Prehabilitative Exercise Prior to Immobilization

This study involves 48 healthy people, divided into two age groups: younger adults (20-35 years old) and older adults (65-85 years old). It lasts for 10 weeks. Participants will have one knee temporarily unable to move (immobilized) for 7-10 days. After that, they will do four weeks of heavy resistance exercise training (HReT). Half of the participants will do this training before the immobilization too, to see if it helps protect the knee. A prehabilitative exercise means doing exercises before an injury or surgery to help the body recover better. The study looks at how these exercises might help once the knee can move again.

• Participation involves muscle biopsies, which are small samples taken from the leg muscles.
• The study lasts 10 weeks with multiple visits to the study site required.
• Participants should not have knee pain or be on blood-thinning medication.