About Elizabeth Freeman
Elizabeth Freeman (500 E-RYT, YACEP), founder of Yoga for Hip Replacement, has practiced yoga since 1985 and has been a yoga teacher since 1997. She specializes in yoga for people with movement challenges. Her students include those with a range of chronic issues including Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, irritable bowl syndrome, as well as those recovering from hip, knee, and shoulder surgeries.
Motivated by her own experience with two hip replacements, she founded Yoga for Hip Replacement as a resource for people preparing for and recovering from hip surgery. Her goal is to offer safe and accessible yoga practices that support the best hip outcome.
She owned and taught yoga at Island Yoga Center on Vashon Island for 18 years and completed the 500-hour Teacher Training Program from Pacific Yoga Teacher Training in 2015. Her teaching is informed by her yoga practice of 35+ years combined with her studies in both Interpersonal Neurobiology and in Trauma Sensitive Yoga. She lives on Vashon Island with her husband and two cats, and spends her free time tending her garden, walking Island trails, or cooking delicious meals for her family.
This website is driven by Elizabeth’s passion for yoga and by her commitment to healthy hips, but it is fueled by the support of her ever-enthusiastic family and the encouragement of her stalwart friends. You know who you are. Thank you is not enough!
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From the blog
Hip Flexor Pain and Back Pain Related to Total Hip Replacement
Some form of hip flexor pain and/or back pain with total hip replacement seems to be a common experience among those of us with THR. I frequently get questions about it from students and I have read accounts from others with THR. I remembered that several weeks after...
Benefits of Bare Feet
When you are preparing for or recovering from total hip replacement surgery you need increased stability to support your new joint. The whole-body benefits of an asana practice begin with the feet, and the way you connect with the earth will have a ripple effect...
Benefits of Balancing for Total Hip Replacement and Beyond
When you balance, whether on two feet, or on your head, you are strengthening muscles essential for the stability of total hip replacement. Balancing challenges your ability to focus, to react to fluctuations in your body, and to maintain your center of gravity. It is...
Open-Hip Standing Poses = Strength, Stability, Flexibility!
Open-hip standing poses offer a range of benefits for total hip replacement. – They can be modified for any level of ability so that you can practice them at any stage of your THR journey. – They build strength. – They provide stability for your hips. – They promote...
Breathe and Heal: How Relaxing Pranayama helps with Total Hip Replacement
We can use our breath (pranayama) to promote relaxation and healing as we go through Total Hip Replacement preparation and surgery. Breathing is an involuntary action of the autonomic nervous system;* it happens whether we are thinking about it or not. But breathing...
The World is Your Mat: Take advantage!
Before total hip replacement our bodies are often limited in the kinds of movement they able to do. It can be difficult, if not impossible, to get down on the floor, to balance, or to bend like we did before the THR journey started. Following THR surgery, your surgeon...
Safe Stretching After Hip Replacement
Total hip replacement introduces a new set of considerations for stretching in yoga. Your range of motion may be different following your surgery. Your surgeon may have given you restrictions on your movement which will limit the kinds of poses you will be able to do....
Infection and Total Hip Replacement: No thank you!
Infection after total hip replacement can be a serious complication, it is worth understanding why and how infections occur. Here is some general information on how they arise, what you can do to avoid them, and the treatment for them if they do happen. First, the...
Yoga while healing from Total Hip Replacement Surgery: A safe post-op asana practice – Free video
Other Videos in This Series
Yoga while healing from Total Hip Replacement Surgery: A safe post-op asana practice. Blog
Following Total Hip Replacement surgery you want to give your body every opportunity to heal. This can take 6-12 weeks. Surgeons often give restrictions on movement for the first 6 weeks or so. Restrictions on movement are meant to protect your vulnerable new hip...