Stair climbing is a great way to increase your strength and endurance. Always use your hand rail and do not try to climb any steps that are higher than 7″. Using a crutch on the opposite side from your surgery, climb up leading with your good leg.
Physical therapists and orthopaedic surgeons have a saying they use with hip replacement patients: Up with the good, down with the bad. That means you should lead with your stronger leg that still has your original hip to walk up the stairway and your weaker leg to walk down it.
You'll need to restrict activities that require bending, twisting and pivoting for the first four weeks. As your muscles and ligaments get stronger, you can climb up and descend stairs normally after a month.
The general consensus is that high-impact sports are discouraged following surgery. These are activities with a high risk of falling such as rugby, martial arts and football. Low impact sports such as golf, cycling, hiking and swimming (avoid breaststroke) are encouraged.
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Climbing up and down stairs increases the load on the hips, as more of the body's weight is placed on them and there is a lifting motion involved. With their biomechanical expertise, physical therapists are uniquely qualified to help patients with hip pain overcome this and other movement issues.
When you are out in public, try to stay away from climbing stairs or sloped walkways that do not have any handrails. Additionally, avoid stairs with steps that are far apart from each other or have odd shaping. If anything is amiss, always ask others for assistance.
Climbing stairs is one of the best exercises when it comes to pure FAT BURN, strengthening the lower body, toning the butt, thighs, calves, losing inches from those love handles and belly and building great abs. Along with these benefits is the immense good it does for your lungs and cardio vascular system.
Walking is the best exercise for a healthy recovery, because walking will help you recover hip movement. Initially, the use of a walker or crutches will help to prevent blood clots and strengthen your muscles which will improve hip movement.
The second complication we try to avoid is loosening of the implants. This can happen when patients do too much walking and stress the implants prior to the ingrowth process. Generally, I advise patients to walk only a few hundred yards a day total until they get to around six weeks.
“On average, hip replacement recovery can take around two to four weeks, but everyone is different,” says Thakkar. It depends on a few factors, including how active you were before your surgery, your age, nutrition, preexisting conditions, and other health and lifestyle factors.
Stair climbing helps strengthen your hip and leg bones and, according to MayoClinic.com, may help prevent bone loss and osteoporosis.
Bursitis is the leading cause of hip pain. Repetitive activities like climbing stairs or surgery to the hip can cause the bursa to become inflamed. Many doctors now call trochanteric bursitis “greater trochanteric pain syndrome.”
You can expect to experience some discomfort in the hip region itself, as well as groin pain and thigh pain. This is normal as your body adjusts to changes made to joints in that area. There can also be pain in the thigh and knee that is typically associated with a change in the length of your leg.
Repetitive motions and high-impact activities can damage an implant over time. These types of activities include running, heavy weightlifting, jumping, and more. You may need to avoid sports, such as soccer, cross-country running, racquetball, or basketball, which involve these repetitive motions.
If you bend over too far at the waist, your hip can pop out of its socket. The same thing can happen if you lift your knees higher than your hip.
Your hip implant may wear out or loosen over time. It might also become damaged if you have an injury or dislocation. You may need a revision surgery to replace the damaged parts of the prosthesis.
Using a stationary bike
Biking can improve leg and hip muscle strength and increase the new hip's range of motion. Biking on a stationary bike eliminates the risk of falling and injuring the new hip. Adjusting the bike seat higher than usual can help avoid uncomfortable, excessive bending at the hip.
I recommend that you walk as much as your feel comfortable (at least 2-3 times a day), trying to walk a little further each time. You may walk inside or outside as you feel comfortable. As stated above, you will need a walker or cane for stability for the first 3-6 weeks.
Stair climbing requires about 8 - 11kcal of energy per minute, which is high compared to other moderate level physical activities. Active stair climbers are more fit and have a higher aerobic capacity. Even two flights of stairs climbed per day can lead to 6 lbs of weight loss over one year.
To get a good workout, you can try climbing stairs with 10 to 12 steps, one step at at time. A flight up and down will burn around 2 to 5 calories. A 54kg person burns about 235 calories when climbing stairs for 30 minutes or you can climb up and down a 10-storey building for 5 times to burn around 500 calories.
Stair climbing can help prevent osteoporosis by developing denser, stronger bones. As your muscles pull against the bones of your hips and spine, the bones gradually increase in size, slowing the gradual rate of bone loss that occurs with old age.
Walking is good for hip pain and you should try to walk as much as you can each day. You'll find that in time and with consistency, your hip pain will diminish, and in a best case scenario, it will disappear altogether.
Repetitive motion, particularly from running or cycling (or even walking) can strain the muscles, tendons and ligaments that support the hips. Strained hips can cause pain and prevent the hip from working normally.