surgeries.”

Milly provided her top tip for healthcare professionals to remind patients of when encouraging them to be active:
“Remember that fitness over a long period of time is not always linear. It can be normal to have setbacks, or flare-ups. Allow yourself to readjust the intensity of your activity, start again with things you enjoy or incorporate activity into your day to day, and aim to progress from there. Over time you will see progression and a positive change to your quality of life!”

The resources are available in our Let's Move for Surgery toolkit along with a healthcare professionals implementation plan which provides information about the resources and how to use them to help your patients with arthritis.