Mostly, you might be prescribed bed rest if you’ve suffered an accident, after a fracture when you have a cast on, when you’re hospitalized, during pregnancy and in old age due to excessive weakness or fatigue.
No matter the reason for being bedridden, you have to stay active and exercise your body during this time.
We all know that exercise is important for maintaining health.[Ref] And it’s all the more essential when you’re in bed for a long time due to any reason.[Ref]
Exercise isn’t necessarily lifting weights and doing excessive cardio. It’s anything that requires you to move your body with the goal of maintaining your health and fitness.
In this article, we’ll share the best exercises for bedbound people, all backed by research.
We’ve divided it down into various categories so it’s easier for you to follow a specific regimen.
Ready to get the blood flowing? Let’s begin!
Exercises for Pregnant Women During Bed Rest
Preeclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy) incompetent cervix, placental issues, and vaginal bleeding are a few of the reasons why you’d be prescribed bed rest during pregnancy.
Here are some safe exercises you can do easily while being pregnant and bedridden:[Ref]
1. Kegels
Kegels are excellent for strengthening the pelvic floor muscles. Having good strength here can help during delivery and in recovery after childbirth.
Here’s how you should perform the Kegel exercise:
- Lie on your back on a bed or floor.
- Pull the muscles around your vagina and uterus inwards as if you were stopping urine or gas from passing.
- Hold for 5-10 seconds. Release. Repeat
Read our article on pelvic floor physiotherapy to learn more about various exercises for your pelvic floor.
2. Arm and Shoulder Strengthening
Moving your arms and upper body through its full range of motion is helpful for maintaining flexibility and strength in your arms. Doing an exercise called arm abductions is great for that.
For that, move your arms away from your body sideways or horizontally. Lift them as high as possible until the palms of both hands touch above your head. Return to the starting position.
You can add weights if you can manage it. Just make sure that you are either sitting with a good posture while you do this or lying on a flat surface.
3. Static Quads
Your quadriceps muscles (these are on the front of your thigh) are essential for walking and standing. Their job is to straighten your knees or bring them in full extension. Thus maintaining its strength while in bed is important.
- Lie down on your back or sit in bed with your legs straight.
- Place a rolled towel or a small pillow under your knee.
- Press the pillow down with your knee so that your ankle is elevated off of the bed.
- Hold for 10 seconds. Relax
- Repeat exercise 10 times and do three sets, thrice a day.
4. Resisted Neck Movements
A weakness of neck muscles can make it difficult to hold the head up. It can also lead to a forward head posture and headaches.
Here’s how you can maintain good strength in your neck muscles while in bed:
- Bend your head in a way that you move your ear towards the top of the shoulder on the same side. You can resist this motion by applying pressure with your hands in the opposite direction.
- Move your head downwards towards the opposite thigh. Take it as far as your neck will go. Hold for a few seconds. You can resist this movement by applying pressure in the opposite direction yourself or asking someone else to do it.
- Rotate your head from right to left and left to right. Resist this motion with your hand. Or have someone else apply minimum pressure on your head in the opposite direction.
5. Side-lying Clams
Glutes are the muscles of our buttocks. You need good strength in these to maintain stability in walking, standing and even while moving in bed.
The side-lying clams exercise works on the two major muscles of the buttock – the gluteus medius and maximus.
Here’s how you can strengthen the glutes while bedbound:
- Lie on your side with your knees slightly bent.
- Lift the top knee towards the ceiling.
Hold for 5 seconds. Slowly bring it back to the starting position.
Exercises for Bedbound Older People
The human body gets stiffer and the muscles become weaker as we age. Stretches are excellent to maintain mobility of the muscles and the joints. These can be:
- Palm stretches: stretch your arm outwards. Hold your palm out and stretch it.
- Thoracic stretches: you can read our article on thoracic mobility to learn how to perform these stretches.
- Ankle rotations: Move your ankles in all directions.
- Neck rolls: Move your neck in all directions – up, down, side to side.
- Knee to chest movement of the legs
Older people are often limited to their beds or chairs because of arthritis, fatigue and low energy levels.
If you are a bedridden older person or know one, then here are some strengthening exercises you can try in bed: [Ref]
1. Arm Raises
Arm raises help to maintain the tone and power of the muscles around the shoulder. These also work on the chest muscles and those in the upper back, thus helping you breathe better and maintain good posture.
Here’s how you do these:
- While in bed, raise both arms above and over your head.
- Hold for 10 seconds
- Slowly bring your arms to the starting position. Relax.
- Repeat 10 times every few hours.
2. Air Push-ups
This exercise works on the muscles of the shoulders, chest and arms.
- Lie on your back.
- Do a pretend push up towards the ceiling. You can add weights or hold light objects to add some resistance.
- Bring the arms down. Repeat 10 times every few hours.
3. Static Quads
Quadricep muscles are located in the front of your thigh. Their job is to help your hip flex (bend forward) and straighten the knee.
We’ve covered this exercise above so scroll up to see how you can perform static quads.
4. Leg Raises
There are several different muscle groups in your legs, all performing specific jobs. Leg raise is a wonderful exercise because it works on multiple muscles at the same time.
- Lie on your back and place your hands to the side of your body.
- Lift one leg towards the ceiling by keeping the knee straight and the ankle in a neutral position as shown in the picture.
- Slowly bring the leg down and repeat the same with the other leg.
- Repeat and perform 10 leg raises on each leg.
5. Hip Abduction
Hip abductors are the muscles that move your legs outward. They also help to stabilize your pelvis when you walk. If there’s a weakness here, your hip starts to bend towards the weaker side when you stand or walk.
- Lie on your back on the edge of the bed.
- Move your leg outwards such that it goes out of the bed. Keep your knees straight.
- Hold the leg in the air at the level of the bed as shown in the picture.
- Return to the starting position and rest the leg for 5 seconds.
- Perform the same movement on the other leg.
6. Bridging
Bridging exercise is excellent for working on your glutes (buttock), back and core abdominal muscles. Here’s how you do it:
- Lie on your back.
- Bend your knees half way as shown in the picture. Your feet should rest on the bed.
- Lift your buttocks off the bed by putting your weight on your feet. Tighten your abdominal muscles.
- Align your hips with your knees and shoulders.
- Hold for 5 seconds and take one deep breath.
- Come back to the starting position.
7. Knee Fall Out
This exercise strengthens your abdominal muscles and the pelvic floor. It’s ideal for creating a balance between the tone of the muscle groups on the inside and the outside of the thigh.
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet resting on the bed.
- Slowly drop one knee outwards. Keep the other leg stable.
- Don’t let the leg go too far. You’ll know you’ve hit the limit when your pelvis on the other side lifts off the bed. (There’s nothing wrong with your pelvis moving when your knees move this way. In fact, it’s completely normal. But for the sake of this exercise which is geared towards strengthening, you should stop when the pelvis moves.)
8. Abdominal Muscles Strengthening
A weak core can lead to issues such as faulty posture and lower back pain. Here’s how you can strengthen your core while in bed:
- Lie on your back. Bend your knees so that your feet rest on the bed.
- Squeeze your abdominal muscles to draw your belly button in towards the bed.
- Hold for 5 seconds. Make sure you don’t hold your breath during this time.
9. Breathing Exercises
While talking about exercises for the bedridden person, we often focus on the stretching and strengthening exercises. But breathing is also an important component that shouldn’t be ignored.
Lung function and endurance can decline in bedbound patients.[Ref] Here’s how you can maintain strength in your lungs while staying in bed:
- Sit with your back upright. You can also perform this while lying on your back but it’s best if you can sit up.
- Take a deep breath in through your nose without moving your shoulders too much.
- Fill your lungs with as much air as you can.
- Let it out slowly.
Best Exercises for Post-Surgical Bedbound People
People can have limited mobility and be confined to bed due to a birth defect, congenital issue or an acquired condition.
Surgery is the most common reason for temporary limited mobility. Often the operated region has to stay immobile for some time, but the rest of the body can move just fine.
Such people are usually otherwise healthy. If that’s you, then you can start with bodyweight exercises and progress to free weights or resistance bands.
Here are some exercises you can do while in bed after surgery: [Ref]
1. Imaginary Bicycle in Bed
If your legs can move, practice moving your legs in a way that you would if you were riding a bicycle.
This exercise works on all the different muscle groups of the legs along with the core muscles.
- While lying down, move the knee of one leg (let’s say the right leg) towards your chest while the other leg is straight.
- Now straighten the right leg and bring the left knee to your chest.
- Repeat.
2. Arm Rotations With Weights
If your legs are immobile, then you can perform upper body strengthening exercises to maintain the tone.
Here’s how:
- In either lying or sitting, hold your arms out sideways.
- Rotate in a small circular motion. You can add weights if you want to add more strengthening.
Why Should You Do Strengthening Exercises While Bedridden?
Being restricted to the bed and not being able to move around affects both physical and mental health.
It can make chronic health conditions worse. You could suffer from depression, develop joint stiffness, muscle weakness and so on.
Research tells us that our bodies begin to lose muscle mass (medical term: atrophy) after about just one week in bed, on average. This number is different for different muscle groups, but all muscles suffer to some extent when you’re bedridden.
Another study found that critically ill patients in the ICU can lose up to 30% muscle mass in 10 days of being bedridden.[Ref]
Exercising, in general, has both physical and mental health benefits.
A study by Shakespear-Druery et al. (2022) found that doing light-weight exercises in bed for 60 minutes using your own body weight reduces the risk of diabetes, heart conditions, respiratory issues, musculoskeletal disorders and anxiety or depression.
Some other benefits of exercising while on bed rest include:
- Improved circulation
- Better aerobic capacity
- Good tone and strength
- Normal joint flexibility
- Elevated mood, mental state
- Reduced intensity of chronic condition
- Muscles stay active.
- Recovery speeds up.
- Exercise helps with walking after being bedridden
Key Takeaways
Staying in bed and exercising are not mutually exclusive.
The best tips I can give you about exercising while bedridden is that you should create a routine. Specify a time of day and exercise with consistency. Finding a partner to do these exercises with is even better.
Also, expect good and bad days. But remember to keep going to see results.
If you feel unusual pain, irregular heart rate, severe shortness of breath, palpitation, excessive sweating, or blood pressure issues, then you need to contact your primary care doctor or physical therapist.
Remember, sometimes sitting up by yourself is enough exercise to work the different muscles of your body.
Just remember to move. Feel free to contact us if you need a one-on-one physical therapy session or if you have any questions regarding the exercises we’ve mentioned in this article.