Additional Effects of Aerobic and Resistance Exercises to Pelvic Floor Muscle Training After Radical Prostatectomy

Individuals in both study groups will be provided with patient education through verbal and visual presentations. In the content of patient education; information about the importance of the research topic and the content of the study through anatomical models and short animations, lifestyle recommendations for urinary incontinence symptoms (avoiding bladder irritants such as alcohol, caffeine, tea, spicy foods, acidic foods and chocolate, regulating water / fluid consumption, recommendations for attention to bowel regularity and increasing physical activity levels) and recommendations for sexual functioning (coitus positions that facilitate erection, recommendations for reshaping the sexual schema, recommendations for the physical dimension of sexual health) will be given.

In PFMT, voluntary maximal and submaximal contractions for strength and endurance training of pelvic floor muscles will be taught and individuals will continue PFMT as a home exercise program. In the first 2 weeks of PFMT, individuals will perform 3 sessions of exercise per day. In each 2-week control, the number of sessions will be increased by 1 session and PFMT application will be completed with 5 sessions per day in the study.

Aerobic exercise training will be planned 3 days a week, 1 day on the routine clinic day with a treadmill ergometer and 2 days as a home program in the form of brisk walking outside the clinic (e.g. outdoors or in a suitable environment).The intensity of aerobic exercise training will be planned according to the Maximal Heart Rate (MHR) method and Modified Borg Scale (MBS). In the first 2 weeks in the clinic, training will be started with 50 min (+10 min warm-up and cool-down) at 60% of the MHR, the exercise intensity will be increased by 5% every 2 weeks, and the program will be terminated by providing exercise training at 85% of the MHR in the 10th-12th week. Patients will be asked to adjust the intensity of aerobic exercise outside the clinic to correspond to the 12-14 (slightly difficult) degree of perceived fatigue according to the MBS.

Resisted exercise training will be planned 2 days a week, 1 day in the clinic and 1 day outside the clinic as a home program, and 12 different exercises for large muscle groups with dumbbells and weight sets, resistance bands (therabands) will be used in the training. These exercises are leg press, leg extension, leg curl, squat, seated row, lateral pull down, biceps curl, triceps extension, dumble fly, lateral raises, bench press and abdominal crunch. Exercises will be performed with free weights (dumbbells), resistance bands (therabands) or body weight.