Physical Therapy After Knee Replacement Surgery

It is important to regain your range of strength and motion after getting knee replacement surgery. This is the reason why getting physical therapy is significant. Initially, your physical therapist will help you to learn ways by which you carry on the exercises, and later you will have to do them by yourself. Once you recover, you will discontinue your old exercises and start with new ones.

Physical therapy after knee replacement surgery

After the day of the surgery, the process of physical therapy starts. For support, your therapist will help you to walk and get up with the assistance of a walker, cane, parallel bars, and crutches. Your physical therapist will provide you with guidance on how to improve your movement and increase the flow of blood to your feet and legs. It is important for preventing the clotting of blood in your legs.

The physical therapist will also help you with your movement in and out of bed so that you can do it by yourself. An occupational therapist or a nurse will help you to know the best way to use the toilet, dress, and bathe after the surgery. The more you move, the more your knee will become stronger. Your physical therapist may ask you to go down or up your hospital corridor.

In the beginning, your physical therapist will assist you in climbing the stairs. When you go home, your physical therapist and doctor will list some of the exercises that you have to follow and practice on your own.

Physical therapy timeline after your surgery

In the first one to two weeks of your surgery, you have to concentrate on strengthening, balance, and range of motion exercises. These can include walking with the help of a walker with the guidance of your physical therapist, supported knee bend, and reaching an angle of ninety degrees; leg raises, knee straightening, and ankle pumps.

After three to six weeks, you will depend less on assistive devices like canes. It is because you will gain more strength. Your physical therapist may therefore start to introduce low-impact exercises in the exercise regimen. Apart from walking, it can consist of riding a bike.

Knee exercises will focus on bending the knee by one hundred and twenty degrees. At this point, you can slowly perform day-to-day activities and do household chores. You can get back to work if you have a job that does not require climbing or heavy lifting.

Around seven to twelve weeks of your physical therapy after knee replacement surgery, you will have a wide motion range, and you can return to many low-impact exercises. When you are not doing therapy under the guidance of your physical therapist, make sure to apply their instructions to get the best results and strengthen your knee. But, during this time, you must avoid some high-impact activities like sports. Some of the things that you can avoid are playing football, doing high-intensity cycling, high-impact aerobics, skiing, and running.

After your knee replacement surgery, you can get in touch with Austin physical therapy from their website austin-pt.com. It is very easy to call and schedule an appointment.

With the help of physical therapy, you can start doing low-impact activities like walking that can enable you to get back to your daily activities in no time. Therefore, it is important to follow the timeline of physical therapy after you get your knee replacement surgery. Because of this, your knee will be able to recover and heal at a quick pace, and you will be able to resume walking with ease.