After knee replacement surgery, each exercise you do in PT and on your own will help you achieve one or more of the following goals:
- Regain your balance on your new knee
- Strengthen your quadriceps, which help stabilize the knee joint
- Increase the range of motion in your new knee
Regain balance
Balance exercises might include practicing balancing on one leg, standing on one leg with your eyes closed, walking heel to toe, and standing on one leg while tossing a ball to your therapist or a partner.
Strengthen your quads
Your quadriceps provide muscle power to your knees. But if you’ve been less mobile in the time leading up to your knee replacement, these large muscles that form your thighs may have lost some strength.
Restoring your quad strength will help with all aspects of your recovery, says Dr. Hankenson.
“This can help the knee range of motion by making it easier to extend the knee,” Dr. Hankenson says. “It can also improve pain control by distributing force over the knee joint, leading to an easier time walking.” Ultimately, she adds, stronger quads can “prevent future injury by strengthening the joint.”
One example of a quad-strengthening exercise is sitting or lying on the floor with your legs extended out. Then, you’ll contract, hold, and release the quad of the leg with the new joint by pressing the back of your knee into the floor.
Increase range of motion
Many exercises that work your quads also move you through the knee’s range of motion. After surgery, it’s critical that you work almost right away on achieving the new joint’s full range of motion.
“There’s a risk that if you’re not doing consistent exercises to improve that range of motion, your muscles and tendons can get stuck after surgery,” Dr. Hankenson says, “and that’s much harder to correct.”
These exercises might include simple leg extensions to bend and straighten the knee while sitting in a chair.
“By week seven, you should be able to flex your knee at least 120 degrees and fully straighten your knee.”
But there’s an important caveat. After surgery, you’ll have specific restrictions related to range of motion that depend on how your surgery was done and the type of equipment that was used. Typically, your physical therapist will be made aware of your restrictions, and you should never push past them. This could cause serious injury. Before you leave the hospital, make sure that you or a family member understands your range of motion restrictions, adds Dr. Hankenson.
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