Why is it important to complete prehabilitaton?
It is very important to organise physiotherapy prior to having hip surgery, as prehabilitation (prehab) optimises your recovery post-surgery. For the same reason you complete the preparation of food prior to cooking, it allows for the cooking or in this case hip surgery to run seamlessly.
Specifically, the right exercise prescription can look to improve your symptoms, hip joint range of motion, muscle flexibility, strength and muscle functional capacity prior to the anticipated surgery. The goal of completing prehab is to best prepare you to be able to tolerate the post-surgical phase of your rehabilitation (after surgery) and make recovery easier, so you can return to sport, work and generally day-to-day activity at a faster rate.
What is addressed in prehabilitation?
- Education around the:
- type of surgery that is going to be completed and the likely post-operative precautions you will need to be aware of.
- the Current symptoms that prevent or currently limit you in daily life.
- Assessment of functional activities involving:
- walking
- squatting
- neuromuscular patterning and timing of the activation of the gluteal muscles, as well as the deep hip external rotators which provide stability and reinforcement to the hip joint.
- Muscle strength:
- gluteals
- deep hip external rotators muscles
- lumbar core muscles
Identification of goal setting for what activities you would like to return to (eg playing with children or returning to sport.
Why are strengthening the deep hip external rotators so important for prehab?
The deep six external rotator muscles assist with external rotation of the hip which provides stabilisation of the head of the femur and the acetabulum (hip joint socket) and range of motion. It also assists with adduction (sideways movement) of the thigh. Specifically strengthening the quadratus femoris (one of the six external rotators) prior to hip surgery, will give you the added strengthening benefit to fast-track your rehabilitation and protect your health hip joint following surgery.
Your physiotherapist will demonstrate and provide you with specific strengthening exercises targeted to your needs to establish a prehabilitation program prior to surgery.
If you have an upcoming hip arthroscopy surgery planned it is important that you see a physiotherapist who is highly trained in this area to commence specific exercises to best prepare you for surgery and enable you to reach the best possible level of recovery post-surgery.