The goal for the next two months is to work on being healthy. I have golfers elbow in both arms, especially my right one. I have some type of piriformis strain in my left leg that has been there for almost four months. And most significantly I have a labral tear on my right hip.
I had a proltherapy injection for the hip on Dec 7, 2009. I immediately went back to training jiu jitsu and lifting weights. About 9 days later the hip started flaring up so I took a week off. I trained sporadically until last week when I trained on Monday and Tuesday (Jan 5th and 6th). I also lifted weights on Jan 6th and did plyo jumps onto a box.
The next day my hip flared up again. Saw my prolo doc and we both agreed that I needed to get a PRP prolotherapy injection, which I got on Tuesday (Jan 12 2010)
I have a follow up March 9th, which is 8 weeks from now.
The goal between then and now is not to get in the way of healing.
In my mind that means limiting my hip flexion and internal twisting as much as possible. What it really means is no jiu jitsu, or at least no sparring. I’d rather take two months than continue to push myself towards a surgery that I don’t believe is really effective and would put me out for most of the year.
I look at this as an opportunity to address a few things I have been avoiding.
Number one is the other injuries I have. The piriformis issue may just be a matter of ART treatment and rest. The same could be said for the elbow issues. They may also need some prolotherapy injections as well.
Number two is continuing to work on my posture exercises. I have been very inconsistent with this over the past year or so. I’m pretty sure that some of my hip problems are caused by the extensive pelvic tilt I have so now is a good chance to work on correcting that. I’m going to be in contact with Geoff Gluckman once a month to update my programs.
I’m also going to take pictures once a week to monitor my progress much more closely.
The third thing I’m going to focus on is swimming. I tried this last year when I was also doing a lot of weight training. The result was an inflamed rotator cuff in my right shoulder.
I’m confident that if I focus on my posture work and drop the weight training, I can start swimming with less strain on the shoulder. The kicking motions of the freestyle stroke involve minimal hip flexion so I should be able to spare my hip some discomfort.
This is a great chance to really delve into an exercise system which is very practical in terms of real world survival that I have never really worked on before.
For additional cardio work, I’ll hike and jump rope. The goal is to minimize hip flexion and do as many “natural” movements as possible.
The goal is to be pain free by March 15th 2010.
