Excellent!!!!

Something I found helpful was when I got back to the regular gym workouts, to include the PT balancing, etc. in my workouts, not just doing the big muscles.

I'm a menace at the driving range. Lots of undirected power, spraying shots at impossible angles, many people flying out of the way. I have managed to turn golf into a contact sport.

Good advice Hern. I'm still a bit of a stranger to the gym so will have to get my trainer wheels on there!

Golf "a contact sport"  :) good one! Great fun on the range aye... I didn't mention I sprayed just as many as many as I got hold of. Best thing with our local range is once the ball is hit a new one automatically is placed on the tee for you. No bending all the time. Just stand & deliver (or spray!).

Previous [DELETED] message was posted to wrong thread. [My Bad].

4 Months Post Op
I went for a walk up Mt Kaukau, Wellington yesterday with my 6 year old son. It's a 419M altitude walk (mixed terrain of tracks, steps & banks) & 6km in total. I was a tad concerned as the track was very damp after a week of rain & we meet a couple that had turned back. We persevered - took it carefully & made it quite easily in the end. Going down was probably more difficult. Okay, it's not the highest mountain in the world, but it's the highest point in Wellington & amazing views once you're there! I was stoked as it was my first time up that hill & got to share it with my son. It was his 5th time (he's being going with his Mum), not bad for a young fella (my boy did well too!!! ::)). The best part is I have no pain whatsoever today - I feel great.
Really feel like I can push things a bit harder now.
Current exercises include;

- One leg bridges with weights
- sideways walk with band
- Lunges with weights
- Walking (steps at work & rough terrain, up to 450m elevation)
- Steps
- Golfing
- Swimming (not as much as I'd like)
- Various stretches

Pretty great, Kiwi, especially in tough terrain. 419m is no cakewalk, the best part is sharing it with your son. Congrats.

Thanks Hern. I really enjoyed it & hope he's keen to repeat the walk this weekend. I can see it being part of a regular exercise / bonding routine now. I never used to enjoy walking as much as I do now, particularly out in the bush, where you have the variety of terrain & really have to concentrate on your footing. Much more enjoyable than walking footpaths - but even that I now enjoy. Pretty cool how you appreciate these things so much, post op. Long may it last!
I also took him to the squash club last weekend with one of his mates, I hit a few balls down the wall myself. Miss that.... patience.

Enough about me... How are things going with you anyway?

Things are very good on the hip front. The thing I do find is that since I spend a lot of time in an office, workout time becomes precious. The last hip seems to be lagging a bit (feel a bit like the IT band) but I am trying to do full speed martial arts kicks with it.

I am also being asked when I can get back to my soccer team, since they figure they've given me enough time off  ::)  and want their token old man back. Just as with everything else, I'm trying patience with it, since my first instinct is to throw myself into our twice weekly games - since the rest of them are semi pros (brazilian , portuguese or latin americans) or just out of college kids who are in freaky shape, I'm thinking easing into it is a good thing. I usually let them do most of the running around and poach anyways  8) .

So things are flowing well now, the daily functioning is easy, standing or walking for hours still brings a bit of discomfort, but an hour or two of working out doesn't have any other impact than just tiring the normal muscles. All in all, doing really well.

Sounds like you're travelling really great yourself. I know what you mean about working in an office, so twice a week I bring in my gear and do the steps as I work in a high rise office building. Just been going up & catching lift down. Doing 100-150 flights currently. I'm still taking it easy on my knees hence why I catch the lift down, but I should perhaps change that soon? Up is certainly where I seem to get the workout.

What does your current exercise routine involve - now that you're post 1+ years on both hips? No doubt you'll be honing your ball skills for the team! Good call to ease yourself back into it. I think sport specific exercises are key when comes to getting back into it. Maybe you can play a few half games to start with? You know, be the super sub!

Nothing crazy, I usually do about four times a week, twice I do my gym near the house, there I go for:

• 20 mins run / walk on the treadmill
• calisthenics (pushups, core work from PT, stretching)
• leg weights (leg press, extension machine, etc - pretty light, only about 30 reps).
• 15 minutes on the punching bag, try to do 1 minute round, then light one minute
• Warm down on the bike for 5 minutes

Twice hit my gym at work:

• 20 mins run / walk on the treadmill
• Free weights (bench press, incline press, curls, etc.) 4 sets of 8-10 reps each.
• leg weights (leg press, extension machine, 4 sets of between 10-30 reps each).
• Stretching and balancing exercises (have to give the trainers there a reason to giggle)
• Warm down on the bike for 5 minutes

At home, I'm doing balancing and leg lifts with my ankle weights, juggling for both my balance and to get my eyes coordinated (had lasix last year), also have a slide board (simulate ice skating) which gets good use.

Will soon hopefully add soccer twice a week from April - November, liven things up a bit.

150 flights sounds impressive, I'd take that lift down myself!

Reads like a good routine mate - and that's the key... a routine, especially when you're busy. Great stuff & good luck with starting up the soccer! Sounds like you're playing with some pretty talented athletes.

The 150 flights is a good start (according to my tracks it's 266M elevation gain), and it gets a good sweat up. I used to do more (pre op days) and run/walk them. At this stage I'm just walking but doing 50% two steps at a time and will increase # of flights as weeks progress.

Simon

How's the diving/boating/fishing gone over the past summer?
Just seen your post,not on the site much these days as the BHR's I received  over 4 years ago I just never think about (which I guess is a great recommendation).
I have no restrictions at all however choose not to absolutely thrash myself with serious running or squash.
Regularly diving,fishing,boating, tramping and deerstalking in Urewera in rugged country...which involves packing a pretty heavy pack from time to time.For indoor serious exercise I use a Concept 2 indoor rower.
Absolutely no issues.
Take a bow Hugh Blackley!!

Gavin (bilat BHR Dec 2007)

That's a great story to hear, Gavin. More power to you and excellent to hear for us behind you.

Gavin,
Diving just the once - went really well, although my wetsuit seems to have shrunk! I've been fishing quite a few times & we've had a really good snapper season here on the Kapiti Coast. I've just purchased a new chartplotter / fish finder which I can't wait to play with.
You sound like you're doing just great. As Hern said, it's really encouraging to hear from experienced hippies like your self.
Hugh's a great surgeon & you're walking, tramping, diving proof! Have you had any joy with the deer stalking lately?
Stay in touch from time to time. Great to hear from you mate.
Cherz
Simon

Simon

Have fun with the chartplotter...it will guarantee many more snapper!
Great roar this year,managed to sneak up on one of those stags which resulted in giving those BHR's a real workout, packing all the good bits out to the truck!

Gavin

Good work Gavin, you're utilising those BHRs the way you should! Great to read.
Not sure about more snapper.... but I'll have fun trying. Just need the weather to play it's part now!
I managed to get (mate shot down South) a couple of feeds of eye fillet from fellow dear earlier this year... wow talk about lean & tender.  :P

6 Months Post Op
No major noticeable changes to last report. I feel as good as I did at 4 months - perhaps a little more confident in what I do. I've incorporated a bit of jogging into my walks up the mount. I'm now at the stage where I feel my scar tissue is holding my ROM progress back, so I'm booked in for some professional deep scar massage to see if that helps.
Building slowly but steadily towards my goal of playing squash at 1 year post op.
Overall, I feel great and still appreciating the day to day pain free activities  :)
Will let you know results of massage.
Cherz
Kiwi

Great news, Simon. Excellent to hear from you - good step to do the massage.

Thanks Hern - great to hear from you too as always!
How's the soccer going...?

Pretty well, not as often as I'd like but I'm getting comfortable with the movement, etc. I'm starting to work on jumping drills in the gym, just to get used to that push off again. It's fun relearning stuff like that and not dreading the landing.

7 months (and one week)
Played squash for the first time post op on Sat night. Just a friendly game with my wife. Felt great to hit the ball again & was surprised that the timing was still there. I did little running but still managed 3/4 of an hour and got a good sweat up. Feeling a tad tight in certain areas like the glutes, but no adverse effects elsewhere. Hip feels great!
The deep scar tissue massage went well. He said I must have done a good job on it early as there wasn't that much hard stuff to work with. So that's good to know.
All in all things are great.... really got the taste for ramping things up another level - especially after playing a bit of squash, but will stick to the one year plan & slowly build towards that goal.