Hey there friends! It’s been a minute since I’ve shared about my hip labrum repair. I had a labrum repair in my right hip one year ago and I’ve been seeing anyone from a Physical Therapist to Body Worker as well as continued injections to see if it “helps.” One of my Physical Therapist says I struggle from instability in my SI Joints which causes pain and weakness in my sacrum. (Still not sure if that is true.) After going to PT for 3 months he encouraged me to try pilates to stabilize my pelvic floor/sacrum.

Where I teach at Life Time there is a Pilates studio, so I decided to try group Pilates with The Reformer as the main piece of equipment. I am always up for learning new things so I decided to commit to it for a few months to see if I noticed a difference in my weakness in sacrum.

It’s not my favorite way to move but very valuable for the core. Pilates main focus is to stabilize and strengthen the core. I do it 1-2 times a week. Some things in life you have to push through because you know it’s good for you and what you need to do. That’s how I feel about Pilates. Not my favorite, but I persevere through it. It’s been 5 months of doing Pilates and here is what I’ve learned.

Pilates was created from a German man names Joseph Pilates. It is a mind body connection workout that is not aerobic and doesn’t work up a sweat (at least not for me) but it is demanding. It’s all about connection of breathing and concentration to make sure you have correct alignment to execute the move properly. Pilates is a low impact workout that can enhance flexibility and strength by using your body weight along with the Reformer. It’s a great low impact workout to help you get in tune with your alignment and strengthen your pelvic floor and core. Pilates main focus emphasizes the core stability muscular strength. So good for the core. Think low back, abdominals, rib area, stabilizing muscles around the back and trunk.

Unfortunately it hasn’t been the answer to my hip and sacrum issues. I currently am one year post op from my labrum hip repair and it has not gotten any better since August. I finally got some new imaging and met with my hip Dr. He said the left hip looks pretty good (the one I didn’t have surgery on). I’ve seen 3 back specialists before my hip surgery because I thought the issue all along was my back. The hip I had my repair on is not good at all. It’s worse than before surgery. I never had pain in my actual hips or groin before surgery. Dr. says from the new MRI it looks as though I have swelling and scar tissue. The Dr. did a procedure where he goes in and injects the scar tissue to break up and do some sort of scraping procedure. That procedure didn’t help.

Meanwhile, I went to another spine neurosurgeon to see if my SI joints/sacrum are a whole different issue. He said my spine looks great and he doesn’t even think it’s my SI Joints or instability concerns; possibly just ligament issues.

Needless to say, I am done with the Dr’s as they say I look great. So I currently live with this weakness and pain and it sucks. I keep things low impact still and if I do a higher impact workout, I minimize how often and and how long.

I am believing that it’s just a log recovery and I will be strong again in my hip. I don’t know if I regret getting the labrum repaired because Dr. said I had a very large tear and it’s highly likely it prevented me from having a hip replacement in later years. Hard to know. I didn’t have any hip pain before my surgery and now it’s weak and tired.

Thats the update on the labrum tear repair.

Let me know if you’ve done Pilates on The Reformer and your experience. Did you fall in love? Do you still do it? Not your thing?