The Total Knee Success Podcast: Your Essential Resource for Navigating Total Knee Replacement
Have you recently had a total knee replacement, or are you preparing for surgery and wondering what recovery will really be like? Welcome to the Total Knee Success Podcast, your resource for total knee replacement recovery and life after surgery. Hosted by Michelle Losurdo, a trusted doctor of physical therapy and board-certified orthopedic clinical specialist, this show is designed for anyone considering, preparing for, or recovering from knee replacement surgery.In about the time it takes to put a cold pack on your knee, each episode shares practical total knee surgery tips, evidence-based guidance, and clear strategies to help you...
Episode 119: Maintaining Your Knee Replacement for the Long Term (Activities, Follow-Up Care, and Changes Worth Checking)
In Episode 119, Michelle discusses how long knee replacements may last, which activities to discuss with your surgeon, follow-up appointments, and changes that deserve medical attention. This episode helps listeners who are still early in their knee replacement journey think ahead to the years to come.
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This episode is educational and does not replace medical, insurance, financial, or legal advice.
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Episode 118: Exercise After Knee Replacement: Building a Long-Term Routine (Strength, Walking, Balance, and a Plan You Can Keep Using)
What should you keep doing after physical therapy ends? In Episode 118 of the Total Knee Success Podcast, Michelle explains how knee motion, strengthening, walking, balance, and aerobic exercise can fit into a long-term routine after knee replacement.
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Learn ways to choose activities that support your goals, consider fitness classes or a personal trainer, and adjust your routine as your abilities and schedule change. Find the Total Knee Success Insider newsletter and Making Sense of Pain After Knee Replacement in the episode notes.
<...Episode 117: Six Months After Knee Replacement: What to Work on Next (Strength, Walking, and the Activities You Want Back)
At six months after knee replacement, you can still improve strength, endurance, balance, and the movements needed for activities you enjoy. In Episode 117, Michelle explains how to identify what is still challenging and gradually build toward goals such as longer outings, stairs, hiking, gardening, getting down to the floor, and outdoor cycling.
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She discusses the value of reassessment, continued exercise, and practicing the activity itself, with guidance from research and the 2026 physical therapy clinical practice guidelines. This episode begins the series Protecting Your...
Episode 116: Walking on Hills, Grass, and Uneven Ground After Knee Replacement (What Builds Walking Control Beyond Level Ground)
Walking across your kitchen is one thing. Walking on grass, loose gravel, uneven sidewalks, or hills can feel quite different after knee replacement. In Episode 116, Michelle explains what changes when the ground is no longer level and what contributes to better walking control.
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You'll hear how knee strength and movement, balance, and coordination work together on changing surfaces, what researchers have learned about uphill and downhill walking, and why your walking device may be useful outdoors even if you no longer...
Episode 115: Curbs and Stairs After Knee Replacement (How to Handle Going Up, Coming Down, and Real-World Steps)
In Episode 115, Michelle explains why curbs and stairs can feel more demanding than level walking after knee replacement. Going up requires lifting your body, while coming down requires controlling the lowering.
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The episode covers a single curb with a walker or cane, followed by stairs with a rail and cane using step-to and alternating-foot patterns. You’ll also hear how strength, knee motion, balance, step height, and fatigue influence support choices. This is Part Three of the four-part walking series; Episode 116 wi...
Episode 114: Walking With a Cane After Knee Replacement (Which Hand, What Pattern, and When You May Be Ready)
In Episode 114 of the Total Knee Success Podcast, Michelle explains how to recognize readiness for a cane after knee replacement and how to use it with better coordination. You’ll have a better idea of cane fit, hand placement, the cane–surgical leg–other leg sequence, and supported practice along a counter.
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Michelle also explains how step length, balance, fatigue, and your walking pattern help guide decisions about using less support. Episode 115 continues with curbs and stairs.
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Episode 113: Walking With a Walker After Knee Replacement (How to Use Support Without Losing Your Walking Pattern)
In Episode 113 of the Total Knee Success Podcast, Michelle explains how to use a walker after knee replacement while working toward a smoother, more natural walking pattern. You’ll have a better idea of walker types and fit, which leg steps first, and how to turn, sit, and stand with support.
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Michelle also explains what to notice as your leg control improves and which factors help guide readiness for a cane. This episode begins a four-part walking series. Episode 114 continues with using a cane, fo...
Episode 112: The Knee Replacement Costs Nobody Warns You About, Part 2 (Help at Home, Prescriptions, Equipment, and Therapy)
Diane is home after knee replacement, and the expenses continue in smaller pieces. Michelle follows her through the cost of help at home, prescriptions, equipment, therapy and follow-up visits, and medical bills that arrive later.
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Part Two explains how to identify repeating expenses, compare a provider bill with an explanation of benefits, and keep the charges you have already paid in one place.
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Episode 111: The Knee Replacement Costs Nobody Warns You About, Part 1 (Before Surgery and on Surgery Day)
In Episode 111, Michelle follows Diane as she sorts through costs that can appear before knee replacement and on surgery day. Diane checks blood work and medical-visit copays, possible prehab, equipment, hospital and anesthesia estimates, insurance deductibles, federal billing protections, and time away from work.
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Michelle explains which questions to ask the surgical team, hospital, insurer, and employer so the money side feels less like one large unknown. This is Part One of a two-part series...
Episode 110: Three Surprisingly Useful Products After Knee Replacement (Small Purchases That Solve Annoying Problems)
After knee replacement, little problems can interrupt an otherwise ordinary day. Laura’s appointment questions were scattered, lunch was stuck on the kitchen counter while she used her walker, and her cane kept falling when she sat down.
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In this episode, Michelle follows Laura through three products that helped: a medical planner, a walker tray, and a self-standing cane. Hear what changed for Laura and decide whether any of these ideas would make your day easier.
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Episode 109: Five Products You May Not Need After Knee Replacement
Bruce has plenty of friends and an expanding knee replacement shopping list. Michelle follows his choices through five purchases he may be able to skip: a major bathroom renovation, an adjustable bed, a circulating cold machine, a CPM machine, and specialized heel-slide equipment.
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Hear simpler alternatives, broad U.S. cost comparisons, and research on cold therapy and routine CPM use. Read the show notes for sources and home-equipment guidance.
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Episode 108: Carrying After Knee Replacement (Five Questions to Ask)
In Episode 108, Michelle follows Carmen as she brings an overnight bag and a delivery box into her home after knee replacement. Five simple questions help listeners think about the item, what their hands need to do, whether they can see where they are going, where they are taking it, and whether carrying it changes the way they walk. Michelle also covers walkers, carts, stairs, smaller trips, lifting restrictions, and signs that it is time to stop and change the plan.
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Michelle also covers...
Episode 107: Reducing Fall risk After Knee Replacement (Using the CDC STEADI Framework)
In Episode 107, Michelle explains the CDC STEADI framework through Ellen’s experience six months after knee replacement. After two close calls, Ellen uses three screening questions, records what happened, and receives an evaluation focused on the factors that affected her.
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The episode shows how those findings lead to specific changes at home and realistic physical therapy activities. Listeners also receive five simple questions for checking floors, lighting, support, turning space, and frequently used items in their own homes.
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Episode 106: Why Balance Can Still Feel Off After Knee Replacement (What Strength Alone Does Not Fix)
In Episode 106, Michelle explains why balance can still require more care even as strength improves after knee replacement. Through James’s story, she describes turning, uneven ground, dim lighting, age-related changes in vision, the additional attention balance may require with age, and fatigue.
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She also explains what details to share with a physical therapist or healthcare provider and when a new or sudden balance change requires medical evaluation.
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Episode 105: Getting Up After a Fall (What to Check Before You Try to Stand)
In Episode 105, Michelle explains what to assess after a fall before trying to stand. Marilyn’s story shows why dizziness, wrist pain, and a possible head impact call for help. Michelle uses guidance from the National Institute on Aging and CDC to explain when to remain down, what the published floor-rise sequence includes, and why people with a knee replacement should practice their individual strategy under supervision.
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The episode also covers access to a phone or alert device, the helper’s role, and when...
Episode 104: Getting Back on a Bicycle After Knee Replacement What You Need Before You Ride Indoors or Outside
In Episode 104, Michelle explains how to progress from stationary cycling to outdoor riding after knee replacement. Through David’s story, she covers the first full pedal revolution, saddle height, cadence, resistance, spinning versus grinding, upright and recumbent bikes, trainers, flat and clipless pedals, mounting, starting, braking, turning, gears, hills, e-bikes, and choosing a first outdoor route.
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Listeners will learn why comfortable pedaling is only one part of being ready to ride outside and how bike handling, balance, and a person’s response help shap...
Episode 103: Hiking After Knee Replacement (How to Prepare for Hills, Uneven Ground, and Longer Distances)
In Episode 103, Michelle explains how to prepare for hiking after knee replacement. She shows how distance, elevation gain, terrain, recent trail reports, weather, and route type can help you understand what a hike will require.
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Michelle also covers uphill and downhill demands, uneven ground, footwear, trekking poles, monitoring your response, and adjusting one part of the next outing when possible. Through Carol’s story, listeners can see how someone might move from neighborhood walking to a first maintained trail wh...
Episode 102: Flying After Knee Replacement (Airports, Airplanes, and Blood-Clot Precautions)
In Episode 102, Michelle explains what to consider when flying after knee replacement, including the parts of the travel day that can be more demanding than the flight itself. She discusses when to talk with your surgeon about flying, blood-clot precautions, airport walking and assistance, security, seating, luggage, movement, hydration, and planning for what happens after you land.
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Michelle shares practical ways to make the airport and airplane easier to navigate while protecting some energy for the people...
Episode 101: Road Trips After Knee Replacement (How to Plan the Drive and Still Enjoy the Reason You’re Going)
Episode 101 follows Dave, a fictional traveler whose story is based on situations people face after knee replacement. Eight weeks after a left total knee replacement, he and his wife take a multi-day summer road trip from Indiana to national parks out west.
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Michelle covers driving readiness, prolonged sitting, movement stops, swelling, medication, compression, luggage, accessible lodging, blood-clot precautions, and planning for the arrival so the trip still leaves room to enjoy the destination.
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Episode 100: Getting Back to Golf After Knee Replacement (Timelines, Training, and a Gradual Return to the Course)
Episode 100 is for golfers who want to return to the game after total knee replacement. Michelle reviews typical return timelines and explains why surgeon clearance, strength, weight shifting, balance, endurance, and rotational movement all influence readiness.
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The Episode follows a gradual progression from putting at home to chipping, partial swings, controlled range sessions, a short outing, and eventually a complete round. It also explains how a golf-aware physical therapist...
Episode 99: Returning to the Gym After Knee Replacement (How to Rebuild Strength Without Guessing What Is Safe)
Episode 99 explains how to move from formal physical therapy into independent gym training after knee replacement. Michelle discusses cardiovascular equipment, machines, free weights, leg strengthening, balance work, and how load, range, and speed change an exercise.
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The Episode also explains how to begin with a small program, monitor swelling and stiffness, and progress without changing too many variables at once. Listeners will learn why a repeatable program is often more useful than an aggressive first workout.
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Episode 98: Carrying and Playing With Grandchildren After Knee Replacement (How to Lift, Hold, and Move With More Control)
Episode 98 explains how carrying and playing with grandchildren combines lifting, balance, walking, turning, floor transfers, and reacting to unpredictable movement.
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Michelle discusses safer starting positions, keeping a child close, modifying floor play, and deciding when stairs or heavier lifting require more preparation. The Episode also offers ways to remain involved and affectionate when carrying is not yet a safe choice. Listeners will learn how to treat the activity as a progression rather than a single milestone.
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Episode 97: Getting Back to Gardening After Knee Replacement (How to Bend, Kneel, Lift, and Work Without Overdoing It)
Episode 97 opens the four-part Returning to Meaningful Activities series with a practical guide to gardening after knee replacement. Michelle explains how kneeling, bending, lifting, carrying, balance, uneven ground, and time in one position can be reintroduced in stages. The Episode also covers raised beds, stable supports, long-handled tools, smaller loads, position changes, and signs that a gardening session may have exceeded your current capacity. Listeners will learn how to adapt the activity without treating gardening as an all-or-nothing goal.
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Episode 96: Getting Down on the Floor and Back Up Again (One of the Most Important Skills Nobody Teaches)
Episode 96 explains why getting down to the floor and standing again can remain difficult after knee replacement. Michelle discusses the roles of knee motion, lower-body strength, balance, arm support, and movement sequencing, then describes several general floor-transfer methods that can be adapted to different abilities. The Episode also explains how task-specific practice and backward chaining may be used to build the skill in smaller parts. It closes by distinguishing a planned floor transfer from the decisions required after an actual fall.
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Episode 95: Getting In and Out of a Low Car (Why This Feels So Awkward and How to Make It Easier)
Episode 95 explains why getting into and out of a low car can feel awkward after knee replacement. Michelle discusses seat height, hip and knee mechanics, vehicle design, and a practical sit-first transfer approach. The episode also covers differences among sedans, crossovers, SUVs, and minivans, along with how clinicians may break the transfer into smaller skills to improve control and reduce unnecessary twisting.
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Episode 94: Why Going Down Stairs Is Harder After Knee Replacement (And How to Improve It Safely)
Episode 94 explains why going down stairs is often more difficult than going up after knee replacement. Michelle discusses the role of quadriceps strength, eccentric control, balance, and coordination in stair descent, and outlines examples of approaches used in rehabilitation settings. The episode also highlights general considerations related to readiness for stair practice and emphasizes the importance of guidance from a physical therapist or surgeon.
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Episode 93: Why Is Kneeling So Difficult After Knee Replacement? (What the Research Says and a Step-by-Step Way to Regain It)
Episode 93 explains why kneeling can remain difficult after knee replacement even when walking and other activities are improving. Michelle separates pain from surface pressure, incision numbness, stiffness, and fear of damaging the implant. She reviews the published five-week graded kneeling protocol by Wallace and Berger and explains how to progress from soft to firmer surfaces after receiving surgeon or physical therapist clearance and ensuring the incision is fully healed. The Episode also recognizes physical therapist John O’Halloran for his research contributions, clinical expertise, and commitment to improving real-life function after knee replacement.
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Episode 92: The Last 10% After Knee Replacement (When You Finally Start Thinking About Your Life Again)
Episode 92 explores why many people describe themselves as “ninety percent better” after knee replacement while still feeling that something is unfinished. Michelle explains the differences between pain relief, strength, endurance, movement quality, participation, and the expectation that an artificial knee should feel completely natural. The Episode offers a practical way to identify whether the remaining limitation needs training, repeated practice, professional assessment, or a more realistic benchmark. It also explains which changes should prompt a conversation with a surgeon or another qualified healthcare professional.
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Episode 91: Why Your Knee Replacement Feels Worse Some Days (When One Bad Day Doesn’t Mean Something Is Wrong)
In Episode 91 of the Total Knee Success Podcast, Michelle explains why progress after knee replacement is rarely a straight line. Many people experience good days followed by days when the knee suddenly feels stiffer, more swollen, or more painful, leaving them worried they've gone backward. Michelle discusses the most common reasons these temporary setbacks occur, how to respond without overreacting or pushing too hard, and why looking at long-term trends is much more meaningful than judging your progress by a single difficult day. She also reviews warning signs that deserve prompt medical attention and offers practical strategies to help...
Episode 90: Months 4 to 12 After Knee Replacement: What Nobody Tells You (The Months That Surprise Almost Everyone)
In Episode 90 of the Total Knee Success Podcast, Michelle discusses what may still change between months four and twelve after knee replacement. Formal physical therapy may be over and daily life may look more familiar, while strength, endurance, balance, stairs, work, and longer activities can still be limited. She explains how to identify the abilities that may need focused work, why walking can improve before higher-demand tasks, and why a date on the calendar does not define what your operated leg can do.
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Episode 89: Six Knee Replacement Myths You Should Stop Believing (What Most Patients Still Believe After Surgery)
In Episode 89 of the Total Knee Success Podcast, Michelle discusses six common myths people believe after knee replacement that can create confusion, frustration, and unrealistic expectations. She explains why surgery is only the beginning of the process, why pain and stiffness do not automatically mean something is wrong, why progress does not follow a perfect timeline, and why comparing your experience to someone else’s can make the process more difficult.
This episode helps listeners better understand the changes that happen after knee replacement and recognize progress that may be easy to overlook.
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Episode 88: Has Your Knee Replacement Progress Stalled? (Why Plateaus Are More Common Than You Think)
Episode 88 explores why progress after knee replacement can sometimes feel as though it has stalled, even when meaningful improvements are still taking place. Michelle explains why plateaus are common, how to distinguish a temporary slowdown from symptoms that deserve medical attention, and why looking at progress over weeks instead of days provides a much clearer picture. Episode 88 helps listeners understand that slower progress doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve reached the end of what they’re capable of achieving.
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Episode 87: Five Signs You're Making Progress After Knee Replacement (Looking Beyond the Calendar)
Episode 87 explores five practical signs that you're making meaningful progress after knee replacement, even when the calendar leaves you questioning how you're doing. Michelle explains why improvements in walking, stair climbing, sleep, everyday activities, and growing independence provide a much clearer picture of functional progress than simply counting weeks after surgery. You'll come away with a practical way to recognize the meaningful changes that gradually make everyday life easier.
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Episode 86: Comparing Yourself to Other Knee Replacement Patients (Why Someone Else’s Recovery Story Is Rarely a Useful Benchmark)
Episode 86 explores why comparing yourself to other knee replacement patients can create confusion and discouragement. Michelle explains why friend stories, neighbor stories, and online posts often leave out important context such as starting strength, medical history, rehabilitation needs, goals, and surgeon guidance. This Episode also discusses why pain memories can be imperfect and why unsolicited advice is rarely a substitute for guidance from your surgeon or physical therapist.
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Episode 85: What Most People Get Wrong About Recovery Timelines (Why the Calendar Doesn’t Always Match the Experience)
Episode 85 explores why common knee replacement milestones, including six weeks, three months, and one year, can be useful reference points but poor personal deadlines. Michelle explains why progress after total knee replacement varies from person to person. She also discusses why function, walking, strength, endurance, and daily activity are often more meaningful than a date on the calendar. The episode encourages listeners to consider individual progress rather than comparing themselves to standard timelines.
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Episode 84: Five More Things That Can Make Weeks Two Through Six After Knee Replacement Easier (The Tools Patients Tell Me They Were Glad They Had)
Episode 84 continues the conversation from Episode 83 by introducing five more tools that may become helpful during weeks two through six after knee replacement. Michelle explains how a self-standing cane, portable car assist handle, step tracker, stretch-out strap, and nine-inch Pilates ball can support walking, exercise, and returning to everyday activities. The Episode also discusses NMES and pedal exercisers as optional tools that should be used with guidance from your rehabilitation team.
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Episode 83: Five Things That Make the First Two Weeks After Knee Replacement Easier (The Items Patients Tell Me They Used the Most)
Episode 83 focuses on five tools patients often report using the most during the first two weeks after knee replacement. Michelle explains how cold therapy, elevation, compression socks, supportive shoes that are easy to put on, and a leg lifter strap can support swelling management, comfort, safer walking, and independence. This Episode is educational and practical, helping listeners think through their home setup before surgery without turning preparation into an overwhelming shopping list.
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Episode 82: Prehab for Worriers and Warriors (How to Get Ready So the First Two Weeks Go Better)
Episode 82 closes the prehab series by focusing on how to get ready before knee replacement so the first two weeks go better. Michelle walks through five specific areas to get ready for before surgery, including your setup, early exercises, the rhythm of the day, response to harder days, and the follow-through plan. Using Megan as an example, this Episode shows how specific preparation can make the early phase feel more familiar and easier to manage.
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Episode 81: Prehab for Low Stamina (Steps, Pacing, and Building Capacity Before Surgery)
Episode 81 focuses on low stamina before knee replacement and five practical steps that can help some people build a more repeatable base before surgery. Michelle walks through tracking a baseline, choosing a starting amount, building slowly, pacing the day, and supporting stamina with strength and standing tolerance. Using Megan as an example, this Episode explains how step tracking, pacing, and gradual progression can help people prepare for the early phase after surgery.
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Episode 80: Prehab for Weak Quads (Strength, Activation, and Why It Matters Early)
Episode 80 continues a four part prehab series by focusing on weak quads before knee replacement. Michelle explains how quad weakness can be true strength loss and also a problem of activation, especially when pain and swelling are involved. The Episode connects prehab strength work, movement practice, and therapist guided tools like NMES to the early phase after surgery, then previews Episode 81 on low stamina and pacing.
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