What physical therapy exercises did you do after hip replacement?

I have an upcoming hip replacement plus repair to torn Medius and Minimus muscles. It’s sort of a double surgery that I’m not looking forward to but…… i am doing some pre-surgery therapy and imagine a lot of post as well. You made me feel better about the replacement pain however…. Thank you!

PT is absolutely necessary after hip replacement. Did your ortho at least provide exercises for you to do PT on your own? Considerable pain after three weeks is also concerning. What does your surgeon say about that? I had considerable pain too and I had both femoral nerve damage and impingement after my surgery. I wish you luck and be persistent with your ortho - you should not be in considerable pain after three weeks. Best of luck.

I’ve had both hips replaced and a revision on 1. The first one was back 2015. So much worn away that my leg was a inch shorter than the other. PT is the most important thing to do. They started me off in the hospital and gave us papers with diagrams so we would know what to do. I followed those instructions at home religiously every day 3X a day. I’ve had no pain or problems. I can’t fathom any orthopedic surgeon telling you you don’t need PT. You can look these up on YouTube. Get loosened up again. Otherwise you will have pain and it can freeze up with very little movement. Happened to my grandmother and since she was already in her 90’s we had to put her into assisted living. Please look up the. Let me know if you need help and how your progressing

PT is essential !!!! If you don't want further complications I would do some. I have total hip replacement for 25 yrs now. Thank you Lord no revisions at all. Walking is best p.t. after healing. Aqua therapy I did for like 2 yrs to get all muscles strong to hold that hip in place. That is the key ! Ligament, tendons, and muscles need to be strong and flexible. I had one of the best surgeons who cared for my well being not just about surgery and lining his pocket with repeat surgeries. Key as I said is keeping it all strong to hold everything in place !!!! Wish you the best on your journey. Lord bless you and keep you !

Agree 100 %

I'm seeing a lot of people posting here that a physical therapist is absolutely needed / required after a complete hip replacement surgery and that is false. They are wrong and they are pushing opinion based disinformation. I've had a total left hip replacement, my own recovery at home was going quite well with remarkable progress from day 6 post op forward. I'm not embellishing any of this. As long as I did my generic "at home" based forms of patient stretches and exercises, stayed active around the house and didn't break any of my surgeon's post operative rules, life was great and getting greater every day...that is until I agreed to see a physical therapist. I won't go into all of the negative details regarding what they did to me and how much personal recovery set back they caused me but after a few sessions it became transparently clear that involving a physical therapist in my post op recovery was both counterproductive and even unnecessary. It was against my best interest. They were having me do all kinds of things (all in the name of strengthening muscles) for a positive patient outcome. Most of those exercises were completely unnecessary at that point in time but would have been OK to do many months later after all of my surgical incisions had completely healed. Guess what, strengthening muscles is what everyone uses as a rationale for PT after a hip replacement. It is used a blanket reason by many surgeons and physical therapists and proponents of PT and the world is now learning that this is simply false. If you want the abusive torture of unnecessarily exercising muscles while your surgical (4 layers in most cases) sutures are healing, there is no shortage of people who are willing to walk you down that dark, painful and unnecessary road. And yes...there will always be those who back up their opinions regarding that matter with cherry picked studies to defend their opinion about the absolute need for a physical therapist after a total hip replacement. That is dust of confusion it will probably never settle. The Internet if full of such cherry picked studies and they are a dime a dozen. In my case, physical therapists and their techs only caused me more damage than help in my recovery and end the end I had to draw the line and say "enough is enough" I was already making enormous strides in my recovery on my own at home without the involvement of a physical therapist or tech. They just had me doing all kinds of unnecessary things and they were causing me incredible pain, joint and muscle damage and sleep deprivation. A physical therapist or tech turned out to be both counterproductive and unnecessary in my case. But don't take my word for it. We now live in a time where newer orthopedic surgeons are not even pushing a physical therapists on all of their hip replacement patients post operatively. They tailor this to their individual patient's own needs and many of them are going home from the hospital with just a printed handout of generic "at home" physical therapy stretches and exercises that can be done standing as well as in bed as opposed to recommending a physical therapist. I personally know of one and she did just fine in her recovery. The same is happening for me. This won't be everyone's story but it is all the truth. The message that all hip replacement placement patients require or should have the benefit of a physical therapist in their post operative recovery is an old dogma dogma message that is not true as a blanket statement. As to why this old dogma message is still religiously pushed in various medical and clinical circles is irrelevant. It really is irrelevant and does not make anything "so". To go there is simply to wonder into a land of confusion that is full of willful ignorance, old established standards that are now being revisited and rethought as well as conspiratorial thinking. I'm not going to go there.

@detayled, I see you have taken issue with posts recommending physical therapy after hip replacement. You're right that a referral to a trained physical therapist may not be necessary.

That said, physical activity is necessary to regain mobility. Thus professional physical therapy guidance is often offered to help motivate complete recovery. Here's what Mayo Clinic says on the subject:
- Physical therapy https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/hip-replacement/about/pac-20385042
"Daily activity and exercise can help you regain the use of your joint and muscles. A physical therapist can recommend strengthening and mobility exercises and can help you learn how to use a walking aid, such as a walker, a cane or crutches. As therapy progresses, you'll gradually increase the amount of weight you put on your leg until you're able to walk without assistance."

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It sounds like you have had a personal negative experience with PT when you were making good recovery strides with exercises on your own at home. I'm truly sorry that this happened to you. When did you have a hip replacement? How are you doing now?

What we read over and over again is that everyone's recovery will be a different experience, I will vouch for that after having my fourth hip surgery - two replacements, two revisions, the last revision being a near total reconstruction of my femur.

I can't imagine how much longer my paths to recovery would have been without competent, qualified and empathetic physical therapists. Maybe I just got lucky, but mine have all helped me in ways I could have never accomplished on my own or with YouTube videos and the like. When I felt that PT was painful or like it was doing more harm than good, I've been able to work out a schedule with my physical therapists for when I was willing, ready and able to continue.

The physical therapists I've worked with have come with the benefit of extensive medical training and most importantly the experiences of working with patients who have had similar experiences to my own. While I could have conceived of recovery without PT, there is so much to healing and regaining strength, balance, coordination, gait, etc., that is simply not intuitive. PTs are able to identify strengths and weaknesses and recommend healing exercises and activities.

Continuing with physical therapy seems as much a personal decision as a clinical one. I'm sure had I declined PT, that would have been the end of it and I would never have known of the benefits I now know I have received. But I'm grateful that my insurance coverage includes PT, and my organization is flexible enough for me to schedule sessions on as as-needed basis.

Like every part of the process, the patient has to be his or her own best advocate. Could I have recovered on my own without formal physical therapy? Maybe, but it sure didn't hurt to have professional and experienced help along the way.

HelIo,
I agree with you a 100 percent, I had my first hip replacement done and went to physical therapy like one time. Then 26 days later I had my right hip replaced, went to physical therapy and my therapist was making me do exercises that actually we're very painful. So when I went to go see my doctor on my two week check up I told him about it and he said stop physical therapy immediately,and showed me two exercises to do. I did them everyday and I was back to work after 7 weeks after the second surgery.

I had pt after my hip replacement. It as essential. Pain continued well thru 3 months. Now at 7 months it is better but still uncomfortable at times. Hip replacement caused some low back issues which I am now battling. Leg length differences to be addressed quickly to avoid low back issues. Needed lift in nonoperative leg