#constantforwardprogress

http://community.runnersworld.com/blog/constantforwardprogress

My first PT appointment since the end of last year was last week - as I had expressed earlier, I was nervous, scared and just plain freaked out. 

What if I hadn't been doing as well as I thought I was?
What if I have to take steps backwards?
What if I really don't like my PT?

All kinds of "what ifs" were going through my brain. And, I was just plain over the holding pattern that has been a big chunk of my life (between this and finally moving into my house, I always just wanted to be at work, because I was at least making progress on something!). 

So, when I met new PT, I was sort of relieved that we seemed to hit it off and that he completely and fully praised that I had very specific information for him, like the protocol my previous PT had been following, the exact exercises I was doing, how many reps, with what weights and how often I was doing them, and that I seemed to be honest and thoughtful with how my hip felt day-to-day: 

"Well, I feel like a zero would mean I don't think about it, and I'm not quite there yet, but I do have really good days where I barely think about it, so I'm going to say a 1."

He said, yes, he would agree, a zero means it's not on your mind at all. Then I told him about how so many of you can't remember which limb you had a major surgery or break on and how it made my neurons misfire. He thought that was pretty funny, and apparently, par for the course. 

Anyway, he did a complete reassessment and found that my range of motion is only 3-5* smaller on the surgical side as compared to the healthy side, which is pretty darn good. We also found that the surgical side is generally weaker but I also have some weakness on the left, which is not surprising to me and good reason for me to be all "I MUST BE BALANCED!" when doing exercises on both sides. 

As for running .... not yet. There are a few more progressions he'd like me to take first: jumping on a trampoline (take some of the weight off), then regular jumping/plyometrics and then running. I didn't ask for a specific time frame, but it sound like we could ramp up fairly quickly, assuming I tolerate it. 

I also got some progressions on modifications:

Adding an abduction to my side planks (SO HARD at the end of a workout, when I usually do core) and single weight lunges. I like visual aids, so here they are: 

Except in the lunge, I just hold the weight at my side. I guess I could hold it above and work dem shoulders.... 

After that appointment, I was relieved. Relieved to be making some progress again, relieved I felt like I was going to get along really well with my PT and relieved that what I had been doing was the right thing. 

In other news, I won a free month of class pass and have enjoyed trying things out of my comfort zone. This has included Jazzercise (much better than zumba for us uncoordinated folks), MMA-style kickboxing (great workout, but too soon for the hip) and TRX pilates (TRX portion=great, pilates=too soon for the hip). I also have gotten back into yoga, which has been great for the hip and this week, I'm taking a strictly stretching and foam rolling class. Fun, eh?