Tag: bjj

Checking in 5 months post-op – 24 weeks

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It’s been a few weeks since I have posted an update and I passed the 5 months post-op mark! I’ve been pretty busy and a lot of things are coming up, so here is what has been happening!

I’m back with my original physical therapist since she has returned from maternity leave, and she has really been amping up with more impact and dynamic movement exercises, working to emulate things I do in Jiu Jitsu class. My therapist has researched and improvised various exercises in order to make them more specific to Jiu Jitsu movement patterns. We start each session with a check in for any tweaks I’ve felt during the week while training in class, a physical assessment, and she makes any necessary adjustments to my program for the day.

I will be seeing my surgeon for a check in next week and PT agrees that he will be very pleased with my progress overall and thinks it is very possible that he will release me entirely from physical therapy sessions (10 days shy from my official 6-month post-op mark). I am scheduled to see her immediately after my appointment with him, if he says I’m free to go I can just come downstairs and bring the good news and cookies.

This past week I had a great class where I rolled as close to all out as I have since surgery. I still feel some rotational restrictions that I’m going to mention to my surgeon, but I think that will just take some more time to work through carefully. It was a good contrast to the previous week where my hip got twisted pretty abruptly in class and I yelled – that caused some inflammation that made me take a few days away from the mats and some anti-inflammatories along with extra home care. My PT checked it of course and agreed that it was just inflamed from the abrupt movement. This was the first tweak/inflammation issue I’ve had of any kind during my entire recovery process – which is pretty stinking good for this sort of surgical recovery.

The only movements still giving me discomfort are quick external hip rotation and compression across the midline. All other movements are fine with a proper warm up before training. I do need to improve comfort and stability at the end of my range of motion, and if I sit for hours without a stretch break it will start aching as well. These are all things I expect to improve in the coming months.

Here’s how training is looking right now:

  • I’m doing most moves in class, just avoiding high impact takedown drills (judo trips and such are ok)
  • Positional sparring rounds in class after drilling: if my pre-selected partners are not available when we change partners I sit a round. Otherwise I proceed like usual.
  • Sticking with familiar training partners for sparring. Since they are partners whose movements I can trust, I don’t have to guard my own self so intently and can therefore progress my own movement confidence safely.
  • I do my own specific warm ups before class which usually overlaps into the group warm up time as well. I do joint mobilization and muscle activation exercises that I use in my PT sessions before getting into strength training.
  • This past week I have started adding more evening stretching before going to bed – in addition to my red light therapy sessions. As training and impact amps up I need to increase recovery measures to make sure the load stays balanced.

Latest PT Session (mostly self-reference):

  • Started with PT check in and warm up on elliptical
  • Stretches: leg box drills adding lean forward over front leg, then back leg clamshell, heel lift, then leg lift (new); kneeling quad/flexor/psoas stretch, tabletop hip isolated rotation (new)
  • Decompress hip by using heavy band anchored to wall around bent leg while lying face up on floor. Pull knee toward chest to decompress joint
  • Activation: Free standing clamshells with band, leaning wall runs with band around feet, squat with soccer ball between knees (hold until feel burn then hold for 10 more secs), hip airplanes on wall, banded sidesteps one foot anchored to the wall at the time, Sidesteps anchored to wall by torso,
  • Strength: hold bear crawl position and slide small plate with toe forward and back 10x, single leg box bridges, 45# v-bar single leg RDL, 45# v-bar squat, Single leg shuttle squat kickback, 45# sled push/pull
  • Other exercises done in previous sessions: Back lunge with cable row at top, Heel elevated kettlebell squat, medicine ball slams (start on two feet, end on one), step off 20 inch box and catch weight on one foot lightly, hop with feet 2 to 1 off and on 20 inch box.

Coming Up

I see my surgeon next Wednesday and am compiling a list of questions for him. Most pressing is to let him know I booked the flights to compete at the European Championships and Tokyo Grand Slam in January since at our last visit he said it was a “reasonable goal”. I’ve also registered for the Europeans and am waiting for registration to open for the Tokyo event – I’ll be flying from Lisbon to Tokyo and doing both events in one big trip.

I have other planned events lining up as well for the year – at least one major event a month (2 more in Feb). The first 6 months of the year I will be competing in 7-9 countries depending on final tournament schedules. I want to be able to enjoy training and learning Jiu Jitsu for the rest of my life, and don’t want to be the stereotype of the old black belt who is too broken to do anything but sit in the corner of the mat with their broken everything. I however do want to get out there and enjoy competing as much as I can while I’m still physically capable of making the rounds at this high frequency. I know with my chronic joint/connective tissue condition I need to be extra cautious about wear and tear on my joints if I want longevity for training, so it’s always a constant game of push and “check in”.

When and if I am released from physical therapy sessions, I will have to continue a structured rehab protocol on my own in order to maximize my full recovery. It will also keep my other hip stronger and useable as my initial assessment done indicated I have the same issue in my other hip (labrum tear/impingement), it’s just not giving me as much difficulty as my right hip was so my surgeon said we would just leave it alone unless it became a functional problem for me.

Unraveling a Puzzle – 20 weeks post op

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Monday

The cookies were met with great glee and I had all kinds of changes and adjustments made to my PT routine at the clinic today!

  • Side planks were advanced to: top leg elevated on box (bottom leg hangs) while on forearm on ground, activating adductors along with glutes and everything else. I could hang there all day like a monkey.
  • Deadlifts with the V-bar, 45# plate 3x10s.
  • Smith machine squats with heels elevated on the slant board. I lightly subluxed my shoulder since it was a new movement with a narrow range of motion – but it wasn’t a terrible one and I was able to re-align it to finish the last set without any soreness. PT said we can leave out the slant board next time to allow me better range of motion.
  • Increased isolated hamstring curls to 40# (baby weights I know, shush!)
  • Added box jumps and ball slams for impact training.

When I got done with everything I bid my therapist a farewell and much thanks – she helped me a lot! I’ll be switching to Wednesdays for next week with PT as my original therapist will not be working Mondays.

I checked my phone as I finished PT and discovered that my coworkers were in a panic trying to get in touch with me. Since they had not heard from me all morning which was out of the ordinary for me, they assumed I was in trouble and my boss was currently driving over to my house to check on me. I quickly called to assure them I was fine, had just been at my usual therapy appointment and my phone had been stuck on “do not disturb” from the night before which was why I had not responded to messages like usual. It’s nice to know they care enough to worry – and I ended up going into the office since they were on their way to my house anyhow and there was a lot to get done that might require some extra coordination. I went “full autism mode” to finish a sudden time sensitive project in 2 hours that would usually take me at least a day at a sustainable pace. It’s a glass canon attack which is understood in my office as leaving me basically useless for any other tasks for at least a full day – so I don’t do it very often and usually work at a sustainable pace.

Since my brain was basically oatmeal for our 90 minute evening class, I wasn’t sure how well I would be able to focus for drilling techniques. Thankfully once I got moving around I was able to hone in a bit and pick up some details and be useful. We had a good sized group of our ladies in class this evening so I was able to get a lot of rounds in with them plus I ran across the mat to grab one of our other black belts for a roll as well.

Tuesday

Coach asked me to teach class this morning for him, it’s a first since my surgery. It is back attack week so I went over what we call an MMA choke (an alternative to the RNC that is easier to do when wearing gloves) and then an evil one-armed choke that dislocates the trachea while applying the choke – all while looking like you aren’t really doing anything at all. We didn’t spend too much time on that second one because I didn’t want everyone to be too sore in the neck for the rest of the week – so we spent about half of the class with live escapes and rounds.

I was really really exhausted by mid-afternoon – probably as a carry-over from my “burst” of focus the day before. I ended up not sticking around to do my PT exercises doing the evening comp class in favor of just going home to recharge a bit more so that I could be more functional the next day.

Wednesday

I felt a bit a delayed onset muscle soreness in the hamstrings this morning from the PT session on Monday, but it wasn’t as intense as the previous week. I’m taking that as a sign of making more improvements/gains! I did wake up with a fairly intense headache (hurt to breathe) however and had to take my headache meds first thing in the morning which is unusual for me. I was pretty tired and did end up taking a second headache pill later in the afternoon – again very unusual for me to have to take two pills in one day. I’ve been having more headaches than usual even with my preventive medication – if the pattern continues over the next month I may contact my neurologist for a consult.

I taught my evening ladies no gi class tonight but due to the exhaustion and coming down off the headache I opted to go home instead of staying for the evening gi class.

Thursday

Just before morning class I was introduced to the new physical therapist who is going to be renting an office space at my Jiu Jitsu academy a few days a week. I may be checking in with him periodically for some of my more minor boo boos in the future.

During Jiu Jitsu class Coach played a switcharoo and left one of our other black belts in charge. Drilled as usual and then rolled one light round and one high intensity round before sitting the rest of class. The high intensity round was a bit more than I was anticipating and I didn’t have as large a selection of people to roll with as I usually do in this class. Again, if I were not recovering from surgery I would have been good to roll with the majority of people in class, however I have to be extra careful still even though I’m starting to feel really good while moving around.

Friday – 20 weeks post op

I worked from home and was pretty chill all day. I did decide to try an experiment this evening as the past several weeks have been rather rough as far as symptoms of low blood pressure, asthma-like issues (I don’t have diagnosed asthma), GI problems, dizziness, headaches in spite of my preventive medications, and general feelings of “ugh.” I have always been negative on allergy tests but when I have these sort of flare ups it really feels like my body is reacting to something it doesn’t like (never been able to figure out what either), so I decided to try out an antihistamine (different than what I’ve tried in the past) before going to bed to see if it might help.

Saturday

Grand experiment results are that the antihistamine seems to have worked wonders! My blood pressure is finally back up to my normal levels (it had been dipping down in the low 90s/60s) and I was able to sleep through the night and a good amount of my issues seemed to have balanced out along with my blood pressure. I’m gonna make a note to bring this up with my primary care dr when I see him in a few months for my annual exam.

Morning class ended up being a 1:1 session working on some back taking details which then led into open mat. I started a round and then popped up to chat with a family that walked in to check out the gym before running back onto the mat. All told I got about 20ish minutes of rolling time in and then stretched out a little before heading home.

Sunday

All told, I feel much better after taking that antihistamine and feel all the inflammation that was all over my body dying down. I’m looking forward to the new week without fighting through all the yuck!

My hip has been feeling really good through all my training this past week. Every week I feel like I’m getting more normal with my movements and my range of motion is getting closer to my normal (it has been textbook normal since my first post-op visit with my surgeon).

What I’m lacking for range right now is some compound rotation movement. On my left side I can duck my head under my foot to place it behind my head (hypermobility) while on my right (surgical) I can hug it almost to my chest. Additionally, it’s still uncomfortable to bring it across my midline and when I do gently work it at that angle it is a bit painful to bring it back passively – this is most likely some scar tissue from the labrum repair, but I will ask my physical therapist about pushing this range of motion since I’m this far out of surgery now.

The Good Kind of Sore – 19 weeks post-op

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Saturday/Sunday

I taught my usual class on Saturday morning, finishing out the week of half guard top position by working some over/under pass variations and concepts. Then I rolled a couple of rounds at open mat. I could definitely feel the progress I have made over the last nearly two weeks of letting myself rest properly after nearly overdoing it. I was moving quite well and very dynamically without too much hesitation – most of my hesitation comes into play when I am in guard and wary of my partner potentially moving my leg and putting stress on my hip. When I play top or neutral position I feel very confident/secure and much as such. After open mat ended I hung out for a little bit and waited for a private client to arrive for an hour session before heading home to relax for the rest of the evening. Sunday as always is my sloth day – I do the bare essential demands so my brain can recharge for the week. I find that this makes the rest of my week far more productive and efficient.

This update is going to cover a few days extra as I’m going to switch my update day to Sundays moving forward.

Monday

I had a surprise substitute physical therapist today, so he asked me if I wanted to change anything about my program and I told him that I didn’t know what he had planned for me and as such I couldn’t make any comments. He said he was going to do the same thing as what I had listed from last week – so I told him that the kettlebell RDLs were very easy and I could probably use an increase. So he took me to the weight room and checked my form on a landmine deadlift with a 45# plate – that became the replacement. Everything else remained the same as last week except that for my straight leg raises I used a larger cone and for my TRX pistol squat I opted to not use the squishy pad as a target behind me and just watched my depth in the mirror to make sure I was getting to the spot I needed to be.

Monday nights we have a 90 minute Jiu Jitsu class at my academy and it is one of our most popular classes of the week. I work from home on days that I have physical therapy but got a ride in from one of my team mates. We warmed up with partner movement drills, then went into our takedown sequence of the month before working on a Jiu Jitsu technique from side control bottom (position of the week). Then we had a good 30-40 minutes of live drills/rounds. I was able to go through the entire class without any modifications to techniques and felt really good in all my movements. I even was able to implement a new passing concept that I sniped our other black belt instructors studying – it wasn’t exact to the way they were practicing it, but it used the same principles in the moment and it worked.

Tuesday

I felt the deadlifts in my upper hamstrings when I work up this morning. Nothing above and beyond, and I was still able to move around like normal, but I could definitely tell I had done them the day before! My blood pressure was running on the lower side of my normal today continuing the trend from yesterday (mid 90s/60s) – so I decided to really focus on extra hydration to see if I could bring it back up a bit. The nice thing about Jiu Jitsu practice is that if my hypotension issues flare up, I’m already on the ground so I’m less likely to pass out except for in between rounds when I stand back up.

Class this morning was fun! One of our black belt instructors reviewed over the technique from the previous evening class with an additional technique that was really stupidly useful (my favorite kind). We got a good amount of live rounds in and I felt pretty solid moving around.

I did a fair amount of mobility and stretching before going into my home PT exercises during evening class as I was still a bit sore. It was just muscle soreness though and my joint felt good so it was okay to work through – I did go a bit lighter with prescribed weights however and only did one set of the single leg (shoulder elevated) hip bridges.

Wednesday

The hamstrings are a little less sore today although my hip joint started getting a little sore. I realized that I was sitting curled up like a gremlin for the majority of the day and it felt better as soon as I stretched out a bit in my big chair that I have set up in the office. I’m still not ready to be hunched over in a standard office chair all day apparently but I’m thankful to my team for setting me up with a comfortable alternative.

I taught some leg framing principles from knee shield half guard tonight (how to activate the core and not just depend on isolated muscles for stability) and then two sweep options depending on whether people are pressuring the knee shield or have their weight neutral/back: a little push/pull dance so to speak. We sparred a few rounds as well and I got to jump in and it has been a while since I did any no gi sparring rounds!

My energy levels had been pretty low this day but since I had gotten my vitamin shots right before class I had a bit of an energy boost and decided to ride it and stay for the gi class afterwards. I got introduced to a new half guard sweep series that I may have to play with a little bit and then got two more light rounds in afterwards.

Thursday

For morning Jiu Jitsu class I was pretty fuzzy headed and had to work hard to maintain my focus and not be a bumbling buffoon during drilling. It was easier during live rolls because that’s more instinctive for me and doesn’t require as much brain power as does focus repetitive technique drilling.

I did my evening PT exercises during the comp class and made it through the full set for the first time this week since the hamstring soreness had died down appropriately enough by this point. It felt pretty good!

Friday – 19 weeks post op

This was typically my work from home day but I had to go into the office after a morning appointment with my therapist as we were down an office staff member. This meant an extra day of sitting which is still a bit more uncomfortable even in the stretched out chair so I had to take extra time to walk and move around during the day.

Saturday

Our morning ladies class is slowly growing and I taught loop choke variations this morning before heading home to relax and take an afternoon nap. I went to see the opera “Carmen” at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center this evening as a special treat and wanted to be well rested for my night out – I really enjoyed the show!

Sunday

That brings us to my new update day. I spent most of Sunday morning doing a deep clean of my apartment and then made a batch of cookies to bring to my PT clinic the following day. Tomorrow will be my last PT session with my current therapist before my original therapist returns from maternity leave to resume overseeing my care – so I figured I would bring some baked goods to see her off. My chocolate chip toffee walnut cookies are always a crowd pleaser!

All in all, I was pretty sore especially toward the beginning of the week in the hamstrings from those deadlifts, but it wasn’t sore enough to cause me to cause me to not be able to move. The main trick I find is that the more choosy I am who I train with, the less guarded I have to be with my movement. In fact this week was some of my best movement thus far. I’m still doing my best to keep the reins on but I can tell I’m getting very close to being where I need to be to get the all clear soon.

Post-Op Visit – 16 weeks post op

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Holiday Weekend

I was an absolute slug all weekend since it was a holiday on Monday in the states and my office was closed. I taught a great ladies class Saturday morning where we worked on side control escapes and then I stayed around for the open mat. I got a few rounds in with people I knew and trusted who needed a light flow round to get warmed up before they proceeded to maul one another. Then I went back home and watched the first three episodes of the new season of Rings of Power that just was released before settling in to play videogames all weekend.

Tuesday – Physical Therapy

Since Monday was a business holiday, I had PT on a Tuesday this week instead. A good portion of my exercises were scaled up to some degree. My single leg press remained the same at 112# and then I followed that by pistol squats to a 20 inch box, and also side plank with top leg extended. We added a 5 second hold to my bird dog rows, increased weight on my heel elevated squats, increased height on my lateral tap downs, added weight to my hip thrust, added weight to hamstring curl. It was a bad hypotension day for me though for this session so I had to sit a few times between some of the exercises to keep from getting lightheaded and falling over. I’ve learned that once you fall over they tend to cancel the rest of your exercises for the day.

I made it back to the office/gym just a few mins late for our 10:30 jiu jitsu class so I was able to jump in and get some drills in as well as positional escape rounds. It was a lot of activity for one morning so I was pretty beat for the rest of the day and concerned about being horribly sore for my follow up visit with my surgeon the next day – so I opted to skip out on participating in our evening competition class and watched instead. I did take a dose of meloxicam when I got home just to be on the safe side too since I had so much activity and did not want to be super sore for the Dr to be testing my range of motion and such the next day.

Wednesday – Surgeon Follow Up Visit

I had my follow up appointment with my surgeon this afternoon. I got an appointment in right after their office lunch break so everyone was fed, happy, and running on schedule. His nurse brought me back almost as soon as I sat in the waiting room (early for my appointment) and did my quick intake noting PT and training progress. One thing I’ve learned is that I start to go into a bit of weird zone out when alone in patient waiting rooms which makes it hard for me to engage when the Dr walks in – so this time I got up to walk around and pace instead of letting myself disconnect during the 10-minute wait.

The Dr came in and opened up with comments about PT beating me up – I agreed but told him that I do like it that way and it’s all in good fun. He did an assessment of my range of motion at all angles as well as comparative hip flexor testing and declared me to be “very strong”. I told him how PT was telling me to “do more” but I wasn’t sure they knew what “more” meant for me, so I was taking video of my movements in class to show what I was doing – he said he loved that and to keep doing it.

All told he said my approach of “slow is smooth, smooth is fast” is paying off in a big way. I still need to stay on that path however as I’m only officially 3 1/2 months out from surgery and have healing still left to do. Same considerations as before to follow: don’t overdo it, stop if anything hurts.

I will be continuing with physical therapy weekly and rechecking with my surgeon again on November 6th which is 9 weeks away. He said that I’m definitely still on track to be competing at the European Championships and Tokyo Grand Slam in January – nothing any sooner than that. I asked about doing the Nashville Open tournament in November which would fall right at the 6-month post-op mark and he made a face then started responding with a sharp inhale and “wellllll” and I interrupted with “It’s all good – if it’s borderline then it’s off the table.” He then went on to explain that it would be definitely pushing it and he wouldn’t want me to try to accelerate my rehab process to try to make an early sports event.

I did check my after visit summary notes and he wrote that I have “full and painless range of motion”, 5/5 strength on all planes of movement without pain, as well as a negative Stinchfield test (I failed that one miserably pre-op).

That evening I taught a small no gi ladies class and then went home afterwards to take some headache meds and relax a bit after all the excitement of the day and still riding a bit of exhaustion from the hard push of the previous morning (in spite of the vitamin shots that one of my nurse teammate gave me before class)

Thursday

I felt pretty good for class this morning where we were working on armbars from s-mount. I was only drilling to one side, modifying actually for my knee not my hip this time since I’m not able to bend my heel to my butt far enough for a proper s-mount on one side (I had a previous procedure that was purposefully healed stiff for maximum long-term stability – it was the lesser evil).

We did positional escapes from mount again – these two weeks working from mount position (top and bottom) are going to be rough since I don’t really have the proper movement to safely do most escapes. So, I’ll just have to hunker down when it’s my turn on the bottom and practice patience and resilience. We did have a couple of full-length rounds in class today which I ended up joining in for this time – it was a little rough at first but with some communication on my end it worked out just fine in the end.

I’ve been neglecting my home PT exercises lately in favor of bjj training. Very tempting to do of course, but probably pretty stupid at this still early phase of my recovery. So I opted to dial it back down and skip out on doing evening comp class in favor of doing my exercises instead. I will keep doing that going forward so that I’m getting the proper strength and stability gains in that I need to be making every week. I have fewer exercises now to do outside of the clinic, but they are more strength focused and higher intensity than before. I’m adding in more stretching and recovery-based things afterwards however just to keep up with the increased demand.

Friday – The week in summary

After seeing my surgeon again I decided I needed to pull the reins and slow my pace a bit since I was starting to pick up speed a little faster that I probably should be at this stage of the recovery process. I haven’t done anything to hurt myself or my recovery, but I was just starting to move toward a direction of a bit more impact than I should be taking at this point.

This isn’t a step back in any way, just putting the brakes on the snowball that was starting to form with my progression on the mats. Still on track and slightly ahead of schedule with my recovery!

Adding In Sparring – 14 weeks post op

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It was another busy week and I just reached 14 weeks post op for my FAI/Labrum repair on my right hip. I have really focused on slow steady progress and the patience is really starting to pay off at this stage of my recovery. The fact that I went into surgery in peak physical condition gave me a leg up, and my underlying hypermobility also meant that I did not have to fight for range of motion at early stages of my recovery and instead focused on stability and managing early inflammation.

Here are the Dailies!

Saturday

I taught our first 8:30 morning ladies’ class and it went quite well! We reviewed the techniques that were taught at the seminar the previous weekend and then the class piggybacked into our 9:30 open mat training session. One of my blue belt teammates asked if I would be willing to do a light warm up round with him and I decided to just go for it since I know he is a good, controlled training partner who would stop and freeze if I told him to. I felt my coach giving me side eye the entire time, but nothing felt off or uncomfortable and I felt like I could move pretty normally – although I did of course avoid any movements of my leg across my midline and my usual guard game and only did the one light round. I felt some stiffness in my hip flexor after cooling off, so I made sure to stretch well and found that the red/infrared light therapy tool that I got the previous week really does seem to help with relaxing the area so it is now part of my evening wind down routine.

Sunday

Total rest day! I had no pain from my flow round the previous day but did do more stretching focused on the hip flexors. Jiu Jitsu moves focus on a lot of core contraction motion which is something that I need to watch to make sure doesn’t end up turning into any chronic inflammation complication after this surgery – not when I’m this close to feeling myself again!

I have been using the red/infrared every evening on my hip at various angles. Additionally I have found it to help give me some immediate relief from inflammation in my elbow. My elbow has been a bit unstable at the radial/ulnar joint – not from any sort of training injury, it’s related to my systemic hypermobility issues. The problem is that when I went through my kinesiology nerd out phase I apparently glossed over elbow and as such don’t seem to really be able to figure out how to stabilize the area myself into working order. I may need to check in with the Dr for some assistance once I get my hip cooled off a bit. All my joints are wonky so I don’t expect perfection ever, but I’m usually able to get balanced out to a form of homeostasis once I figure out some method of adaption.

Monday

Physical therapy clinic day! My routine didn’t change much from the previous week although my single leg press weight was increased again, and hip flexor stretches were added. I also learned that the hip flexor strength exercise I tried to describe last week has a name in their system – they call them “hip airplanes”.

I reported about doing my light round on Saturday, and since I had no pain the day after my PT said she wants me to keep pushing to do more. As long as there is no pain in my hip during activity, and I can get out of bed the next day without wincing from hip pain, she said I’m doing okay. I’m barely sore just in my muscles as of right now and definitely no hip joint pain (we just don’t talk about other joints – hypermobility is super fun)

This was my last physical therapy session covered by my insurance plan. Starting next week, I get to pay out of pocket but thankfully I budgeted ahead for it!

Monday night in class I was able to participate in all the drills including learning a new grip setup for a drop seoi nage, and working chokes from side control top position. I then decided to do a couple of the live positional escape rounds before sitting out the 5-minute full rounds. “Doing more” like my PT said and all.

Tuesday

More drills in class that morning, and I once again did the positional escapes and skipping out on the 5 minute rounds. I requested an updated app PT routine on Monday but that had not gone through yet so I just did my usual adapted session with my pistol squats, elevated heel squats, hip airplanes, etc. during evening comp class. We had a new lady come in to try out the late evening class after that so I stayed late to help out a bit afterwards – I fit in a few extra movement reps as well.

Wednesday

I taught no gi ladies’ class this evening at 5:30 – we went over my favorite side control top style of “kill position” and then one of the ladies really wanted to roll quite badly. I figured “why not?” expecting a chill round and she came at me like a bat out of hell – it was super fun! She would have dialed it back if I had asked her to, but we were having fun and I didn’t feel any discomfort or danger, so we kept at for probably about 10ish minutes.

I was intending to stay for the gi class after the no gi class, but I hadn’t been planning to roll like THAT. Since it was something new, I opted to go home, stretch out, and rest to make sure I didn’t let the adrenaline and friskiness overload my hip.

Thursday – Joining Comp Class

Woke up Thursday morning feeling just fine after rolling the previous evening, no soreness and wasn’t even feeling any flexor tightness. I opted to press my luck a little bit further and in class that morning I drilled and then sparred rounds (with the same person from Wednesday evening class) for about 15 minutes. I avoided playing my usual guard game that would put extra work on my hip flexors, but it was still full live sparring rounds, just avoiding certain movements and positions.

Coach saw me sparring and moving safely and conceded to let me attempt to participate in our Thursday evening competition class. I had proven last Friday that I could safely do all but one of the usual movement drills and could substitute in a different move for that one. I have enough body control and experience to be able to protect myself, and there were enough skilled people in class that were not preparing for events that I could partner with for safe training. Basically, the stars were aligned.

Our competition class has two parts. The first half is usually high intensity partner drills: think of it as Jiu Jitsu circuit training. The second half is live matches, usually starting with 1-minute positional escapes and then progressing to full length rounds from standing. The whole session lasts an hour. No breaks are allowed for water, and if someone is moving too slowly the entire class gets to do pushups. In this class you only sit out if you have an injury or some other medical consideration that coach is aware of. We currently run it twice a week.

That all said, I let my training partners know to avoid forcing my leg across my midline aggressively, but other than that told them I’m game. We just agreed that I would tap if at any point I felt myself in an awkward or uncomfortable position for my hip – then I could reset in a more secure spot and continue. I never ended up in a bad feeling position during the entire class (hip wise that is!)

Friday – The Aftermath/14 week mark

Bringing us to today, I woke up this morning feeling just fine even after the training of the previous day! I’m officially at the 14 week post-op mark now and feeling more and more like myself since I’m getting more involved with my Jiu Jitsu training!

What I am watching for is the day after slight tightness in my hip flexors/deep abdominal muscles on my operative side. This seems to creep up every time I amp up my activity/intensity levels, but as long as I respect it and do proper stretching and recovery exercises, the same level of movement is leading to less tightness the next time I do the activity. With this pattern, I’m slowly building the endurance back up without causing that nasty hip flexor tendonitis complication that I’ve read about.

I doubt I could trust a less experienced version of myself to be able to move around safely enough on the mats to be able to do as much as I am doing right now. Thanks to a combination of super amazing teammates who have my back, and over a decade of training experience (body awareness!) I was able to feel pretty comfortable training this past week at a moderate level. I adapted my movements and avoided positions that could possibly compromise my hip (no real aggressive guard play for me for a bit!), and it is feeling great.

I did take some video of the more aggressive matches in our competition class to show my physical therapist for the next time she tells me to “do more”. The ones where folks look like they are actively trying to fight for that last point with one minute to go – you know, those kinds of rounds. That way she can know how far “do more” can scale up for me.

Fun bonus note to close with: my father is currently in Australia – he will be racing this weekend at the Ironman/World Multisport 70.3 Triathlon representing Team USA. He worked really hard to qualify for this spot and took the trip out along with my mother. I’m looking forward to his race report and will be following his progress on the race tracker app!

After the race they are spending some time visiting around various spots in Australia as they have never been before (neither have I either, it’s on my list!) I’m really excited for them to have this trip together!

Hip Surgery Recovery – 12 Weeks Post Op

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I am now 12 weeks post op from my arthroscopic surgery for hip femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) and torn labrum repair. I had 4 suture type anchors used to repair my labrum, an impingement on my femur corrected as well as a cyst debrided. I have something called “coxa profunda” in both my hips meaning they are deeper set than typical (it’s the Irish in me). Whether this is considered a true pincer type impingement or not seems to be a topic of some debate currently from what I can read in current medical journals, but my surgeon did a small shave down of the bone around the rim of my socket where he was doing my labrum repair to ease the friction as well as increase the blood flow/give them clear access to the area where the labrum repair was taking place and increase my rate of healing.

My particular surgeon never really used the terminology of cam impingement. He described what I have on my femur as “a very small overgrowth on your growth plate, most likely formed during adolescence; and your hips are just a little deeper set than the standard model.” Granted that was at our first meeting and he is probably used to using non-medical words to describe things to people – and that’s a pretty good way to describe it!

Before surgery I would feel like my hip was about to dislocate every time I would try to sit normally. After seeing the images of my labrum, I understand why since it was so loose and floppy from the tears that there’s no way it could have maintained the seal to keep my hip in the socket properly. It was only my muscles and tendons holding my hip in place all this time – I even had pre-existing scar tissue on my joint capsule, most likely built up from overuse! Now it already feels like the most stable joint in my body – granted that bar is abysmally low with my pre-existing connective tissue disorder.

In Physical Therapy

I learned that my physical therapist had the same hip FAI/Labrum repair surgery that I had done, which I think explains the laid back/focused balance she has. I reported in with the videos of the techniques I had done in class the previous weeks, as well as my ability to run through my yoga introductory routine without modifications. At my last session, I was able to taunt my way into getting an increase in weight for my single leg press from 75# to 87# (3×10) and then said goodbye to the TRX straps and hello to pistol box squats (3×5 on each leg, adding weight next time), and a 20# kettlebell instead of 10# for my balance drills. We’ve added leg box drills to warmups along with a hip up drill that I like to do before BJJ class. Progress is continuing steadily; in fact, I’m having to start to do some additional strength training on my left leg because the quads on that side are starting to look smaller than on my surgical side!

For my home exercise program, I’ve been swapping out some of the exercises I have graduated from in PT for more challenging ones. Now instead of dead bugs we are doing side plank holds for core stabilizing work, I’m doing my pistol box squats instead of standard bodyweight squats, and also adding in a few extra exercises that we do in clinic that aren’t listed in my app. I plan to ask at my next session if she can update my app program to reflect my progress.

By week 14 post-op I will have finished out the 20 visits of physical therapy that are covered under my insurance plan and will be paying out of pocket. I will be seeing my surgeon again at the 16-week mark and we will evaluate then if he wants me continuing with one-on-one rehab sessions for sport specific training (and at what frequency), or if he thinks what I’m doing on my own will suffice.

In Jiu Jitsu Class

Movements have been coming much easier now in class as I’m gaining better confidence in my ability to control my movements safely. Remembering my surgeon’s directives that I can “do any movements that don’t cause pain or pinching, being careful to not overdo it and cause inflammation” is the main key that I am focusing on when drilling in class. The thing I am having to be extra aware of is how much of Jiu Jitsu is contracting the abdominal/hip flexors – and hip flexor tendonitis is one of the top post-op complications that people run into after this sort of a surgery. To counter this, I have been adjusting my stretching routing and also working more posterior chain strengthening work to help counter the anterior tightness. More tummy time at home while reading and attempting to sleep less curled up.

I started drilling some simple takedown moves these past two weeks. Nothing too dramatic, and I was only able to drill to one side safely but it’s a work in progress and I was able to film to show my PT the movement that I need to be able to do with my surgical side as well. For week 11 I was able to do some tight inverted north/south re-guard drills without any pain or pinching, and even spinning into a few loose triangles (zero pressure of course.) For week 12 we were working on guard passing and I was comfortable being in single leg x-guard on my surgical side to work on passes, and also basing in de la riva guard for passing drills, and even doing standing guard breaks to double under and over/under passing combos. My hip definitely felt tired after doing that much focused work, so I took it a little easier with the hip flexor portion of my home PT program this week and did a little more focus on glutes and back.

I discovered that I can safely flow roll with the kids right now since they don’t have the body mass to be able to hurt me (physically at least). I may occasionally let one of them jump on me after they are done with kids class from this point on if there is room on the mats. My ability to chain movements together has become a lot more smooth, and I’m not running into too many positional issues where I have to compensate or adjust for inadequacies in my hip. There are a few things I’m hesitant to attempt doing on my surgical side, and that’s where filming on my non-surgical side to show my physical therapist comes into play – that way she can know the movements I need to work toward confidence in and adjust my exercises accordingly.

I was able to teach class this past weekend including a move that involved some impact to my hip that I did not think about before I demonstrated it. Thankfully our mats are slightly elevated on foam blocks like a gymnastics floor and have a little more give to them than if they were just laid straight on concrete – and it felt just fine, I just didn’t demonstrate it as forcefully as I historically would have. This weekend we have a seminar with Sophia McDermott that I am really looking forward to participating in, more on that with my next update!

12 Week Summary

Twelve weeks post op just sounds really good. I’ve reached the point now where I’m moving well enough in most drilling situations that people will ask me to roll afterwards but I have to decline still. I’ve been doing this long enough that I can compensate around areas of inadequacies and the challenge for me will be to not compensate for those once I’m out of the danger zone for re-injury. The 4-month post-op mark is when my surgeon says he will consider my labrum to be healed from the surgery: that’s when I plan to start pushing for more out of myself in class.

I did not do any research on my surgeon before scheduling my surgery because I knew if I went down the rabbit hole of surgeon research, I would probably spend months down it and would end up in decision paralysis. I chose to focus my research on pre- and post-op preparation and instead leaned on the power of trust transference for choice of surgeon. My surgeon who did my knee surgery a few years ago is one of the top names in the professional sports orthopedics field (over a decade as a dedicated NFL team surgeon) and is who my Jiu Jitsu coach sent me to. He runs his own sports orthopedics group now; but doesn’t do hips himself. I figured I could trust that he chose well qualified individuals to be part of his practice – and that his research into the matter would be better than any information I could find online through hearsay. After scheduling my surgery, I had a surgical nurse teammate ask me where I was having my surgery done and with who, and received a response of “Ok, good!” – so the inner circle validation was there as well! Since my surgery, I have had other people connected with health care tell me that he’s a great hip surgeon, so I guess my approach paid off!

I may go back to weekly updates for a little bit longer – I feel like so much has happened since my last post and trying to condense it all into a reasonable word count is challenging to say the least.

Hip Labrum Surgery – 7 weeks post-op

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I had a bit of a switch over in therapy this past week. My therapist said that due to my pre-existing hypermobility, I’ve really gotten my range of motion back in record time and she doesn’t want me really working on pushing any more range of motion for the time being. Instead we are going to focus on stability and strength and let my joint capsule have a break to recover a bit. “Why put strain on it when we don’t have to at this point?”

Exercises progressions are as follows: increased band resistance for standing hip flexion/extension/abduction, added band resistance with bird dog, increased reps of staggered bridges, increased reps of single legged timed balance on squishy pad, increased reps of reclined straight leg lift. Added new exercises of dead bug, holding shallow squat on balance board for time, and slow step ups on a 4 inch step.

Next week the plan is to start me on the elliptical trainer instead of the bike. That will be after seeing my surgeon earlier that morning as well so I’ve been writing down a bunch of questions to ask him. My PT suggested I ask him what would be a good timeline to start integrating sport specific movements into physical therapy. Jiu Jitsu is a very different type of movement than the typical sport and she wanted to make sure she had everything lined up as well as possible in my notes. Next week will be my last week working with her as she will be going on maternity leave – if she makes it that long!

My therapist said that I am right on track with my recovery – and trending a bit ahead of schedule even. I do only get 20 PT visits covered by insurance and I’m pretty sure that is a hard limit, but I will budget to pay for additional myself as I want to make sure I’m able to recover properly (I did send an email to my insurance rep and he is doing some research for me to see if I have any wiggle room). My PT said since I’m so good at doing my own work at home I’m a good candidate to just be in the clinic once a week and be on my own the rest of the week.

I’ve reached the point where I’m starting to really normalize a lot of my daily movements. If I didn’t have the cane in hand most people wouldn’t know that I had a hip surgery such a short time ago based on how I’m moving around. (I don’t use the cane except for when I’m outdoors or walking a lot like when I went to the farmers market this past weekend.) I’m looking forward to the push to regain strength and power with stability because while from the outside it looks like normal movement, it is with very conscious thought and focus still. I have one speed setting: casual amble – and I need to level up to gain more settings safely. Yes this is 100 percent a video game character build out.

Future Jiu Jitsu Training

I had a thought for my future Jiu Jitsu training that has gotten me quite excited. I have been training now for almost 13 years, and the past 8 or so years has been focused primarily on variations and offshoots from open guard and half guard that started developing when I was a white and blue belt. The one thing I was never able to integrate in was shin or butterfly guard techniques – I just could not for the life of me get the positions or sweeps (in particular butterfly) to work for me. Now I have an inkling of why.

The orthopedic surgeon showed me how the type and position of this injury that I have – which happened right before I really got into Jiu Jitsu training – caused instability in my hip joints and subsequent muscle weakness right at the angle and position I would need to properly execute most butterfly guard maneuvers. I’ve been able to work around it for most other moves and techniques but this was a specifically targeted move that I just could not find a work around for.

I’m excited to revisit trying to work butterfly guard into my game once I get the all clear from my surgeon. Now that the injury has been repaired, I want to test if I can make it work for me now with a functional hip. Even just this short of a time out of surgery it already feels like the most stable joint in my body.

Tokyo Recap Part 1: Departure and Competition

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Well I have been home now for about a week and a half now and the jet lag is finally fading – that 15 hour time difference hits harder on the return now in my late 30s. There were also other circumstances delaying my recap, but I’ll get into that later.

This was my first time back in Japan since before Covid in 2019 and to say I had been looking forward to it would be a massive understatement. I was caught completely off guard however by the huge wave of emotions that hit as my plane lifted off from Nashville early that morning. I was thankful to have a window seat and the cover of darkness as the waves of realization hit and became reality – of how much I had done over the last several years to make this happen again. I ugly cried for the majority of that short flight from Nashville to the Atlanta hub where I would catch the connecting flight onward to Tokyo.

The flight from Atlanta to Tokyo was rather rough as it was just over 15 hours long and I had a nausea inducing migraine for the majority of it. My weight was already good for making 62 kg getting on the flight, so dehydrating was definitely not part of the plan; but as we all know, things don’t always go according to plan.

My flight arrived in Tokyo around 2 pm so I took my time and checked my weight before going to customs, I was at that point about 60.8 kg so I started trying to sip some fluids since that was far below my intended weight at that point due to dehydration. After clearing customs I sat at the airport until about 4 pm since there was no point going to my hotel in central Tokyo to drop my bags when I would then have to immediately turn around and come back down for weigh ins right after doing so.

My official weight for the masters division was 60.1 kg (that is 134.4 lbs). After making weight I grabbed my bags and made my way to the metro station for the 30 min train ride to find my hotel.

I chose to once again stay in a capsule style hotel, this time in Akihabara (aka: electric town/anime central). I really like capsule style hotels because they tend to be centrally located near main train stations and offer great amenities such as premium hair/skin care products, spa services, and such like. This one gave me a fresh bag with my towel set and pajamas every day and I did not have to pack any toiletries since everything they provide is luxury quality. I don’t need a lot of space either, since I’m not hanging out in a hotel room all day and just need a safe comfortable place to sleep at night.

I tanked out pretty quickly after getting checked in and putting my stuff away. I was worried about having to fight first thing in the morning after flying in and weighing in the night before, but since they were running the amateur event the same day, the masters event was set to start in the early afternoon so I could have a little chill time.

As far as how my matches went, well it wasn’t my best day. I could make excuses but that’s all they would be. It doesn’t really matter what the excuses are, I either brought it that day or I didn’t – and that day I didn’t. I was feeling pretty cruddy about it since the masters division was supposed to be my actual focus for this trip and the pro division was going to be my “f*ck it I’m here, may as well” division.

This was the marquee going through my brain after those matches, while of course keeping a smile on my face of good sportsmanship: “should I not have dropped my walking weight so low and have just done the 70 kg division? Should I have not tried to do two divisions, just done one and done a more reasonable water cut for the last few lbs instead? Was it an actual injury or just me being weak? Was it the migraine aftereffects? Should I have flown in earlier? Am I just a washed-up has-been? Were they right when certain people told me a few years ago that at a certain age you just can’t expect to compete anymore? Am I too broken to make it back for real? Did I not train enough? Did I waste my training partner’s time for this?” You know, the whole doom spiral that tries to hit when you feel like you embarrass yourself spectacularly.

There was nothing else to do but keep moving forward of course. I had to hang around at the venue for a few more hours to wait for the weigh ins to open up for the professional division event (that event was the following day). I was still struggling to rehydrate and ended up weighing in for that at 61.35 kg, so that some was progress at least!

The mood the next morning on the warmup mats for the professional match was quite more serious than the day before. I won’t go into too detail about my matches but I will say I felt so much better about my performance overall in the pro division than I did in the masters division the day before. Each match was dramatically different, and they do double elimination at these big events for brown and black belt matches so I went 2:2 and took 4th place, just missing the podium (and some sweet $$).

So, the overall lesson learned from this after the spiral of the day before is that I was a dumbass and shouldn’t fly for 18 hours to the other side fo the world, weigh in the same day of arrival, and then compete the day after I arrive. I could get away with that in my 20s and early 30s: but apparently it’s a no go in my late 30s. One extra day of recovery and I was a much less embarrassing version of myself – still not perfect of course, but much improved. Yes, I should know better but I’m thickheaded and need to be reminded sometimes that I’m not invincible. When I do the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi this May I plan to arrive several days before the event so I will have time to recover from the trip before weigh ins and competing.

Part 2 I’ll get into some of the fun exploration stuff! I went on a temple pilgrimage in Ueno Park!

Back in the Groove

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Man, it has been a crazy last few years.

There were quite a few long stretches of time where I basically quit mentally with my training and came within a hair of quitting physically as well. Between losing all my training partners due to academy drama, covid, and then my knee blowing out sideways – it was a lot.

Through it all, I gained an excessive amount of weight of course. I went from walking around comfortably around 140 lbs up to 192 lbs at my peak after surgery when I was immobilized for months. The extra weight puts pressure on my already wonky joints (I have hypermobile EDS), as well as caused an increase in overall inflammation/pain, shot up my cholesterol, and just made me feel like a washed up has-been. Having a significant amount of body dysmorphia and old history of an eating disorder did not help with that either.

March of last year is when I was able to start moving around a bit (3 months after surgery). I had a lot of limitations and twice weekly rehab since I was basically learning how to walk and use my leg all over again. There was a lot of nerve damage due to the extent of the damage to my knee and it was months before I could consciously flex my quadriceps muscle group. In summary:

2021: Awarded black belt in March, knee injury happened 3 weeks later in freak training accident. I knew it would put me down for a while but wasn’t sure how long – surgeon wanted to wait and see how much it could heal on its own before he did any surgery. It was frustrating going from 6 week appointment to 6 week appointment without a concrete recovery timetable answer – all while paying out of pocket for therapy twice a week (no insurance of course). In December the surgeon determined it had healed as much as it could on my own and did a 3 hour long reconstructive surgery.

2022: My sports orthopedic surgeon was happy with the outcome and promised me an eventual return to full usage. I’d never had a stiff joint in my life but he purposefully wanted it to heal stiff so it would be as strong as possible for all the impact I would put it though. This translated to many tears in PT when it came time to work on pushing the range of motion and I was on the watch list for a second procedure to clear out extra scar tissue. (Better that option than for it to heal too loose and have to get the whole procedure done over again.) March is when I hit that peak with my weight just as I was starting to be allowed more movement and could start working my way back down slowly. 6 months after surgery I was allowed to start moving around lightly on the mats with a special made sports impact brace to protect the healing ligament grafts. In December of 2022 I got the all clear to return to training without any restrictions – he said it would take another 6-8 months for me to feel fully recovered but I wasn’t in danger of damaging the reconstruction work he did. So I signed up to compete in January at the Europeans.

2023: So far I’ve competed at an event almost every month. It was a fight to get my weight down to make medium heavyweight (163.6 lbs) for Europeans, but it felt like a huge accomplishment to have a chance to be back on the mats and I was just tearing up in the bullpen as well as before/after all my matches. Honestly I feel pretty emotional and grateful at each event I’ve been to so far. I know I haven’t been training at my optimum in order to expect to win events, but the only way I will recover my movement and proper mindset is to just keep pushing myself and embracing the suck.

Currently:

I finally reached a place where I feel confident using my surgical leg without being on guard at all times – so that means I’m ready to get serious with my training again. I have most of my training partners back thanks to my coach opening a new academy where we can feel welcomed again, plus I’m now working a job that is a supportive environment for both jiu jitsu training/competing and my autism quirks.

I decided it was time to make the push to get back to my light weight division (141.6 lb) for the Master Worlds tournament next month. It’s a lot of hard work, but with support from my team mates I am able to keep my focus and am reaching or exceeding my weight goals each week. Self-motivation is a thing, but knowing my team and coaches have my back gives that motivation a solid foundation. Working from that foundation I feel my confidence and drive returning again, like I haven’t felt since my mid/upper purple belt days!

With a little extra push I’ll be able to make the goal of light weight early in time to compete in another event a few weeks before master worlds – then I can coast and let my system stabilize before the big event. I would just prefer to not have the first time I manage to make weight be at one of the biggest tournaments of the year.

I love seeing the camaraderie of our academy and all the new people coming in almost every day. After some dark times, the new chapters going forward are looking bright!

Moving in the Right Direction

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A lot has fit into the first few weeks of the year!

I am absorbing the impact of my official autism diagnosis and what that means for me. I’m still the same person I’ve been my entire life, just with more knowledge. The doctor gave me some insights that I hadn’t thought of before that I am trying to learn to work with.

That same week I had a whirlwind 3 day trip to Paris to compete at the European Championships. It was my first major event as a white belt and felt like a full circle thing making it my first major event as a black belt. I did not know what to expect at all and was just thankful to be there – which is what I expect to be the common theme for all competition events this year. There was doubt I’d ever be able to safely compete again so get getting my toes on the mat out there again was such a meaningful thing that I was tearing up through the entire process (I also threw up before from the nerves). There are a lot of movements that I am not able to do yet, but my surgeon said I’m not in danger of damaging the repair work he did in my knee. It will be another 6-8 months before I start to feel “normal” again with it but in the meantime the more I keep trying to work with it, the better my final result will be.

I just did another competition event this past weekend in Atlanta. I definitely was slow and made strategic errors that would have given my coach a stroke if he had been able to be there watching. It’s going to be a long process of learning all over again and it really sucks because I know I’m not performing at my potential – but I also know if I don’t push through and put myself out there I will not get over it either physically or mentally.

Having a supportive team and extended bjj family makes a world of difference for me – and I love our bjj community, even people from other teams cared enough to check in or give me a lovingly stern talking to about some stupid thing I did. Coach was not exaggerating when he told me that he didn’t feel like he even started learning Jiu Jitsu until he got his black belt – it feels like I’m a white belt all over again. I’m working hard to keep myself in a teachable headspace and open to learning new things – at the same time I’m trying to be the best example I can be to our new students.

I will be competing again this next weekend in Memphis – because the only way I can get over fear is to just push through it and not let it win. Right now I’m trying to get my competition mindset aligned, at the same time as trying to convince my body that it can do movements that I have been guarding against for the past two years.

Synopsis: I’m super thankful to be getting back out on the mats again. It’s a process that I am trying to enjoy because I know that while it sucks, I’m moving in the direction I want to be going and am surrounded by people who care about me as a person.