Before Surgery: General Guidelines

Regular exercise before surgery can help your recovery.

Exercise also helps to:

  • Keep the movement in your hip
  • Make your muscles strong
  • Control your pain
  • Build your knowledge of how to exercise after surgery
  • Reduce your body weight
  • Improve your sleep

Do activities that put less stress on your hip. Try:

  • Swimming, water walking, water aerobics
  • Upright stationary cycling
  • Walking with or without poles
  • Strengthening or stretching exercises (e.g. pages 9 – 15 in this booklet)

Warm up before doing strengthening or stretching exercises.

  • Walk for 5 – 10 minutes
  • Use an upright stationary bike for 5 – 10 minutes
  • Apply moist heat to tight or stiff muscles for 5 – 10 minutes

To keep pain under control:

  • Rest your joint for short, frequent times in the day
  • Pace yourself
  • Use a walking aid such as a cane, walking poles or walker
  • Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about pain medicine

Learn to Turn On Your Core Muscles

Core muscles are deep muscles that support your spine and pelvis. They provide stability, control and good posture when you move.

When your hip hurts too much to stand or walk, these muscles become weak and don’t work well. This can lead to back pain, stiff back, stiff hips, and poor balance. With practice, they will turn on without you thinking about it.

Learn to turn on these muscles before and during each exercise.

1a. Pelvic floor (bladder muscles) Pull your bladder muscles to your belly button OR imagine you are gently trying to hold your urine.

Hold for 6 seconds, then slowly relax Repeat 6 – 8 times, 3 times a day

1b.Lower abdominal muscles Pull your belly button into your spine OR imagine slowly zipping up a tight pair of pants.

Hold for 6 seconds while breathing quietly, then slowly relax as if you unzip your pants. Keep upper chest relaxed

Repeat 6 – 8 times, 3 times a day

Range of motion exercises

  • Leg slide out (8.)
  • Hip stretches (9.)
Strengthening exercises
  • Knee straightening (7.)
  • Hip lift (bridge) (12.)
Stretching exercises
  • Hamstring stretch (10.)
  • Calf stretch (11.)
  • Thigh stretch on belly (19.)
6 After Surgery After Surgery: General guidelines Exercise after surgery will help you recover and regain movement and strength in your hip. Exercise also helps to:
  • Reduce swelling
  • Improve sleep
  • Prevent blood clots
  • Improve balance
  • Control pain
  • Increase activity tolerance
  • Prevent constipation

Hip precautions

After Total Hip Replacement (THR) you will need to follow hip precautions for 3 months unless your surgeon tells you differently. These precautions help you heal and reduce risk of hip dislocation.

It is important that you understand and follow these precautions. Read them in Before, During and After Hip and Knee Replacement Surgery. Ask your surgeon for a copy

Suggestions to keep pain under control are in the booklet Before, During and After Hip and Knee Replacement Surgery mentioned above.

If your whole leg becomes swollen, warm or increasingly painful, tell your doctor right away.

You may have muscle pain as you begin new exercises or return to work. If the increased pain lasts into the next day, try spending less time standing and reduce your exercises.

Each person heals differently. The time it takes to meet goals may differ. Talk to your surgeon or physiotherapist if you are concerned.

What to Expect: Weeks 0 – 3

Follow suggestions to keep your pain under control in the early days after surgery. This reduces your chance of long term pain and helps you to move more freely. Get enough sleep and maintain regular bowel movements. In the first 3 weeks, exercises focus on hip movement and gradually increasing your standing and walking.

Goals: By the end of week 3

  • Move your leg in and out of bed by yourself (start with a strap)
  • Move on and off a raised chair, bed and toilet without help
  • Walk at home using a walker, cane or crutches
  • Use the stairs safely with cane or crutches