It started easing up around the 3 month mark. I still have stiffness and soreness if I overdo but I've been told 12 months. I'm at 7 months, have walked over 4 miles and around 10,000 steps if that helps. I ice at night before bed and wake up stiff but everything is stiff until I get moving as I'm 61 and have some arthritis everywhere lol....The further out I get the stiffness gets better. I know that I'm much stronger than I was. I do have a knee sleeve and this helps tremendously when I need some extra support and compression but make sure it's not too tight. You need to be able to bend the knee. I'm doing everything I was prior to surgery now but I am a bit slower because I don't want to fall. They want me to not fall for at least a year and I definitely do to want a revision. Just make sure you have a great surgeon and you will do great if you do the PT (I opted for actually going to PT). I did 3x a week for a month, 2x a week for a month then 1 time a week for another month and exercises at home.