Intervention
MAY, APPENDIX
Participants from both groups started the 6-week intervention 4 weeks after surgery. Those in the experimental group received two sessions of 60-min aquatic training, with three 60-min sessions of home exercises each week for 6 weeks, whereas those in the control group performed home exercises only (five 60-min sessions each week for 6 weeks). The aquatic pool was 7 m wide and 10 m long, with a graded depth from 0.9 to 1.3 m. The temperature of the pool was set at 34–36 °C, and the therapist and participant ratio was 1:2. A physiotherapist with 8 years of experience in aquatic therapy provided the aquatic training sessions. This intervention was administered from January 2015 to May 2016.The aquatic exercise protocol consisted of 5 min of warm-up with stretching of the leg muscles and walking in water, 50 min of main exercises, and 5 min of cooldown stretching exercises (Online Appendix 