19 with FAI

Training Injuries
61

I have three ice packs in constant rotation.

There are two schools of through with crutches. One doc said two weeks on, one week part time, then quit using them. Those docs don’t usually give at home pt.

My doc said 6 weeks of using crutches but putting 30-40lbs of weight on the leg and gave me 8 exercises to do three times day starting the day after surgery. I’m sure after the followup next week the weight will increase a couple lbs a week.

I don’t know which is better but I’m not very stiff at all and can flex my hip to 90 degrees with only a little tightness. I’d rather be loose than stiff.

After my shoulder I was in a sling six weeks 24/7 and my arm was stuck in that position for the first week of pt…it was horrible, pt felt lift I was tearing stuff

62

Through = thought damn you auto correct

63

yeah every doc is different. Honestly, I don’t know if I could’ve done much exercises the first week or two anyway. Hurt to move, and my motion was crap. The PT and doc never let me get near 90 degrees for close to 2-3 months, and the PT didn’t even want me to externally rotate my leg for the longest time. Idk which school of thought is better either, my PT was pretty surprised to see me walking into his clinic the first day though.

I would not be surprised if your recovery is smoother and quicker then mine. I don’t heal well from anything, plus the incident I had. If you already have 90 degree motion without much pain then you are ahead of what I was.

And yeah I iced my hip so much for the first 3 weeks. I didn’t feel i needed it after the first 2 weeks, but I figured it couldn’t hurt given how much inflammation there probably was.

The big thing during this stage is keeping ROM. that was like 90% of my hip rehab the first month. Don’t want scar tissue building up or the joint losing motion. I still have pain/pinching when i squat and keep my back straight. That’s really the only ROM issue I have left, and internally rotating my leg without pain but the doc isn’t sure I’ll every get that due to the cartilage removed.

64

I may have my right hip done in a few months. I’m starting to get random knee pain and clicking in both the hip and knee. I initially went in for knee pain and a tight hip on the left.

Its basically the beginning stages of what I went through with my left leg. My xrays showed cam mild impingement on the right, and moderate cam/pinscer on the left.

65

Well in a few months if you feel the surgery’s beneficial look into getting it on the other side. My doc when I asked him about it said “if it doesn’t hurt, leave it”. Apparently a lot of people have FAI but it doesn’t actually cause pain, the most it might do is reduce some motion but if you’ve had it your whole life, you wouldn’t notice anyway.

Though im sure I have it in my left, probably worse but for whatever reason it hasn’t damaged anything yet and it doesn’t hurt.

66

Been following this thread with interest.

Got diagnosed last month with FAI, damaged labrum, hip arthritis, and two bone cysts. Unfortunately, my labrum is so badly damaged (torn, detached, thinning, and circumferentially frayed) that it cannot be repaired. First ortho said I needed a hip replacement. Second can fix it by crafting a new labrum out of a cadaver IT band. I’m living with it for now. I can (surprisingly) still DL but cannot safely squat.

Good luck to both of you. I hope you heal fast and well and find yourselves 110% eventually.

67

[quote]kpsnap wrote:
Been following this thread with interest.

Got diagnosed last month with FAI, damaged labrum, hip arthritis, and two bone cysts. Unfortunately, my labrum is so badly damaged (torn, detached, thinning, and circumferentially frayed) that it cannot be repaired. First ortho said I needed a hip replacement. Second can fix it by crafting a new labrum out of a cadaver IT band. I’m living with it for now. I can (surprisingly) still DL but cannot safely squat.

Good luck to both of you. I hope you heal fast and well and find yourselves 110% eventually.[/quote]

Thanks. Though this condition sucks, especially at my age, I am aware it’s not as bad as it could be.

Good luck with your condition. I hope you can find a way to continue your lifestyle for a long time.

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Thanks snap.

Had a follow appointment and the damage was much worse than I had thought. I had significant damage to a ligament, possibly hip capsule, cartilage in the joint was removed, my labrum had bone growth in it which was removed leaving a void to be repaired, acetabulem was shaved, femor was shaved, a bone cyst was partially removed leaving a hole in my femur that may never fill in.

The doc is optimistic but I fear I will never be able to do legs or dead lift again. Crutches for 4 more weeks, stitches removed, and my right hip is starting to hurt…awesomesauce

69

you had more then me, i had to shave my femur down, my pelvis part down, some cartilage removed, some cartilage reattached. I am expected to be “normal” again at some point within about a year post op.

For you, idk how it’s going to be long term. The only thing that I see that could be a long term problem is having a hole in your femur, though I don’t know how that will effect future loading like squatting or deadlifting. If you doc believes you can, then stick with that. It’ll be a long long time until you get to try to find out anyway, and the way you’ll feel 3 months post op is much different then 5 so you really can’t predict how it will feel 1 year from now.

Your hip is going to hurt pretty much all the time for a while. Then it’ll get better, then youll get off crutches and it’ll hurt/be uncomfortable again for a while, then you’ll get into the magically crappy stage where it feels almost normal or good one day then feel like crap the next. This cycle will last a while, and it’s going to be confusing, frustrating, shitty, and sometimes scary.

Eventually you’ll get to my point (5 months post op for me, idk when it’ll be for you) where if you were a normal, unactive person you wouldn’t notice it 98% of the day. But being active and pushing yourself by biking/elliptical/running is going to make you feel similar to the magically crappy stage. Some days im normal, after a leg day and a run it’s bad.

I say all this because im letting you know, even though im sure you’re aware, the recovery process is NOT linear. It is very up and down, the important thing to realize when your 2 months in and your hip feels worse then before surgery is that it’ll be different a few weeks later. There were a couple days/nights where that was my only bright thought, cause sometimes it didn’t seem like that was possible.

70

Hey Fisch, I know. I’ve been thru 18 months of 2 steps forward 1 back after my shoulder was fixed. I assume that he bone in my labrum Was calcification from the tear. I had some cartilage removed, the thing that caught me off guard was the ligament tear and how big it was.

I just don’t know how much longer I can keep it up. I don’t care if I never squat again, I love to dead lift but can live without it. I don’t care about leg Day. I just don’t want a replacement. At 29 I’ve had more surgery on major joints than anyone I know.

I went from benching 315 to 135, but was still pulling in he 400s post shoulder repair. I got to a PR of 535 within 2 years. I know I can come back but I’ve just lost he drive because every time I get back to where I was something else gives out on me.

After a 3 month break from the gym I just don’t miss it anymore.

71

Had 6 month check up today. Didn’t go well. Since I had that car/bicycle accident on September 25th, my knee and elbow still hurt. When I mentioned to the doc I haven’t been able to run because of it he looked at my knee also and believes I have some IT band issues now, and wants me to do PT for it. Awesome. Hip isn’t where he wants it to be either, I don’t have the motion he thinks I should have and the fact it hurts still after enough exercise isn’t what he wants at this stage. Wants to try a cortizone shot because maybe it’s just some lasting inflammation, and told me to stretch my hip a ton to try and force the mobility back.

All in all, im unbelievably depressed, not even necessarily from my hip. I’ve been injured now from multiple things for 2.5 years now, lost any muscle I had, haven’t been able to lift anything for 7 weeks now (and only did SOME upper body for the 2 months before that), am in constant pain from the car accident and the hip issue. Im fed up with this, 20 years old and I’ve been injured longer then I’ve been able to work out since I started when i was 16. I know so much about lifting and nutrition and after the 2.5 years still have a burning desire to improve my body yet no matter how much patience I have or how I hard I work I can’t even start to reach my goals.

Screw idioits in cars. Seriously, if your too stupid/lazy to stop your car where you should and not 5 feet over the sidewalk you shouldn’t be allowed to drive. Mess my life up for 7 weeks plus another 4-5 probably, if not longer.

And if anyone has a friend who always seems to be hurt, I’ll give you some advice: STOP TELLING THEM THEY ARE ALWAYS HURT WHEN YOU SEE THEM. For some reason, every idiot thinks the best thing to say is “You’re still hurt? Seems like every time I talk to you”. That doesn’t help, it isn’t a good conversation starter, and frankly it makes them hate you even though they smile politely.

/end rant. Next update I have will have me in a better mood. Right now I just have nothing positive in my life. Literally.

72

I do want to make it clear for everyone though, now that I am in a better mood (yeah I know it’s been like an hour, I don’t stay sad very long) my depressed feeling is only slightly due to my hip, it is more due to the last 2.5 years in general and the lasting effects of a car/bicycle accident.

Just letting people know who read this thread and think “damn, I don’t want this surgery now. Look how that guys feeling.” If it was just my hip causing me issues, I would be my usual upbeat self. It’s not that bad, I can easily go about my daily life without much issue and I am still very optimistic that I will get to a point where my hip is better then before surgery. Hell, it took over a year for my wrist to get to pain free after its surgery. But when it’s been 2.5 years of multiple issues, you have times where you just can’t help but feel down.

Back on track

73

Just stumbled upon this thread and was curious where you were in your recovery? I was recently diagnosed with FAI in both hips with labral tears in both hips as well. I am scheduled to have surgery in April for the left hip first and then will schedule my right hip afterwards. I’m hopeful but worried.

Athletics is my life, I do parkour, rock climbing, biking, and just started getting really interested in lifting and was especially interested in olympic lifting, but the range of motion puts way too much strain on my hips. I am scared that I’ll never be able to squat heavy again, or even start doing things like snatch or clean, etc.

In the mean time I’m going to try and get as strong as I can doing deadlifts as I’ve heard that the stronger you are before surgery, the better the recovery will be. Anyways, hopefully your recovery is going well, and I’d love to know where things are a month after your last post.

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For my hip, pretty much the same. I can’t push the recovery like I’d like cause of the bike/car accident. It turns out its way more serious then thought. My knee and elbow are still messed up, actually had an MRI today for both of them so I’ll know more about those after Jan 1st.

PT did jack shit for my knee, like I figured.

My hip didn’t get the internal rotation that was expected to be regained from the surgery. It will still hurt from certain random movements when Im walking around, but the pain lasts literally a second, only happens occasionally, and has no lingering effects. Overall, I would say im very similar to where I was pre surgery, if not slightly less flexible. Not the result I want, or what you want to hear. But I had the unfortunate variable of getting hit by a car so that didn’t help rehab.

Again, thanks to the accident I can’t keep pushing and testing my hip. So I can’t really give info on how it handles lifting and running multiple times a week.

Still depressed cause of my knee/elbow. If not for a jackass in a car, I would be lifting 90% by now.

75

Make sure to sue the driver for all medical costs that cone out of the accident.

76

[quote]mitties wrote:
Make sure to sue the driver for all medical costs that cone out of the accident.[/quote]

planning on it. I’ve contacted a lawyer, basically what they told me was “get all the medical care you would normally get, pay it normally, once everything is fixed let us know then we’ll file a claim”. So in the short term im out some money but hopefully 3+ months from now I’ll get reimbursed.

Oh and the doctor just called with my MRI results. Arm apparently was completely normal, knee was pretty normal, with “maybe a partial radial tear on the lateral meniscus”. The doc said then I can start progressing back into running on my knee, though I personally don’t feel ready. Im going to take a couple weeks of complete rest for my knee (except for walking/biking to class, and now that my arm’s cleared I’ll start doing some upper body lifting) then start progressing. I looked back at my logs and after the car accident I never really stopped activity, I was still biking or elliptical a few times a week so maybe a couple weeks off will help.

Update for hip: Still have little internal rotation, and am still weak in that regard. I’m going to visit my ART guy a few times here and see if he can help get some motion back. I’ll also have him work on my knee and arm a little. Not sure when I’ll have another update for my hip, depends on how my body responds once exercise resumes in a couple weeks.

77

I’m curious what are the recovery exercises/stretches you are doing for your hip?

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at this point, not much. I am just getting back into doing some band internal rotates right now, and will start doing sideways band walks here soon. Because of the accident and the (still) knee issue from it, I’ve been extremely hesitant to do much loading on my knee. I plan on continuing with those 2 exercises, while also adding basic strength training back in for my quads and hams.

During rehab it was hip flexor stretch, hamstring bridges, internal rotation work with bands, strengthening my left adductor, and a lot of trying to teach my body to activate and use my glutes and hamstrings correctly. The PT I worked with is very big into building up the core first (glutes, hams, adductor activation) and branching out to the problem area

79

I saw a video about using side planks from knee for hip mobility. Not sure if that would be suitable for you though.

80

Hey guys checking in to see how things are going. I’m finally feeling like I’m really getting back into it in the gym. I’m on week 3 of Bodycomp Blitz by Roman.

I think we need to bully Cressey into doing an in-depth article on do’s and do-nots associated with this. From what I’ve been able to dig up, full rom bi-lateral exercises are not going to be very good for you. Excessive lumbar flexion will basically be a given. How this changes after a debridement, not sure, but I don’t think squat form and depth will ever be as good as someone without this, at least, depending on what caused the FAI. For some it’s excessive bone, for some it’s retroversion, for some it’s both.

You guys should really look into single-leg exercises. Roman has been kicking my tail with lots of lunges of all kinds on this program… no back squats, some heavy deads. Front squats are ok for now, but I’m not sure if that will be true long term. Single leg stuff like split squats and lunges are more than capable of delivering a very brutal leg workout and you can load them in various ways, whether dumbbell, barbell on the back/front, or overhead (that’s in increasing order of difficulty).

Deadlifts, for some reason, no problem, although I had to adapt my conventional deadlift stance a bit (and I think this mostly applies to people with retroversion). I point my feet out and let my knees go where they will, and just grab the bar by the rings instead of right outside my quads. that gives my legs more room and lets me actaully get my hips into it instead of doing it all with my back. I will certainly continue doing deads as they cause no pain.

Back squats, different story. As of yet (7-8 months post-op) I am not able to do a respectable depth back squat. They cause pain, and I’m not sure it it’s because of scar tissue or pure joint immobility. But, mobility IS getting better, as I’m not able to put my thigh to my chest to tie my shoe. Just a couple of months ago it would wander out and forcing it under hurt.

I’m not a doctor, but some internet sources have indicated that some people get one hip done 4-6 weeks after the other if they are bi-lateral, even if asymptomatic in the other hip. I mean, just because it doesn’t hurt now doesn’t mean it won’t start, and it might be better to get it done BEFORE you completely fuck up your labrum. A doctor friend of mine compared the labrum to jello: once you mess it up, you can put it back, and it will mostly solidify, but there will ALWAYS be a fault line there making it more suceptible to injury.

Sorry for the long post, but I figure most of this is relevant to anyone in this thread.