Total Hip Joint Arthroplasty & Exercise

Full recovery after total hip arthroplasty, or total hip replacement, often takes six months to a year. Exercise can speed your recovery by restoring the strength and range of motion of your hip joint and muscles. Surgeons often recommend 20 to 30 minutes of rehabilitative exercise two to three times a day, starting the day of your surgery. Consult your surgeon and physical therapist to determine an exercise progression that fits your recovery speed.

Precautions

While postoperative exercise can help your hip prosthesis heal, poor exercise technique or rushing your recovery can do more harm than good. Follow the list of precautions provided to you by your surgeon and physical therapist. Common precautions include not bringing your knee higher than your hip; not crossing your legs for at least two months; not bending at the waist more than 90 degrees; using a grabber to pick things up off the ground; no kneeling on the knee of your "good" side; not using the pain to gauge the activities you can or cannot do; and avoiding the turning of your toes inward or outward.

Postoperative Exercise

Within hours of your surgery, a physical therapist starts teaching you easy exercises to help increase the blood supply to your hip. Common exercises include ankle pumps, bending leg slides, buttocks squeezes, hip abductions and straight leg raises. The actions of these exercises mimic their name. For instance, ankle pumps consist of pointing and flexing your toes, bending leg slides require you to slide your foot along your bed as you bend your knee and straighten it again, and buttocks squeezes require you to tighten the muscles in your butt. If you have the strength to get out of bed, your therapist may teach you knee raises, standing hip abductions and standing hip extensions.

Early Exercise

A day or two after surgery, your physical therapist starts to teach you how to walk with a walker and how to climb up and down stairs. Try to walk each day, even if you need the assistance of a nurse or your therapist. By the third or fourth day, you may have enough hip stability to start getting in an out of bed independently. Your therapist may recommend performing standing exercises with a resistance band to increase the strength and stability of your new hip. Within two months of your surgery, you start to progress from your walker to a cane or crutch. As your strength and stability improve, you may switch from your walker to a cane or crutch.

Advanced Exercise

The increased strength in your hip allows you to perform more advanced activities like brisk walking, using a stationary bike, swimming or cross-country skiing. When you start these exercises, only perform them for five to 10 minutes at a time, three to four times a day. Increase your exercise time to 10 to 20 minutes two to three times a day as your endurance improves. After three to six months of regular exercise, try exercising for at least 30 on at least three days each week to maintain the strength and stability of your hip. Perform 30 to 60 minutes of exercise on most days of the week to maintain your fitness.