After a hip replacement exercises

A hip replacement swaps a worn hip joint for an artificial ball and socket. It reliably relieves pain and improves walking, and most people recover faster than they expect - often faster than after a knee replacement. The rehabilitation focuses on rebuilding the hip and buttock muscles, which weaken over years of arthritis and again after surgery, and on restoring a normal walking pattern.

Depending on the surgical approach you may be given hip precautions: movements to avoid for the first six to twelve weeks to protect against dislocation, such as bending the hip past 90 degrees, crossing the legs, or turning the leg inwards. Some approaches need no precautions at all. Follow the specific advice from your surgical team, which always takes priority over general guidance.

The typical picture in the early weeks is a hip that is sore around the wound and along the outside of the thigh, tires quickly, and is stiff first thing in the morning. A limp is common at first and usually reflects weak buttock muscles rather than anything wrong with the joint, and it improves as strength returns. Some puffy swelling in the thigh, and sometimes down at the ankle, is normal for several weeks when it is soft, painless and eases overnight or with the leg up. Calf pain or tightness, a warm or red calf on one side, or sudden breathlessness are not part of normal recovery and need urgent medical attention to rule out a clot.

Most people are walking with a stick or unaided within two to six weeks, back to most daily activities by around three months, and still gaining strength and stamina at a year. This programme moves from gentle early activation and standing work, through progressive strengthening, into walking distance and daily function. Contact your surgical team if the hip becomes hot, increasingly painful, or gives way.

Who this programme is for

People recovering from a total hip replacement. In the early weeks, follow the programme your hospital team gave you. Sessions with us start once your surgical team has confirmed you have no restrictions. While hip precautions are in place, your hospital team guides your exercise. The early-phase exercises below are shown for reference only, and this page complements hospital physiotherapy rather than replacing it.