If you’ve been told it’s time to get a Total Hip Replacement or THR, fear not, we’ve helped many clients prep and recovery before and after this procedure. In our experience, having hip surgery is a great experience when it comes to joint surgeries.
Many of our clients that have undergone this procedure have had reductions in pain and have had a great recovery. And we’re happy to say it’s had nothing to do with us and everything to do with the procedure being a great treatment option in both Canada and the United States.
Pre Op Hip Replacement Exercises Vancouver
It might seem silly to exercise before a hip replacement but, it’s important to maintain the muscle you still have in the lower body. This can be done through very low intensity exercises and may help you maintain your hip strength and mobility as you await your surgery.
It’s also important to maintain or even build your upper body as the demand on it will steadily increase as you approach your surgery. You must support the affected hip more and more pre-surgery and post surgery, you will need strength for crutches and lowering yourself onto the couch, toilet and bed.
The Hip Replacement Post Op Exercises
Where we can help is in offering some insight into maintaining your hip strength and upper body strength before the procedure and helping you with guidance after the procedure. Vancouver coastal Health offers an exercise booklet for after hip surgery and we can help you learn the exercises and keep you on track with proper technique and form.
The exercises focus on mobility, strength and balance. Some of the exercises are slightly difficult to understand and perform and we can show you how to do them properly. Though many folks manage to undertake their recovery on their own, we’re happy to offer support and guidance to take the stress out of this process.
Here is a link to the exercise guide: https://vch.eduhealth.ca/en/viewer?file=%2fmedia%2fVCH%2fFB%2fFB.863.Ex37.pdf#phrase=false
Though it would seem like a lot, many of the clients we’ve helped are amazed at how quickly they improve and how easy most of the exercises are.
It’s simply our goal to support the advice of your surgeon, doctor, physiotherapist and alike. We’re not here to give advice but we can help you understand some of the protocols your health staff is discussing. This can help clients feel less overwhelmed and make the recovery process much more enjoyable.
Anterior Vs. Posterior Vancouver Hip Replacement Exercises
In our experience, the exercises are relatively similar for both the anterior and posterior hip replacement surgeries. That being said, we will not discuss the subtleties here as each person’s needs are different.
As you progress after each of these surgeries, there appears to be a unification of exercises regardless of which surgery was performed. Many clients return to essentially the same level of function eventually and in approximately the same amount of time.
Summary
Overall, understand that hip replacement surgery has been one of the more successful surgeries we’ve seen as trainers. Clients with knee surgeries and shoulder surgeries sometimes have more differing outcomes. That being said, muscles have an amazing ability to support the body making exercise a key part of any post-op program.
So if you’re headed in for a hip replacement, we hope you see the same results we’ve seen and we’re happy to help you with the exercise component of this process.
Cheers,
FS Studios
