Post-Hip Replacement Rehab Series Part 3 | Seated Balance & Tree Pose Prep for Hip Stability
In Part 3 of the Post-Hip Replacement Rehab Series, we focus on seated balance and gentle tree pose preparation—a beautiful combination for building confidence, strength, and coordination during your healing process.
This practice is designed for those who may not yet feel ready to stand but are eager to engage their hip flexors, improve postural awareness, and activate stabilizing muscles—all while seated.
In This Class You’ll Explore:
Hip flexor activation for stability
Controlled leg movements to build strength
Tree pose-inspired motions to promote neuromuscular connection
Breath-led awareness for calm and focus
Supportive cues for posture and alignment
Whether you’re in early recovery or looking for seated practices to supplement your healing, this class offers accessible yet powerful movement with compassion at its core.
Let this gentle practice guide you into deeper strength and steadiness—right from your chair.
With love and support, Stacie
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Post-Hip Replacement Rehab Series Part 2 | Standing Strength & Stability with Chair Support
As we continue the Post-Hip Replacement Rehab Series, I’m excited to share Part 2, a gentle yet powerful practice focused on standing strength and stability.
After hip surgery, transitioning back into standing movements can feel intimidating. That’s why this session is designed to offer supportive, low-impact strength training—all with the help of a sturdy chair.
In This Session, You’ll Practice:
Chair-supported hip extensions to engage the glutes
Gentle squats to build foundational leg strength
Open-chain leg mobility work for increased range
Balance and coordination drills for safety and confidence
Breath-centered cues to calm your nervous system
This session is perfect whether you’re newly cleared to stand or working on gradually progressing your recovery. Move at your own pace, listen to your body, and remember—every small step is progress.
Let’s continue this journey together, standing strong with grace and care. With warmth, Stacie
If you love my content and want more tools for mindfulness & movement, check out my digital products on Buy Me a Coffee! Your support helps me continue creating.
Looking for the tools and products I swear by? Visit my Amazon storefront for a handpicked collection of my favorite finds—from kitchen gadgets to wellness essentials. Click here to explore and shop my must-haves.
Hip Rehab Part 1: How to Activate Key Muscles After Surgery
After six hip surgeries and countless rounds of rehab, I’ve learned that healing isn’t about doing more — it’s about doing what matters. Right now, that means going back to the foundation: muscle activation.
In this first post of my Hip Rehab Series, I want to share how I’m rebuilding strength from the inside out by focusing on simple but essential movements like pelvic tilts, bridges, and gentle core activation. These movements may look basic, but they’re powerful.
Why Activation Matters in Hip Rehab
When you’ve been through injury, surgery, or chronic pain, certain muscles can go offline. Your body finds workarounds — compensating with tension, poor movement patterns, or even instability in surrounding joints.
Before jumping into strength work or balance drills, we need to wake up the core players
• Glutes (especially gluteus medius and maximus)
• Deep core (like the transverse abdominis)
• Lower back stabilizers
• Hip flexors (gently and intentionally)
These muscles stabilize the pelvis and hip, and their activation sets the stage for everything that follows.
My Go-To Rehab Movements
Here are the three foundational exercises I return to, again and again — whether I’m starting over after surgery or just checking in with my body on a tough day.
1. Pelvic Tilts
A gentle way to reconnect with the core and learn how to move the pelvis intentionally.
• How I do it: Lying on my back, knees bent, feet flat. I gently tilt the pelvis back to flatten the low back against the floor, then return to neutral.
• Why it works: Helps engage the deep abdominal muscles and creates awareness in the lumbar spine and pelvis
2. Bridges
A classic for good reason — bridges activate the glutes, open the front of the hips, and encourage pelvic stability.
• How I do it: Same position as pelvic tilts, but I press through my heels to lift my hips while squeezing my glutes — then lower slowly.
• Tips: I focus on slow, controlled movements and pause at the top to make sure I’m engaging the glutes (not just my lower back).
3. Basic Core Activation
I focus on breath-led activation — gently drawing in the lower belly on the exhale while maintaining relaxed shoulders and jaw.
• How I do it: Sometimes I place hands on my belly and ribs to feel the breath and deepen the connection.
• Why it helps: Creates a strong center to support hip and pelvic movement. Think of it as turning on the light switch before entering the room.
Why I’m Returning to These Basics
After all my surgeries — and especially this latest one — I’ve learned that healing isn’t linear. Sometimes, the best thing we can do is go back to the beginning with compassion and patience.
These foundational exercises help me:
Rebuild from a place of alignment
Reduce compensation patterns
Set the stage for long-term strength
They’re also a reminder that simple is not weak. These movements challenge me to slow down, breathe deeply, and move with awareness.
A Gentle Reminder
Whether you’re recovering from surgery or simply trying to reconnect with your body, these small movements matter. You don’t have to push through pain or skip steps. Healing happens in the quiet, intentional moments.
In my next post, I’ll share how I layer in functional strength and stability, but for now — I’m honoring this phase. One breath, one bridge, one tilt at a time.
Post-Hip Replacement Rehab Series ? Part 1 | Gentle Core & Hip Activation for Healing. If you would prefer a seated version of Hip Activation, please visit this video.
If you love my content and want more tools for mindfulness & movement, check out my digital products on Buy Me a Coffee! Your support helps me continue creating.
As I approach the one-year mark since my hip replacement surgery, I find myself reflecting on the journey.. This past year of hip replacement recovery has been a profound teacher, showing me the power of patience, resilience, and self-compassion. I’ve learned that healing isn’t linear; some days feel like giant leaps forward, while others require grace for the setbacks.
Strength doesn’t just come from physical therapy but also from the mindset we cultivate. What has been most helpful is staying consistent with gratitude, listening to my body’s cues, and surrounding myself with support—whether from professionals, loved ones, or fellow warriors on a similar path. On the other hand, what hasn’t been helpful is the pressure to “bounce back” quickly or compare my progress to others. Healing happens in its own time, and learning to honor that has been one of the greatest lessons of all.
I believe that beyond the practical advice we are given for recovering from a total hip replacement, if we learned to add mindfulness into the process we will embrace whatever comes our way. Mindful recovery means we look deeply at our thoughts, words and actions everyday.
Through reflection and mindfulness I have looked back at this year and created what I have found to be helpful and not helpful, and the lessons I have learned.
What is Helpful
I have spent the last year learning what is helpful in my recovery. In addition to a daily gratitude practice, here are my top perspective take-aways:
Hearing the words “I am sorry” goes a long, long way when you are in a challenging situation
Being asked “how can I help” feels so supportive
Having someone ask questions like “how are you doing emotionally” can be game changers
What is NOT Helpful
On the other side of what is helpful, I found things completely not helpful. Here is my quick list:
Blaming the doctor, the hospital or the patient serves no good
Suggesting that I sue the surgeon or the hospital is a waste of time
Comparing my experience with anyone else’s
Being exposed to negativity and toxic energy
Hearing “you’ll be fine” or “tomorrow will be better”
Life’s challenges often serve as our greatest teachers, offering lessons that shape our resilience, perspective, and inner strength. Difficult experiences push us beyond our comfort zones, forcing us to adapt, grow, and find meaning in hardship. While struggles can feel overwhelming in the moment, they often reveal our capacity for perseverance and self-discovery.
Through these trials, we learn the importance of patience, self-compassion, and the support of others. Every setback carries a hidden lesson, whether it’s the value of slowing down, the power of gratitude, or the realization that we are stronger than we ever imagined. In the end, challenges don’t define us—they refine us.
Lessons Learned
I was able to reflect on the last year and compile my top lessons that I have learned. Here they are:
Every single day you MUST find joy
Learning to ask for help can be the greatest gift you can give yourself
Accepting help from others can be good for you and others
Practicing the great pause
In this video I capture the details of the helpful and not helpful thoughts as well as the lessons learned. I also give the much anticipated update and next steps for my recovery. Sadly, another surgery is around the corner.
To see the entire journey, click here and you will see my entire playlist devoted to the total hip replacement journey.
I feel like I have done this before….Oh wait, I have. A little over a week ago I had my second hip replacement surgery in just two months and this time it was a revision to the replacement. Another hopeful smooth sailing surgery with positive outcomes was the intention.
Of course the intention of the surgeon, who I admire and believe in 100%, was to remove the fluid and hematoma and get my hip functional. My intention was to trust and heal. Period. Just trust and heal.
Hip Replacements and revisions are not all the same.
Maybe someone out there will hesitate to tell their loved one how easy they are going to have it or how the recovery will be such a breeze. I will keep saying that over and over despite driving people crazy.
Hip Replacements and revisions are not all the same.
I knew going into the surgery that I would also be getting a picc line placed. A picc line is a long term IV that basically gives easy access to get IV antibiotics delivered into the body without having to poke often or deal with a peripheral IV. Sounded easy enough, but I was nervous as to how my body would respond to a plastic tubing in my chest given that every plastic, tape, or tubing inflames my skin and I end up being a blistered mess or having the culprits removed early.
The day after the picc line was placed, I noticed that my arm was very swollen. In quick fashion I was soon learning that I had a blood clot in my arm likely from the poke of the picc line. Gah. I had already been on blood thinners so this was surprising and alarming, to me.
I was discharged the following day and ready to heal at home. Unfortunately, my first full day home was spent in the ER with a very swollen arm and more blood clots. It was such a scary and surreal experience. The picc line was removed and what a sigh of relief that was.
I will say it again.
Hip Replacements and revisions are not all the same.
So I am faced with an impasse. Do I react or do I respond to these challenges?
A reaction is typically done so with force and effort, whereas a response is a leaning into and surrendering. If I react to the fact my arm is swollen with anger, how would that help me? If I accept that I have clots causing the pain, how would that help me?
Reaction vs Response
Even though this experience has been incredibly hard, I still believe 100% that reacting in a blame/shame/anger way is so not useful. Those emotions will not heal my hip.
Will responding and surrendering heal my hip? Maybe and maybe not. What I do know is that my heart will be happier and my mental health will be intact if I respond in kindness to what is happening.
Hip Replacements and revisions are not all the same.
My plan for healing is to enjoy the sunshine and the sounds of spring. I am going to reevaluate my life and what fits into the scope of peace and healing, and what doesn’t. Sometimes we have to face really hard challenges that shine a light into an area that has been darkened for a long time.
Stick around while I unearth some long overdue areas of darkness by responding to what is and what it all might mean for me. Check out the details of the week here.
