Note:  If you are interested in trying any of the exercises below please seek a therapist for assistance and clearance, especially if you are still in the recovery stage.

Tuesday

The end of week 5 and start of week 6 was my first full week of physiotherapy and I learned a few new things!  Mark showed me how I could do some squats!

•  I placed my operated leg up on a block/step stool (something with some height) to prevent full weight bearing, my feet were about shoulder width apart.  A Bosu ball is placed behind my back and against the wall.  Crutches are out in front of me for balance/support.  Now squat (while not breaking 90 degrees) and using your crutches to assist in balancing and helping yourself up if needed. (The video below is without the assistance but you get the idea)
• It’s important to keep your knee in line with your foot.  You don’t want it to collapse inwards.
• I did these exercises with my legs closed, shoulder width apart and wider.  This worked different areas of my muscles.

I love squats and always have so I am so happy to have this variation! And especially following surgery it helps me feel more mobile and adds some variation to my physio exercises.

We also went over a more intense bridge exercise:

• Using a Bosu ball I placed my legs on the ball while laying on myback.  The none operated leg was be positioned closer to my body, to allow me to work the new hip with more intensity.  *This does not cause a problem for any weight bearing restrictions.
• I was also allowed to roll the ball into my body at the top of the bridge.  This adds more glute activation.  Slow roll, then lower the bridge.

Squats are still my favourite but always glad to get more and more intense exercises.

That evening I laid on my left (new hip) side for 10 seconds, just to see if I could do it.  I didn’t scream!  It’s improving!!

Wednesday

I had a long nap this afternoon. I think the last several days (especially my birthday weekend) are catching up with me and not having a nap the day of Physio.

When trying to fall asleep this night I want to stretch out my lower back so badly!  My legs felt a bit restless (which I use to have a lot before my replacements) and it took a while for me to actually fall asleep.

Thursday

Hard to get up this morning.  All my activities are catching up with me (and it’s a rainy day, always harder to get motivated on rainy days, even without arthritis).

At 11 am I had physio. I started on the bike (as always) but then we moved onto exercises first instead of manual stretching (which we did at the end).  This session included the following exercises:

1. Laying down leg raises (w. Assistance). They are still very challenging.  My therapist would hold me leg at different heights for me to hold and then release.  This allows me to work every angel of the muscle and build more range so that it can all get stronger together and not just one aspect of the muscles,
2. Did some more Bosu ball bridges and rolls.  He didn’t want me to fully do 1 leg yet because of the twisting limitation (in case I lose balance).  He did show me that I can scatter the placement of my feet (forward and backwards) to increase intensity.
3. Glute exercises.  He wanted to see if things were firing well.  I lay on my stomach and raise my left leg as high as possible.  A pillow or two under my abdomen to prevent my back from compensating is always helpful.
4. Another glute exercise.  In the same position (on your stomach) raise your foot into the air (so now it’s an L with your butt) and then lift my foot up into the air. Goal is not to activate the thigh for more then just holding my leg up.  My therapist eventually gave me a rope to help relax my leg and allow things to focus on my gluts.  (If any of these don’t make sense I will be doing videos in the future, or ask and I can send it to you easily).

The session ended with stretching: