Astronauts need workouts too

Wired Magazine has an article this month talking about a study showing that astronauts returning from the International Space Station and shuttle flights have 25% reduced strength in their calves. I am not sure how to react to this study. As we are all aware in our daily lives we live in gravity, sure, but we also have to walk around a lot while on the space station I am under the impression that this lack or gravity and close quarters means that there is not as much need to use your calves, arm strength is probably not reduced by much in comparison.

Here is the guts of the article:

Without stricter workouts, the bodies of long-distance space travelers will be ravaged by the time they return to Earth, or reach another planet.

A NASA-funded study of astronauts freshly returned from six-month stays aboard the International Space Station found that their calf muscles were about 15 percent smaller and 25 percent weaker than when they left.

“By clinical standards, this is a massive loss,” said Scott Trappe, director of Ball State University’s Human Performance Laboratory, in a press release. “This approaches what we see in aging populations in comparisons of a 20-year-old versus an 80-year-old.”

The physiological effects of zero-gravity, where bones and muscles accustomed to carrying Earth-gravity loads quickly wither from lack of use, have been well-documented in astronauts. Even a month in space causes significant damage.

To stay healthy, astronauts aboard the ISS already exercise regularly. The average regiment includes five hours a week on a treadmill or exercise bike, and several sessions with the interim resistive exercise device, or iRED, a machine devised specifically to keep legs strong in zero-gravity.

On Earth, the iRED seems to work just fine. But Trappe’s research tell a different story for space, and emphasize the need for improvements in spacefarer exercise.

“Future long-duration space missions should modify the current ISS exercise prescription and/or hardware to better preserve human skeletal muscle mass and function,” write Trappe’s team in a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

Trappe’s findings are the first to involve muscle biopsies from International Space Station astronauts. Their six-month tours compare to the time necessary for a manned mission to reach Mars.

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