How To Get On/Off Floor After a Hip or Knee Replacement

This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in March 2025. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/4LERcgxhA9c

Brad: Well, Mike, I was looking at our recent videos, and the one about getting off the floor for older people was extremely popular. So what did we do as a result of it? I was reading the comments, and what did they say?

Mike: Many of our viewers asked how they can get off the floor after having a total knee replacement, a total hip replacement, or just painful joints in general because they found that video too difficult for them.

Brad: So if the viewers want something, we're going to provide it. So we're going to answer the question: how do you get off the floor after knee joint pain or replacements? Now, before we get into showing you how to safely get off the floor after a knee or hip replacement or some severe joint pain, particularly a replacement, you need to contact your doctor and find out if you have any precautions about kneeling on that replaced knee or doing a task like this. Because if it's been within a year, it's probably a red flag, and he's going to say no, but you need to contact your orthopedic doctor and find out what precautions you have.

Mike: Now, we realize we have not had joint replacements yet. However, we have worked with tons of patients over the years on this exact scenario. So we do have some experience with it.

Brad: That's right, and I always called the doctor and said, "Is this appropriate for this patient?" They respond quickly, and it works out well. So shall we get on with it?

Mike: I think we should.

Brad: Okay, we're going to go through this step by step on how you should approach or deal with falling, okay? Mike, what's the first thing?

Mike: The first thing you want to do is just make sure, in general, that you carry some sort of alert system that can get you help. Whether that is your cell phone, a Life Alert button, or maybe you're in assisted living and you have some type of call light. Make sure they're within reach or with you at all times if you are prone to falling.

Brad: A lot of people fall without injuring themselves. We know that as therapists. My mother used to fall quite a bit; she never did injure herself, but if you do fall and you want to get up, the first thing you need to do is make sure you're okay. So you're simply going to stop, take a deep breath, and relax, because you will be a little upset and anxious. So settle down a little bit and then start with your head and think, "Can I move my neck without pain? Anything unusual?" Work to the shoulders, the arms. If everything is moving fine without pain, then go to your legs. Then you think, "Okay, I'm okay. Nothing hurts; there's no extreme pain. I think I can get up."

Brad: Make sure that is done first. Okay, so we know everything feels good, and we want to get up from here. We know that after the knee, hip, or joint pain, getting over onto all fours is not going to happen is very painful. Things are not working well. So what we need to do is find either some steps or a chair. I'm going to demonstrate how to get up using a chair that would be close by. Mike will demonstrate how to get up using steps. And then we have one more scenario after that; I'll explain. But the first thing you do is you just do the butt scoot. So your bottom is going to scoot across. You're just going to take your time.

Brad: Now, my mother did this, and she was a rather large woman, and she was able to do it and get to the chair, and it worked out well. She had strong arms. And then you're going to go up to here as long as you have the range of motion, and one hand here, one hand here, and you're going to work. Now, the good leg- hopefully you have one leg that's strong enough to do this. Otherwise, you'll have to go to the steps or the third option. Here, get the other arm up, support yourself, and scoot right back in there.

Brad: Again, that does take strong arms and good range of motion. And if that's not going to work for you, I'm going to go to option two or three. And then at the end, we're going to show you how you can do some arm exercises that are very simple, do not require going to the gym, and I'll help you do these things independently. Okay, so Mike is going to demonstrate if you have stairs available. He's already assessed himself. He knows he has no broken bones and feels pretty good about it. Go ahead, Mike.

Mike: I may have a broken spirit, but anyway. So, what you want to do first is get into that position Brad was in before, and you're going to do butt scoots. But the stairs are often easier. And again, if your legs aren't working too well or they're weak or painful, you can kind of drag them. But you need more arm strength. If you have one good leg, try to scoot with the good leg pushing back. But you notice a stair is much shorter to the ground than a chair is, making it easier. So what you want to do again is you're essentially going to do a triceps dip here. I'm going to push up; if your arms are too weak, push with the good leg here.

Mike: Try to get your butt on that first step. Oftentimes we want to work up to like three or four steps up because it's going to be a lot easier to get up than one step off of the ground because it's not very high. So you're going to do the same process numerous times. Often, once you get here, then grab the rails. And it makes it much easier to get back into a standing position like this. And I've actually worked on butt scoots with people in the hospital recently, and it does work, right?

Brad: All right, I've got one more option. Go back to where you were on the top step. And let's say two things. Maybe you only have one rail to grab, and this is an open side of the step. So imagine that's not there. I'm going to suggest you take the good leg and bring it down to the floor, and then you're going to reach over to here and grab the rail- there you go. Perfect, and use that to stabilize yourself. The strongest leg, there. There you go. All right.

Mike: That's nifty.

Brad: Yeah, so yeah, the steps can be really handy, but what if there are no steps available? This is the other option, but you're going to need a chair. You'll need a stool, and you're going to need to keep a stool somewhere in your house, in a central area. Hopefully you don't have, if you have a very large house, maybe you need more than one stool, but a stool like this, one or two is actually, two steps is preferable. So we're going to do this. Scoot, the butt scoot. We already talked about it. I'm going to get the stool right here. And this is a good thing to practice, actually. All of this is good to practice. So when it really happens, you can do it without thinking about it or being scared and forgetting what you're doing. If you've done it many times before, it'll just come. So I'm going to place one hand on the chair seat. The forearm is probably going to be a little easier because this requires a lot of shoulder strength and stress. So I'm going to go on the chair with the forearm and push up to the first step of the stool, same as the stairs. Easier to go up six inches versus 17 inches. Then I'm going to go up one more time. We've got some armrests here, and we're going to hand on the top stool on the seat pan of the chair. Scooch over. There we go. And back. Again, what do you think, Mike?

Mike: That's a pretty nifty idea. But yeah, they have to have a stool. But for practice's sake, this is a very good option. And if you're going to practice and you don't feel comfortable getting to the floor initially, you should definitely have someone with you who's able to help you get up. Now, we realize that some people may feel intimidated doing all this right away. And you know you have weak arms. So we're going to show you a couple of exercises you can do at home.

Brad: That's right. Now, if you do need some help and you haven't done it before, as Mike said, get some help. So you're going to take a belt. Now, this is a really long belt, don't you think?

Mike: It's a little excessive.

Brad: Yeah.

Mike: It'd fit two Brads in there.

Brad: It fits all ranges of body sizes. But the idea is just to take any belt that fits around the person. You don't put it through the loops of the pants; you simply put it above the waist. And then we have- go ahead, show how they will grab. This is called a gait belt.

Mike: So you know, this is a little loose, you'd want a little tighter, but you grab a gait belt, you normally do an underhand grip like this because you're going to be a lot stronger, if you're really weak, have the person do both hands, which I've done to someone, especially if they're lowering to the ground, and obviously they have to have good mechanics and squat down with you when going up. You don't just want them to yank on it.

Brad: Yeah, because if you are helping someone that doesn't have a belt to hold onto, you end up grabbing their clothing.

Mike: You're giving them a big wedgie. Unfortunately.

Brad: Yeah, it's not fun for anybody. And if you grab their arm, sometimes their arms are frail, and you can actually hurt their arm and go down at the same time. So a belt is really helpful. Now, how to get your arms stronger so that you can do these things independently. Mike's going to show the first one in a chair. We call them, we always call them wheelchair pushups, but you can do them in a typical chair, firm chair with good, firm armrests. Go ahead, Mike.

Mike: They're just a dip in a chair. But if you have a wheelchair, it's the same concept. Anyway, what you're going to do is scoot your butt to the edge like when you're standing up, and you're just going to work on simply standing up and sitting down. But instead of pushing with my legs and making my legs do the work, I'm going to not push much with my legs and just help a little bit. And I'm actually going to use my arms as hard as I can. And I'm going to go up to here, so my elbows are straight. I'm not going to stand all the way up. Again, if you're too weak. The benefit of this is you can push with your legs, but over time try to do more with your arms. And I'm just going to do little dips like this. And you can do five to 10 repetitions like this.

Brad: Now, if you cannot do them because your arms aren't strong enough yet, you simply get a pillow or a cushion about one to two inches thick. Put that down, and then it's much easier.

Mike: Yes, and then just go up and go down slow to don't let it fall, because your muscles are going to work in both directions, going up and down.

Brad: That's right. You know, in the clinic, I always tell my patients this is a no-plop zone. In other words, no plopping down into your chair.

Mike: Is that like a no-wake zone, same thing?

Brad: Yeah, but it's a no-plop. You cannot plop into the chair.

Mike: Now, if this seems easy, you can progress to doing countertop push-ups, or you can go to the floor even. Do you want to show the countertop ones?

Brad: Sure. Oh, so we're talking about what, these dips, like?

Mike: Dips.

Brad: Yeah, this is going to be more advanced. A lot of people will not be able to do this. So don't think you have to get to this point. The wheelchair push-ups are acceptable. If you're able, you can do this.

Brad: And also push-ups. The first push-ups, because you need some of that forward pushing as well, are wall push-ups just like this. Arms out here, feet about two feet back. The farther back you go, the harder it is. Make sure you have shoes on when you do this. So your feet grip and don't slide on the floor.

Brad: And then you can do countertop push-ups when those are too easy; probably 10 reps is good enough.

Brad: And then of course, you know, if you're able to go down, you get to practice going down to the floor and getting up to the floor and do the push-ups down here.

Brad: Now, we're not going to talk about how to go down to the floor and up to the floor if your knees and legs are healthy. But what do we have, Mike?

Mike: We have another video. So the one we're talking about earlier that did fairly well, you can watch "The Life-Saving Trick to Get Up After a Fall!"

Brad: What do you mean fairly well? It's doing outstandingly.

Mike: It's doing real nice.

Brad: It is; it's got about 50,000 views so far. And so people are going to want to know about this as well. Again, be safe with those new joints, painful joints. And make sure that you can get up off the floor because chances are, if you fall, you're not going to break something. You probably are just going to be, you know.

Mike: Stuck.

Brad: Hurt your ego a little bit. But if you do break something, make sure you can call 911.

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