Going into week nine I felt stronger and had four very successful PT sessions in a row. I had somehow reinjured my left elbow, but my hip only got sore after a pretty good leg workout.
In Physical Therapy we focused mainly on abductors (outer thighs), gluteus minimus, gluteus medius, hamstrings and quads. I definitely got my gluteus maximus, too, and it felt so good to be muscle-sore again. She worked me hard each time with different types of lunges to get me back into shape for Pickleball as we worked to help my hip become stable and strong.
It was great when my PT had me do a circuit of about four different exercises and I did them all three times. One example workout would be single leg bridges for 15 on each leg, forward to back lunges where I tried not to touch the lunging leg down in between for a balance challenge, side lunge into a curtsy lunge, and mountain climbers on my elbows. It was a definite challenge with the mask on because I got so hot and sweaty and found it hard to breathe when my heartrate went up that high.
We ended with some stretching and a light massage of my hip and the surrounding muscles. We sometimes do cupping as you see below. This was very painful, but it did relieve my tight IT band. Afterwards, we applied ice and STEM. While my hip was on ice, she used ultrasound on my elbow to try and relieve the pain and inflammation.
I was still doing doing my cardio on the stationary bike every morning for forty minutes and footwork on the reformer when I came into the studio. We had been doing a pushup challenge for suicide awareness on Facebook, but I could only do the modified elbow/knee plank because of my fractured elbow and hip surgery. I had continued to try and increase my time since I started at one minute two weeks after surgery and had been able to work up to seven and half minutes one day. Whenever I was able to find a pool I also swam laps which felt so good especially considering how hot it’s been.
It seems my hip is healing well as I tolerated the increased activity without too much soreness. I tried to do some form of rehabilitation every day along with more daily chores and work with clients. I am looking forward to more normalcy within the next couple of weeks. I’ll update you all again soon.