Free Guides
Recovery guides that answer the questions your printout didn't.
Every guide is written the way I'd explain it to a patient sitting in front of me: what's happening in your body, what's normal, what's not, and exactly what to do this week. Free. No fluff. No fear-mongering.
Start here: the guide library
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In the library
The Knee Recovery Guide
ACL reconstruction, meniscus repair, or total knee: what the first 12 weeks actually look like, the milestones that matter, and the mistakes that stall people.
The Shoulder Recovery Guide
Rotator cuff repair and shoulder surgery recovery, phase by phase, including the sleep, sling, and "when can I" questions everyone asks.
Prehab: Getting Strong Before Surgery
The strongest predictor of how you come out of surgery is how you go in. What to do in the weeks before your date.
Hip & Spine Guides
In the writing queue. Join the list above and they land in your inbox the day they're released.
Want the deeper cuts?
Plan of Care is where I write weekly about recovery, MSK care, and what the research actually says.
Read Plan of CareBefore you start
These guides are general education, not a personal treatment plan. Reading one doesn't create a therapist-patient relationship, and it isn't a substitute for evaluation by your own surgeon or physical therapist. If anything here conflicts with your surgeon's specific restrictions, follow your surgeon's restrictions. Exercise carries some risk, and you're choosing to follow this program.
If you have new or worsening pain, swelling, fever, chest pain, or calf pain and swelling, stop and get seen. That's not a "check with your PT" symptom, that's a "go now" symptom.
Written by John DeLucchi, PT, DPT, a licensed physical therapist in North Carolina.