Question: What Does FRED Actually Do?

Andrew Winnard answered on 5 Dec 2015:

Thanks for asking about FRED, he will be happy to hear you guys are interested in him!

Firstly FRED actually stands for Functional Readaptive Exercise Device.

He is a bit like a cross trainer- but he has no resistance to your movements when you use him. The idea is to exercise on him very slowly with the most smooth and controlled movements you can do! When you get it right it looks like the exercise helps you learn to use muscles that keep your hips and lower back stable and hold yourself in better posture. Astronauts backs stretch so they get taller and they bend forwards most of the time they are in space. This causes back pain and injury risk after they come back. So exercising on FRED might help fix all this…. but thats what I am doing research to find out!

Here are the more detailed, nitty gritty details, which some of you might like:
More than 50% (half) of astronauts get back pain! Why?
On Earth, our bodies are used gravity. The gravity load is no problem providing we can control how our backs position/posture with the right muscles to stabilise the spine, which dont get tired doing this all day.

When Space travellers return to Earth, they have forgotten how to handle the load that gravity places on their body and backs. This can lead to pain and even injury until they learn to hold their spine right again, especially while bending or lifting. Probably one of the most important back muscles in all of this is called the muscle multifidus muscle. Check out the muscle here: we have seen that multifidus wastes and gets much smaller after spaceflight. This muscle controls the curves in your back to help manage loads.

The multifidus muscle also becomes small and weak if you have bad posture on Earth or spend a long time sitting at a desk without moving. Its one of the reasons you guys should go out to play and do PE! We think that when multifidus becomes weak it adds to low back pain and this is also what we think happens in space travellers, office workers and the general population! Exercise to learn how to control the postition of your back to distribute load effectively and rebuild strength can get rid of the pain and prevent injuries and further problems! FRED is trying to do this in one easy exercise rather than several weeks of physio! We are still working out exactly how FRED works and if he will work well though and this is my current research!