“Exercise can be very effective in situations like this,” says Dean of the University of Michigan’s Department of Kinesiology and formerly the chief exercise scientist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, who is involved in a new study.
But there are pitfalls. To truly replicate a low-gravity workout, you’ll need to run straight up a wall like a cartoon road runner and work out in bed. But with a little tweaking, an astronaut’s daily exercise routine could work on Earth and help us develop our own out-of-this-world fitness.
Why Astronauts Need Exercise
Space travel is on the rise as NASA’s newly launched Orion spacecraft circles the moon, the International Space Station orbits the Earth for extended periods of time, and private rocket companies offer trips to the stars at exorbitant prices. is currently in the spotlight.
Unfortunately, our bodies are not suited for space. In microgravity, muscles and bones cannot support weight and atrophy rapidly, leading to rapid decline in cardiovascular health.
“Without regular exercise, you lose a lot of muscle mass and bone density,” said Jessica Meir, a scientist and astronaut who served as a flight engineer on the International Space Station.
In an effort to reverse this decline, NASA added exercise equipment to the space station in the 1990s, and astronauts dutifully practice slow, arduous training for hours a day to avoid injury and fatigue. Now go to But their muscles and fitness are still shrinking.
So in the early 2010s, NASA’s Poutz-Snyder and her scientist colleagues began thinking about strength. By then, exercise science had shown that short bursts of intense, high-intensity exercise build strength and endurance.
Could such short, intense exercise be effective and safe in space? Scientists wondered. To find out, they asked her 34 Earthlings to go to bed and he stayed for 70 days non-stop.
Testing HIIT workouts in bed
A head-down bedrest is the best scientific simulation of space travel, and the most uncomfortable. People lie down day and night while studying quietly in bed with their heads down. In a bed that is tilted 6 degrees with your head facing the floor and your feet pointing up. As in weightlessness, fluids flow into the head, atrophying muscles and endurance.
Early head tilted bed rest rapidly altered the physique of once-healthy volunteers, effectively softening and contracting their muscles to what would be seen if they spent many months in space. It became the same.
But Ploutz-Snyder and her colleagues hoped that a proper exercise program would keep bedridden volunteers healthy and, if so, usable in space. I brought in my bed-ready bike and weight machine, which mimics running without gravity, and asked some of the volunteers to lie on their backs for a few minutes to an hour.
Others remained completely sedentary as controls. (All volunteers between the ages of 24 and her 55 years had passed medical and psychological screenings and had been paid for participation prior to study initiation. No dropouts occurred.)
The exercisers’ six-times-weekly routine centered on what researchers called “undulating periodization.” That meant doing high-intensity intervals of varying lengths on one day, and lifting weights and cardio on another day.
In more detail, volunteers sprinted on a sideways treadmill three times per week at high-intensity intervals (lying sideways, in the air, and tethered to the ceiling). Once a week, the interval consisted of him eight 30-second all-out sprints. On another day he was 6 times at 2 minute intervals. And on day three he has four four-minute intervals, all with short breaks between sprints.
On alternate days, volunteers trotted on a prone prone bicycle stationary on a bed for approximately 30 minutes.
Later that same day, they lifted in bed, moaning squats, leg presses, heel raises, and leg curls, using just enough weight to barely finish eight to 12 repetitions.
The program is tailored to highlight and strengthen multiple aspects of the cardiovascular system and the large muscles of the lower body in the shortest amount of time possible, says Pruz-Snyder.
The results show that the prone workout was a success. The exercisers maintained most of their muscles and nearly all of their endurance, and experienced few injuries, except for ear infections from sweat running into their ear canals when exercising in bed.
However, day by day Over the 70 days of the study, the inactive controls became sicker and weaker. After completing the study, the scientists enrolled him in another 11-day exercise and rehabilitation program.
“For me, the most compelling part of the story is that averaging one hour of exercise a day saved people from lying in bed 23 hours a day,” Poutz-Snyder said. says. “There is no drug that can do that.”
With the data in hand, she and her colleagues convinced NASA to test the program in space. At the time, in the mid-2010s, the astronaut said she was exercising as much as 2.5 hours a day, almost all of it at a moderate pace. Some of them now run or cycle for a few minutes at short intervals three times a week, and on other days they jog or ride a space bike for about 30 minutes while doing hard but fast-paced lifts. Started a new routine. My weekly exercise time has been cut in half. (Since the study ended, astronauts on the International Space Station have continued to combine vigorous and moderate exercise, albeit in varying combinations.)
Meir, who spent 205 days in space on the 2019 and 2020 International Space Station missions, praises the effectiveness of his training there. “Exercises on the International Space Station are a very important part of our routine,” she said.
Lessons for exercising on earth
The astronauts who participated in this study returned to Earth with much, but not all, of their endurance and physical strength intact.
Proutz-Snyder says there are lessons in both their losses and gains. Sitting for long periods of time is physiologically similar to floating in space. Our muscles, heart and lungs become idle when we are sitting and lose their function if their inactivity continues.
So get up and move, said Proutz Snyder. Any activity is better than nothing. But for an efficient and effective exercise routine, try these scientifically-tested space workouts instead of from your bed. , walks at high speed up the hill. If that seems difficult, do interval sessions over several weeks.
The full program could easily fit into most of our schedules, she said, and it has a hint of charm.
“It’s efficient,” she said, effective, and in additional support, “many of the astronauts continued the program after their missions ended.”
Have a fitness question? e-mail YourMove@washpost.com I may answer your question in a future column.
