Physical Therapy Exercises for Seniors after Hip Replacement

It is estimated that one in three seniors ages 65 years old and above experience fall accidents, and the incidence increases with advancement in age. In fact, half of the population of seniors ages 80 years old and above have at one point succumbed to a fall accident. Some of these accidents are minor, causing only soreness and bruises on the back, arms, and legs. Some are more serious fall accidents which result fractures in the hips and even life-threatening situations where concussion happens on the head.

Whenever fall occurs, the most common injury seniors get is hip fracture. It is imperative to keep your home free from clutter and ensure that safety mechanisms such as grab bars have been put in place so that your loved ones aren’t going to be part of the statistics. If unfortunate circumstances happen where your senior loved one is to undergo hip replacement, then you need the help of physical therapists from Road to Recovery Physical and Occupational Therapy so that their rehabilitative needs are met. Here are a few of the hip exercises that’ll hasten the recovery of your loved ones to help them be away from complications associated with the surgical procedure:

1. Making circles using the ankles. Assist your loved one to assume a supine position. Let them bend their ankles up while they pull their toes down, and then bend their ankles down while pulling their toes up afterward. Additionally, encourage them to do rotating motions, in both clockwise and counterclockwise direction of their feet while their toes are pointed on the ceiling. Repetitions of these exercises should be done in 10s during the first week and gradually increase in multiples of 5 in the succeeding weeks.

2. Thigh and butt squeezes. While your loved ones are still assuming the supine position, assist them in doing the thigh squeezes. Encourage them to tighten the muscles of the anterior portion of the thighs by telling them to push their knee downwards and then hold the position for 10 seconds before relaxing. This exercise should be repeated ten times.

   As for the buttocks squeezes, encourage them to make squeezing movement on the muscles of their butts and hold it in place for 10 seconds before relaxing. Repetitions for this are the same as that in thigh squeezes and gradual increase in repetitions should be done as the weeks pass by.

3. Kicking while sitting. Physical Therapy in Brooklyn, New York suggests that to strengthen your senior loved one’s knee and to encourage them to assume a different position while exercising, kicking-while-sitting is the best exercise to do. Assist them to comfortably sit on a chair and then let them lift their foot as much as possible while their knees are straightened. See to it that the knees are on the same level with their lap. Motivate them to hold the position for 5 seconds before allowing them to slowly put their leg down. Encourage them to do the exercise ten times on both legs and gradually increase repetitions in each passing weeks.

In order to prevent weakening of the muscles in the lower extremities of your senior loved ones, the above exercises which commonly done by Physical Therapy in Far Rockaway, are the perfect activities they should do in different parts of the day. They may feel discomfort from time to time as they do the exercise; however, it should be remembered that success in the rehabilitation program largely depends on their commitment to adhere to these exercise routines.