Research Says Do This 2 Weeks Before Surgery To Recover Faster
Key takeaways
- Author: Sela Breen May 01, 2026Assistant Health Editor By Sela Breen Assistant Health Editor Sela Breen is the Assistant Health Editor at mindbodygreen.
- A new meta-analysis suggests that what you do in the weeks leading up to surgery may significantly impact how well you recover.
- Researchers set out to investigate whether exercise and nutrition-based prehabilitation programs actually improve surgical outcomes.
Why this matters: practical guidance grounded in recent research or expert insight.
Author: Sela Breen May 01, 2026Assistant Health Editor By Sela Breen Assistant Health Editor Sela Breen is the Assistant Health Editor at mindbodygreen. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied journalism, international studies, and theatre.Image by Tamara Muth-King / Contributor May 01, 2026It's easy to feel like things are out of your hands when you have a surgery approaching, but one thing you can control is how you prepare your body before the big day.
A new meta-analysis suggests that what you do in the weeks leading up to surgery may significantly impact how well you recover. They call it "prehabilitation," and found two interventions that were particularly helpful in improving outcomes.
Researchers set out to investigate whether exercise and nutrition-based prehabilitation programs actually improve surgical outcomes. To do this, they conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 23 randomized controlled trials involving 2,182 participants.