PreHab Exercises

Prepare your body before surgery to deal with the demands of the recovery period.

Chair Pushup

The following exercise will help you prepare for the necessary, and surprisingly challenging, act of sitting down and standing up immediately post surgery.

1. Select a study chair with arms and sit down in it.

2. Place your hands on the arms of the chair and push yourself up by raising your elbows until you are a few inches off the chair.

3. Hold this position for as long as you can - working up to 5 seconds.

4. Then lower yourself slowly back into the chair. If you need to, use your legs for leverage when you first start doing this exercise. This exercise will also prepare you for walking with crutches.

This second set of prehab exercises will also be among the first exercises you’ll do post-surgery. While these are basic to TKR recovery, be sure to ask your PT for more exercises that may benefit your particular condition.

Heel Raise

1. Stand with hands on counter top for support.

2. Tighten quads and then glutes.

3. Slowly lift heels off floor and balance on toes.

4. Hold for 2 seconds.

5. Return heels to floor.

Repeat 20 times.

Knee Lift

Ankle Pump and More

1. Sit/lie with legs extended in front of you.

2. “Pump” your foot by pulling toes toward your head and then pushing it away.

3. For more ankle flexibility, rotate the foot in clockwise and counterclockwise circles.

4. Finally, if you are feeling motivated, point your toes and write out each letter of the alphabet in the air.

Knee Push /Thigh Squeeze 

1. With toes pointed up, push the back of your knee into the bed and squeeze the quad muscle in the front of your thigh.

2. Try to straighten your knee.

3. Hold for 5 seconds.

4. Relax your leg.

Repeat 15 times or until thigh feels fatigued.
* Important exercise for walking/gait training.

Straight Leg Raises

1. Bend your good knee and do a Knee Push with the “bad” knee as described above.

2. When the leg is straight, raise it 3–5 inches off the bed

3. Hold it there for 5 to 10 seconds

4. Slowly lower leg to bed. Repeat until leg is fatigued.

*This exercise can also be done sitting in a chair.