Having hip surgery isn’t something that most people want to do. Yet surgery is used to address a wide range of hip problems. 

For instance, severe hip fractures may require surgery to repair. Hip osteoarthritis can also get to a stage where surgery is necessary to relieve its symptoms, and this condition alone affects 18.5% of men and 26.9% of women in their lifetime. 

Physical therapy is often used to help patients recover after hip surgery, but people may not know the goals that their physical therapist will be shooting for during the recovery process. 

Three of the goals of physical therapy after hip surgery

Typically, physical therapy (PT) plans will be designed to meet goals that are specific to you. However, there are certain general goals that your physical therapist will seek to meet after you’ve had a hip surgery. Some of these goals include: 

1. Reducing pain — The trauma from a hip surgery can take a while to heal, and pain is a common result of this soft tissue trauma. One goal of post-hip surgery PT is to take steps to reduce your pain. For instance, your therapist may show you how to do stretches and range-of-motion (ROM) exercises designed to help decrease pain. 

2. Increasing muscle strength — Long periods of dealing with a chronic issue like hip osteoarthritis can leave your hip muscles weak. Add hip surgery on top of that, and your muscles may definitely have a problem doing their job. Your therapist will seek to build up your weak hip muscles. Typically, this will involve doing activities like walking and performing strengthening exercises. 

3. Getting you back to doing your daily activities — A hip problem can make doing many normal daily tasks much harder. The aftermath of hip surgery can increase this difficulty even more. A physical therapist will strive to help you recover your ability to do normal activities as soon as possible. They can even show you alternative ways to perform tasks like getting dressed while you’re healing from surgery. 

Continuum Wellness offers physical therapy that can help you after hip surgery

Keen to find physical therapy that can help you meet these goals and more after your hip surgery? Our Continuum Wellness team is primed to help you get the post-surgical rehab you require. We excel at building plans that are personalized to fit your specific needs and goals, and our physical therapists also offer pre-surgical rehab that can help get your body ready for surgery. 

Contact our team today for more information about our pre- and post-surgical rehab services or to schedule an initial appointment.