December 1, 2016 · revised August 27, 2026
The Best Hip Replacement Exercises for Active People
What are the best hip replacement exercises for active people?
As someone who is — self-proclaimed — one of the most active people in the world with a total hip replacement, let me offer a few that have been genuinely useful in my own journey.
Start with a "pre-hab" mindset
If you haven't had your surgery yet, whether it's next month or next year, start building your mindset around pre-habilitation rather than rehabilitation. Do whatever you can to get your body ready.
A lot of that is diet. Sort your diet out first and the physical work gets much easier. I've written separately about the best diet to prepare for a hip replacement.
Stretching
It can be hard and even discouraging to stretch some days. Do it anyway, EVEryday.
Something is always better than nothing. If you're getting ready for bed and realize you haven't stretched all day, stop and touch your toes for ten seconds. Something is always better than nothing. So do something.
Ideally you roll out of bed and start a routine straight away. I don't always manage that — I try. What I do make sure of is that stretching happens at some point in the day. I've refined my routine year after year since my surgery, and it gets better EVEryday. To me, stretching is like food. I can't live without it.
Leg lifts
Side leg lifts, front leg lifts, back leg lifts. Just do reps.
As soon as you wake up and you're still lying in bed, start doing some. Turn on your side and do more. You really cannot do enough leg lifts. They get the hip moving and the blood flowing around the ball and socket, and they start strengthening your core at the same time. Experiment and see how it feels.
Balance work
This one isn't in the original list, and it should have been.
After a replacement, the thing that quietly disappears is proprioception — your body's sense of where the hip is in space. You compensate without noticing, and the compensation is what wrecks everything downstream. Balance work is the fix, and it's the least glamorous training I do.
Two things I actually use for it:
A dense foam pad. Stand on it on one leg and everything from your foot to your hip has to work to keep you upright. It doubles as a knee pad for floor work, which matters more than you'd think when kneeling isn't comfortable anymore. This is the single most-used thing in my kit.
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The harder progression once the pad gets easy. Start holding onto something — I did, and there's no prize for skipping that step. Two minutes a day does more for hip stability than most of what you'd rather be doing.
Check price on Amazon →Pull-ups and push-ups
You might be asking how that helps your hip. It will. It'll help your everything.
They strengthen your arms, your back and your core — but they also strengthen your psyche. If you have a pull-up bar hanging in a doorway, you always have the option of doing at least one pull-up every single time you walk through it. It's a visual reminder that you always have the option of improving your situation.
And as you get stronger and the numbers go up, you feel stronger in a lot of other ways too. It's so money.
That's it. I hope it helps.
One love,
Isaac
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