Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis: A Toronto Physiotherapist's Guide to Home Care Physiotherapy

Kiera McDuff, MScPT, BSc (Hons.) Kin.

Overview

How home physiotherapy helps with hip/knee OA:

• Pain management – helping you get your pain under control so that you can focus on recovery and building strength in and around your joints

• Tailored exercise program that you can fit into your home environment and routine involving:

  • Strengthening exercises

  • Balance training

  • Cardiovascular training

• Convenience:

  • No travel fatigue

  • Fit your recovery into your busy schedule

As a physiotherapist, I have worked with many patients with hip or knee osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is common, and often results in pain and reduced physical function. Physiotherapy plays an important role in managing osteoarthritis, by reducing pain, improving strength and stability of joints, and enhancing mobility and function. Physiotherapists can also identify and diagnose osteoarthritis through assessment of your pain characteristics, joint biomechanics, and overall function. Home care physiotherapy can be especially helpful as it makes exercises more practical to your home environment, and means you can preserve your energy to focus on your rehabilitation rather than travelling to and from appointments.

What is osteoarthritis?

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint condition, which means it involves gradual breakdown of tissues in the joints, that can cause pain and stiffness.

Physiotherapists are educated on the causes of osteoarthritis and the role of physical activity and joint biomechanics in mitigating symptoms and preserving function. In the past, osteoarthritis was attributed to breakdown of cartilage that lines the bones in your joints. However, more recent research has found that osteoarthritis impacts multiple tissues and structures in your joints, including cartilage, the bone beneath cartilage, and soft tissues (such as ligaments and muscles) in and around your joints. The progression of osteoarthritis is also driven by multiple factors, including overloading of tissues in the body, chronic inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, and cellular-level changes in the joint. Physiotherapists apply their knowledge of the causes and progression of osteoarthritis to guide specific and individualized treatment.

What is it like to have hip and knee osteoarthritis?

Common symptoms of hip or knee osteoarthritis include pain in your hips or knees, decreased range of motion, and challenges with your day-to-day activities.

If you have, or suspect you may have, hip or knee osteoarthritis, you have likely these symptoms and the disruption they cause in your life. You may also have trouble with balance. Issues with pain, decreased movement, and decreased balance can lead to avoidance of physical activity and exercise with secondary impacts on your health and well-being (such as decreased fitness, increased risk of heart and stroke disease, and increased risk of falls).

Your arthritis symptoms may make it more difficult for you to participate in activities that are important or enjoyable to you. This might include difficulty with walking, going up and down stairs, getting around your home, the work that you do, or the activities you enjoy with your family.

How can home care physiotherapy help hip and knee osteoarthritis?

As a physiotherapist, my first goal is to help my patients with hip or knee osteoarthritis get their pain under control so that they can safely and comfortably participate in exercises to improve the strength and stability of their joints and overall function.

I will work with you to improve your understanding of your osteoarthritis and strategies you can use to reduce your pain and manage flare ups when they happen. Specifically, I can help you to find modifications for your activities and apply hands-on techniques to help reduce your pain. Also, I will collaborate with other professionals involved in your healthcare, such as your doctor, to encourage pharmacological and non-pharmacological pain-management strategies.

I will prescribe an exercise program that is tailored to you and your home environment to gradually improve the strength and stability of your joints, to improve your balance, and to optimize your function and help keep you engaged in the activities that you enjoy. The program will involve strength training, which has been shown to help reduce joint pain, decrease joint stiffness, and improve function in patients with knee and hip osteoarthritis. It may also involve aerobic training, which aims to improve your physical fitness. Your exercise program will be specific to your current symptoms and abilities, my assessment findings, your pre-existing experiences with exercise, and your goals.

Some additional benefits of home care physiotherapy are that I can tailor your exercise program to your home environment, the equipment you have readily available to you, and help you achieve a realistic physiotherapy routine that fits into your day-to-day life. You can avoid using your energy on getting to/from your appointment and focus your energy on the actual physiotherapy to help improve your arthritis symptoms. Also, as a physiotherapist who has worked in Toronto for many years, I can help connect you to other resources and supports in your community.

By addressing your arthritis symptoms, and improving your strength, balance and fitness, we can work together to make it easier for you to get back to the activities that you enjoy and that are meaningful to you.

Are you looking for home care physiotherapy to help with your hip or knee osteoarthritis in Toronto?

Book now to schedule an initial assessment, or a “get to know you” call with Kiera to see if she is a good fit for you!

Book online!

References

Kerketta, A. H., Rathod, A. P., Nagori, J., Bhagat, P. R., Chakraborty, J., Rathod Jr, A. P., & Bhagat, P. R. (2026). A Comprehensive Review of the Pathophysiology and Management of Osteoarthritis: Emerging Therapeutic Strategies and Clinical Insights. Cureus, 18(4).

Mehta, S. P., Tate, J., Donachy, B., White, T., & Keinath, C. (2026). A Systematic Review of Clinical Practice Guidelines for Physical Therapy Management of Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis. Critical Reviews™ in Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, 38(1).

Su, S., Yu, C. C. W., Zhou, E. F. M., Liu, J. Y., & Fu, S. N. (2025). Effect of aerobic exercise on cardiopulmonary fitness among people with knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 26(1), 549.

Xu, T., Zhang, B., & Fang, D. (2025). The effect of resistance training on patients with knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Research in Sports Medicine, 33(1), 29-47.