When a PT Rehabs

What does the “end” of rehab even mean? For some patients, it’s probably when they stop going to PT. I am the PT, and I can see all the things that I still want to work on.

In the last several months, I have been working on things, but it has been quite hit or miss. I think I would like to finish strong and focused, rather than simply letting things gradually taper into oblivion. Don’t get me wrong, a purposeful taper can be great. Currently there’s been a big taper due to lack of focus.

I don’t think that I will ever truly be done working on my hips. We have a lot of things that we do that are truly unhealthy for our hips, so there will always be something to do just for that. I’m sure there will be times where my hips act up due to all of this and I will have to work on them as a result of that as well.

I still want to pick an end date for rehab. Not because I think that everything will be resolved by then or that I will never have to do another hip exercise, but because that gives me a specific thing to focus on. My year anniversary of the second surgery is September 21, so that seems like a good time.

Currently, things are going very well:

• I am climbing up to 5.8 at the gym. My only limit there is that I haven’t been in enough. I can probably start climbing top rope outside on super easy climbs if the weather cooperates and I find the right group of people going.
• Hiking is amazing. I couldn’t get out of town today due to weather, so I went for a walk close to home. I’m up to 9-10 miles with minimal difficulty, though elevation gain has been a bit of a challenge.
• Pain is minimal, usually only occasional twinges, though my right hip can still get hot and bothered by sitting. Okay, maybe not that bad, but if I’m going to feel it, that’s a likely time.
• My biggest limiters are fitness, and that makes sense, given two surgeries last year.

As you can see, when things are going that well, it’s easy to be complacent. The problem is, if I ignore the smaller things that are still there, my hips will continue to nag me, and I think that re-injury will be a bigger likelihood than I want to think about.

Things to work on:

• As mentioned, sitting. My guess is that unhappy tendons are a big contributor to this problem.
• Weakness. Functionally, I can do a lot of things, but if you test my strength in certain positions, there are still problems.
• Range of motion. ROM is really quite good, but again, a few areas are lacking both the full ROM and the strength to have good control. If I want to climb without problems, this is critical!
• Getting up and down from the floor. I can do it, but not as well as I would like. There is still a lot of effort there.
• Running. I want to be able to go for a quick run here and there for fitness. I am working into running, but my biggest problem there is that I haven’t been too focused on it. I’ve only done a few intervals of 30-40 seconds here and there. It seems to be going well, but I often choose other things when I have time or am rested enough. Like hiking or climbing.
• Jumping. I just haven’t worked on it yet. Partly because I feel I need a little more strength and stability with single leg bridges and squats before I really get into it. Also because I try not to add a lot of new stuff at the same time, and this is currently even after running.