Return to Sport after Total Knee Replacement

Physical Therapy after a joint replacement is essential for regaining range of motion and strength, return to walking and activities of daily living. Traditional physical therapy does a great job of getting patients back to doing the things that they need to do on a day-to-day basis. Where traditional physical therapy often time misses the mark, is helping high-level active adults get back to sport. This could look like being discharged from physical therapy before ever getting to work on lifting, running or even higher tasks such as kneeling. 

Meet Cindy. Cindy was discharged from Physical Therapy 1.5mo after her total knee joint replacement.

She was told that she had met all of their goals and she was good to go.

However, Cindy still had…
- 30+ degrees of knee bend missing compared to her non-Op knee
- Had never tried kneeling in PT
- Still couldn’t squat below parallel (which was a goal pre-surgery)
- Had no introduction to plyometrics/running patterns

Cindy came to us because she had no pain, a new knee & she wanted to get back to CrossFit, running & golf!

- In 2 weeks she was practicing load absorption for plyometrics
- In 3 weeks she was squatting below parallel equally for the first time in her life
- In 4 weeks she touched her butt to her heels for the first time
- In 6 weeks she was able to sit full back on her Op knee with 165* of knee bend.

All that progress was made with 1 in person session a week & lots of homework on her end (Cindy is a rockstar client)

Over the course of weeks 7-9 she has been able to run up to 400m, jump on a 20” plyo-box, squat full depth with 55#.

THIS is a perfect example of why we do what we do. Cindy knew something was missing that traditional PT could not help.

If you’ve hit a wall with traditional PT or feel like you can’t relate with your healthcare provider, LETS TALK!