Pool Exercises used by Patricia Walter

3/15/06 LBHR by Dr. De Smet

Updated 8/10/09

Listed below are the Pool Exercises that I used to help my stiff muscles after my Hip Resurfacing. These were not given to me by Dr. De Smet, but designed for me by my PT in the US. There were all very gentle and anytime that I started to be in pain, I was to stop. Each exercise or stretch was designed to be done by both legs.  I started with 5 repeats of each exercise and gradually added more over the two months of PT until I was doing about 25 repeats of each. Some of the stretching exercises are done for one minute at a time. Then you are to rest or do the other leg and repeat the stretch for another minute. I also did a lot of plain water walking forward, backwards and sideways. It felt good and was a lot of fun. After doing the water therapy for a few weeks, all my stiffness was gone and never returned.  It just takes time to get the muscles back to working properly.

It helps to hold onto a handrail for support while doing the exercises and stretches.

I normally started each exercise period by doing water walking for five minutes to help loosen up my muscles. The water temperature was kept at 92 degrees and felt absolutely wonderful.