Following my surgery a week ago, I can now start some rehab exercises. The hip flexors are the main problem (v. weak) and less of a problem are the quads and hamstrings (I will also have to wait a while to rehab them properly).
Can anyone give me advice on rehabbing the hip flexors? At the moment I am doing sitting and standing straight leg raises (as straight as possible without a lot of pain). I will be able to go in a pool in a few days when the wound is well sealed, so pool exercises are ok.
Also can anyone advise me on frequency? The advice from the physio is 6! times a day, which is impractical while working. I can easily do 3 times a day, morning, afternoon, b4 bed. What will the likely difference be between 3 and 6 times a day?
I was told to do these rehab exercises 3-4 times a day, but 3 times is fine I think. I also found out that there’s a controversy between the physios about how long and how often a patient should exercise. There was one physio who always said “do those exercises as often as you can but keep the workout in the 30 minutes range” while others said 3 times are enough because the knee needs the rest.
In my opinion it depends on how you feel and when the surgery was. In the first days the knee needs definitely more rest than 2 weeks after surgery.
Exercising in the pool was the best thing for me after my surgery. It reduces swelling (if the water is cold enough) and you can do exercises you couldn’T do without water. it just felt great…
I’m nealry 3 months post-op and I’m still using the pool to work on my running form.
btw…hip flexors: lift your knees to your chest , you can do this without any resistance, or with a theraband or in water.
perhaps you can use swiss balls as well. they are also good later in the rehab when it comes to knee stability and ROM.
remember to stretch them after doing ab work-
i know it’s not exactly a rehab response, but it’s a useful connection… this helped reduce some of my own hip flexor irritation.