Physiotherapy
Rehabilitation After Injury or Surgery
Coming back from a joint replacement, a fracture, surgery or a significant injury takes a plan that progresses. Doing the same exercises for twelve weeks is not rehabilitation, it is repetition.
Rehabilitation is staged, or it is not rehabilitation
Recovery after surgery or injury has phases, and each has a different job. Early on it is protecting healing tissue while keeping everything else moving. Then restoring range. Then rebuilding strength. Then returning to load, speed and the specific things you actually need to do.
The most common problem we see is a program that stalls in one phase. Someone doing gentle range-of-motion exercises three months after a knee replacement is not rehabilitating, they are maintaining. The exercises stopped being hard enough to produce change some weeks earlier.
The second most common problem is stopping too early, usually when pain settles. Pain resolves well before capacity returns, and that gap is where re-injury lives. We are explicit about which phase you are in and what has to happen to move to the next one.
What we work with
Joint replacement
Hip, knee and shoulder replacement rehabilitation, from early mobility through to full functional loading.
Fractures
Restoring movement, strength and confidence in the limb after immobilisation.
Post-operative rehab
Following orthopaedic and other surgery, working to the surgeon protocol where one is provided.
Soft tissue injury
Tendon, ligament and muscle injuries, where progressive loading rather than rest is what rebuilds tolerance.
Deconditioning
After a long illness or hospital stay, where the whole system needs rebuilding rather than one joint.
Return to activity
The last and most skipped phase: getting back to work, sport, gardening or whatever you actually stopped doing.
Common questions
How soon should I start?
Usually sooner than people expect, and often before pain has fully settled. Early appropriate movement generally improves outcomes. We work within any protocol your surgeon has set.
Will it hurt?
Some discomfort during rehabilitation is normal and not harmful. Pain that lingers for hours afterwards or worsens over days is a sign the load was too much, and we adjust.
What if I have been given exercises already?
Bring them. If they are appropriate we will build on them rather than replace them. Often the issue is not the exercises but that they never progressed.
Ready to get started?
Send a referral, or call and tell us where you are up to. We will be honest about what is realistic.