Get your body, your home, and your first days ready for hip or knee replacement.
Before surgery, we'll see where you stand today, walk through the walker, stair, transfer, and car tasks you'll face at home, and go over the rooms you'll actually be using once you're back. Everything we plan works around your current ability, your symptoms and health history, your surgeon's instructions, and the recovery path you're on.
Prehab prepares you. It doesn't promise an outcome.
We start by looking at where you are right now and matching that against the things you'll actually need to do once surgery is behind you. Depending on your situation, that might mean checking your joint motion, your strength, your coordination, how you walk, or how much help you currently need to get through the day.
That first look gives us something to measure against later on. It isn't a pass-or-fail test, it isn't medical clearance for surgery, and it's not a guarantee of how quickly or completely you'll recover.
Practice the everyday moments you'll face at home
Getting up from a chair: we'll use the seat height, arm support, and foot position you'll actually have at home.
Stairs: we'll walk through the steps, railing, and sequence you'll need once you're recovering.
Getting in and out of the car: the turn, the seat, the controlled lowering, moving your leg in.
Getting in and out of bed: going from lying to sitting, shifting position, and taking that first step up.
Walking: the distances, starts, stops, and turns you'll actually be navigating at home.
All of this stays within what your surgeon has already told you and what you're currently able to do. The point is to understand the sequence ahead of time and surface any questions before surgery, not after.
Set up the rooms, equipment, and support you'll actually rely on
Chair and sleeping area
We'll look at seat height and firmness, arm support, how much room you have to transfer, and the path from your bed to your first steps.
Entryway and stairs
We'll go over the steps you can't avoid, the railing, any turns or thresholds, and whether there's enough room for your walker or cane and a caregiver.
Bathroom route
We'll check the doorway width, the turns you'll need to make, how you'll approach the toilet and shower, the lighting, and any equipment questions you have.
Walking route
We'll test the actual path you'll take from room to room, your tightest turn, nighttime lighting, and anything underfoot that could be a problem.
A generic demonstration can't tell you whether a walker fits through your doorway, or how your own recliner changes the way you stand up.
Every exercise should have a reason tied to what you'll actually do
If we give you a strength exercise, it's usually because it supports something specific, like standing from a chair or managing stairs. A mobility exercise might target the position you'll need for a particular task. A walking drill might be there because it mirrors the path between your bedroom and bathroom. Rehearsing a task can also just take the uncertainty out of a sequence you're not sure about yet.
We try to keep the plan focused and explain why each piece is there. If an exercise doesn't connect back to your baseline or to something you'll actually need to do, it doesn't earn a spot on the plan just because it's a common one to hand out before surgery.
Your surgeon's instructions set the boundaries
Whatever your surgical team has told you about movement, precautions, and equipment is the framework we work within. Physical therapy supports that plan. It doesn't replace your surgeon's clearance, your procedure-specific education, medication guidance, or decisions about equipment.
By the end of the visit, you should know what to practice at home, which questions still need answers, and which parts of your baseline we'll want to check again once you're cleared for rehab after surgery.
Prehabilitation questions
What is the purpose of joint replacement prehabilitation?
It gives you a baseline before surgery, lets you practice the daily tasks you are likely to face at home, and identifies questions about your setup or support before the first days of recovery. It prepares you; it does not predict or guarantee the outcome.
Which tasks can be practiced before surgery?
Depending on your current ability and your surgeon's instructions, practice may include standing from your planned chair, using required stairs, getting into the car, moving into and out of bed, and walking the routes you will use at home.
Why look at my actual home instead of using a generic checklist?
Your real chair height, doorway width, railing, turns, bathroom route, and walking space determine how the task will happen. Seeing those details can reveal equipment or setup questions that a generic demonstration misses.
What determines the limits of a prehabilitation plan?
Your current ability, symptoms, health history, surgeon's instructions, planned equipment, and expected recovery path set the limits. Every exercise and rehearsal should fit inside those boundaries.
Know what to practice before surgery
Turn your surgery plan into real home preparation
Bring your surgery date, your surgeon's instructions, any current precautions, whatever equipment is planned, and your questions about the first days home. We'll walk through the movements, the home setup, and the support that deserve attention before surgery. Prehab can't promise an easier, faster, or complication-free recovery, but it can help you walk into surgery day with a plan. Private mobile prehab is available for appropriate patients in Southlake, Colleyville, and select nearby DFW communities.