It’s been 15 months and 10 days since my hip surgery and 3 months and 11 days since I last blogged. After the surgery and the PT and the return to “normal” activity at 6 months (which really wasn’t until a few months ago) and the summer time which got crazy busy with life, I kind of just fell off the bandwagon and didn’t get back on until right now. As of the new year I started to FINALLY feel like my full self again in terms of working out. On the one year anniversary of my surgery I got under the bar and squatted 95 lbs.

Granted I had been working up to this a little bit but damn did it feel good to do it on my one year just to prove to myself how far I have come. One year prior to that day I looked like this…

And my hip and stomach looked like this…

Because I was on these…

I had never felt so disgusting in my entire life. I had gained 10 lbs, I was swollen from surgery, my stomach looked like a war zone and every ounce of athletic stamina I had prior to surgery ceased to exist once I could finally “exercise” again. I would cycle through feeling disgusting and feeling phenomenal MANY times over the next, well…up until now.

If you had asked me in October if I would be under the bar squatting on my one year anniversary, I would have laughed and said I wished. The frustration was mounting as I still could not workout how I REALLY wanted to. My strength and cardio was nowhere near what it was but more importantly, I still couldn’t move without pain. That was the major issue. I was ALWAYS in some sort of pain until I went to NYC on November 6 for the Equinox High Performance Living Symposium and was introduced to a guy name Michol who created this rubber tube that changed my life.

ViPR – Vitality, Performance and Reconditioning. Loaded Movement Training. I won’t get into the deets quite yet but this tool got me from hardly being able to do a body weight squat to getting under the bar with 95 lbs in less than 2 months WITHOUT pain which was something I had been working on for around 5 months. You would have thought I won a lifetime supply of chocolate I was so happy after the first time I used a ViPR. I love this tool so much that I actually bought two of them even though we have more than enough at the gym.

Once I realized I could now squat without pain and deadlift without pain, I decided I needed some new goals. So, I signed up for The Run to Remember half marathon on May 24th and designed a strength training program with my mentor at work. Two years ago I ran the half marathon in 1:42:45 (my goal had been 1:45:00). Three years ago I hit a 1 rep max of 205 lbs on my front squat and 425 lbs on the trap bar. Prior to surgery I straight bar deadlifted 175 lbs for 6 reps multiple sets. So it’s only logical that I chase those goals.

I started running (really running) again about a month and a half ago and at that time 2 miles at a 9-10 minute pace sucked big time. Last Sunday I ran 8 miles at just under 9 minutes per mile. To say that I am proud is an understatement. On January 7th I front squatted 95lbs for 8 reps and it was HARD. On April 8th I hit 4 reps at 145 lbs for 4 sets and it was completely manageable. Today I straight bar deadlifted 155 lbs 6 reps 3 sets. I am reminded daily thanks to Timehop where I was a year ago. One year prior to the day I hit 145 lbs front squat, I was squatting with a stability ball on the wall. One year ago, running was a novelty that would last about 1 minute and require 3 minutes of walking. In one year you can change a lot.

This whole post is to 1) welcome myself back to the world of blogging, 2) share my progress with the world because it keeps me in check and 3) to show people that if you have hope, if you have a goal, if you have a desire (and it doesn’t matter what you’re struggling with) to get better, to improve, to change your life, that it can and will be done. I have a friend who was recently injured when he was in the peak of his fitness. He’s completely bummed out because of where he had gotten, the goals he had shattered and where he felt he was going with fitness. Now, however, he has to start back at square one. He has to build himself back up.

When you get injured you can look at it one of two ways, this sucks and is going to suck, I’m pissed, poor me, blah, blah more negative shit, OR this is fucking awesome because I am going to learn about my body and come back stronger than ever. I knew after surgery (or rather hoped) that I would come back from this and kick ass again. It took a helluva a lot longer than I thought but who was I kidding, I didn’t workout for months so my fitness wasn’t going to come back in a day. The thing that kept me going was knowing that I had something to look forward to, there was an end in sight, there was a day when I would feel like I was and am recovered from the surgery and that I just needed to set realistic goals with the proper timeline.

If you’re injured or have had setbacks in your fitness, don’t give up, don’t get down on yourself (well I mean you can but there’s really no point). Take it in stride, learn about your body, explore other fitness avenues, set NEW goals that make sense with your current situation and enjoy having to take those 10 steps back because when you take 1 step forward again, you’ll realize you only have 9 more to go to get back even and one more to get one ahead. 😉