Hip replacement and running

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Has anyone had a hip replacment and then tried to start a running routine? Obviously I know this isn't a dr. office. I know all about sound medical advice, etc....

I had my hip replaced 12 years ago. I'm thinking aobut starting to walk, then powerwalk, then jog, etc....like a couch to 5K type things.....anyone done this after a hip replacement?

Replies

  • Livin_Large
    Livin_Large Posts: 104 Member
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    anyone?
  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
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    Not sure if that's recommended or not (yes, I'll say it - ask your Dr LOL). But, if they give you their blessing, I would suggest doing a program like Jeff Galloway's. It's a run/walk program, and much easier on your body than continuous running. I've been running for about 6 months now and am dealing with an injury now. So I'll be switching to this method to hopefully heal and avoid future problems.
  • Livin_Large
    Livin_Large Posts: 104 Member
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    yeah the more I read, the more that says that I could end up doing a lot of damage to my femor and then having to have a whole major revision later on. I know they are only meant to last about 20-30 years, so even if I can get another 15 before I have it replaced again. But I dont' want to do damage to the surrounding bones. :-(
  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
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    I have to say, I've gotten some great fitness benefits from cycling lately. I've been doing more of it because of my injury.
  • halleymw
    halleymw Posts: 246 Member
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    Wow, I can't believe you would even CONSIDER jogging/running after a hip replacement. Surely your doctor gave you info about what is acceptable activitiy. From the ortho/info site:

    Other Activities
    Walk as much as you like once your doctor gives you the go-ahead, but remember that walking is no substitute for your prescribed exercises. Walking with a pair of trekking poles is helpful and adds as much as 40% to the exercise you get when you walk.

    Swimming is also recommended; you can begin as soon as the sutures have been removed and the wound is healed, approximately 6 to 8 weeks after surgery. Using a pair of training fins may make swimming a more enjoyable and effective exercise.

    Acceptable activities include dancing, golfing (with spikeless shoes and a cart), and bicycling (on level surfaces).

    Avoid activities that involve impact stress on the joint (such as tennis and badminton), contact sports (such as football and baseball), squash or racquetball, jumping, or jogging.

    Lifting weights is not a problem, but carrying heavy, awkward objects that cause you to stagger is not advised, especially if you must go up and down stairs or slopes. Plan ahead to have a cart, dolly, or hand-truck available
    mike
  • natalieg0307
    natalieg0307 Posts: 237 Member
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    No hip replacement here....but I've had ACL reconstruction, countless other knee surgeries, and arthritis.......another vote for cycling.
  • GiddyupTim
    GiddyupTim Posts: 2,819 Member
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    Cycle. Not running without specific permission from the surgeon. Also, 12 years is an eternity in hip replacement. Be careful about reading on the internet and then going and doing. I know people with hip replacements who play tennis. But those are recently replacements. Surgical technique and hip technology has changed much in the past few years, as I understand it.. Not so long ago, they recommended no more athletics.
    Good luck.
  • tad10301030
    tad10301030 Posts: 20 Member
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    I had my hip replaced a few years ago and my doctor gave me the go ahead to jog/run. He said as long as it's not a marathon...haha no worries there.

    "Also, 12 years is an eternity in hip replacement. " As another poster pointed out, many improvements have happened and continue to do so for hip replacements. I have a larger sized head so therefore fewer restrictions on activities and movements. At 38 my doc feels it should be the only one I'll need, I'm a bit skeptical on that.

    Best thing to do is talk to your doctor and make sure that the current hardware is good. Cycling and swimming are great activities. I can power walk almost as fast as I jog. Walking is also a great activity.

    Good luck and no matter what keep your joins active! :flowerforyou:
  • sh4690
    sh4690 Posts: 169 Member
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    As long as you build up to it I wouldn't see a problem to be honest, but don't strain yourself.
    It also depends on what sort of replacement you have had because I know a lot that have been over exerted can "pop out"
    Ask your doctor, or even a physiotherapist for advice on how to maximise your exercise.

    You should know yourself within your body if you are straining too hard and just work up to it.
    After 12 years your hip replacement should be fused with the other tissues within your body and should be pretty secure.

    Your still pretty young and when getting a joint replaced exercise is actually really beneficial for it :)

    Good Luck!!
  • sh4690
    sh4690 Posts: 169 Member
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    Wow, I can't believe you would even CONSIDER jogging/running after a hip replacement. Surely your doctor gave you info about what is acceptable activitiy. From the ortho/info site:

    Other Activities
    Walk as much as you like once your doctor gives you the go-ahead, but remember that walking is no substitute for your prescribed exercises. Walking with a pair of trekking poles is helpful and adds as much as 40% to the exercise you get when you walk.

    Swimming is also recommended; you can begin as soon as the sutures have been removed and the wound is healed, approximately 6 to 8 weeks after surgery. Using a pair of training fins may make swimming a more enjoyable and effective exercise.

    Acceptable activities include dancing, golfing (with spikeless shoes and a cart), and bicycling (on level surfaces).

    Avoid activities that involve impact stress on the joint (such as tennis and badminton), contact sports (such as football and baseball), squash or racquetball, jumping, or jogging.

    Lifting weights is not a problem, but carrying heavy, awkward objects that cause you to stagger is not advised, especially if you must go up and down stairs or slopes. Plan ahead to have a cart, dolly, or hand-truck available
    mike

    This is the initial straight AFTER the joint has been replaced, we are talking 12 years later here.....
    When my 65 year old gran got her hip replaced, physio and doctor told her to work up her exercise naturally. A lot of different factors come into to judging what people can and cannot do, age, weight, size, original fitness levels.

    Best bet is to speak to a doctor and possibly ask for a single session with a physiotherapist so they can observe how the joint copes and give the best advice on what to do.
  • MelisRunning
    MelisRunning Posts: 819 Member
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    A friend of my in the weight room had his hip replaced a year ago and received the green light to resume his running from the surgeon. BUT~ I agree with every one else here. Check with your Dr. before you try anything. Everyone's situation is different and the Dr. would be the one to know your personal particulars. Please, check with your Dr. before trying anything new.
  • sh4690
    sh4690 Posts: 169 Member
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    A friend of my in the weight room had his hip replaced a year ago and received the green light to resume his running from the surgeon. BUT~ I agree with every one else here. Check with your Dr. before you try anything. Everyone's situation is different and the Dr. would be the one to know your personal particulars. Please, check with your Dr. before trying anything new.

    Agreed! Especially concerning the various factors that effect different individuals. Time after time I have done an assessment on a patient, and they have been implemented on a beneficial course of care according to the assessment results. Patients talk (as they do) realise that they both have the same thing wrong with them, and you get, "well if they are doing that/ getting that WHY can't I" ... Urm because it's not as simple as that, yes you may have the same initial medical problem but you are completely different people, with completely different bodies who have had these tailored to your own needs!! haha, feel privledged that we take the time to assess what is best for you personally rather than just giving everyone the same thing!
  • TheChangingMan
    TheChangingMan Posts: 73 Member
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    I had both my hips replaced last year.

    I asked my surgeon during a check up last month if I could start jogging.

    It was a most emphatic NO.
  • AlistairMcAlpine
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    Yes it is possible for many runners to return to running after a hip replacement but you may have to change the way you run.
    Your surgeon may have told you to avoid "high impact activities like running" and this is good advice which should be heeded, however a lot of research has been carried out into low impact running styles. You may want to check out the eBook 'How to Run with a Hip Replacement' www.amzn.com/B00D0VZSH6

    Cheers and good luck on your return to running :)
  • ATT949
    ATT949 Posts: 1,245 Member
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    anyone?
    Late to the thread but I'll leave a reply for other readers.
    I'm three weeks postop on my THR and am looking forward to returning to running. Like so many people here on MFP, I was obese (though only for a few years, fortunately) and lost quite a bit of weight. I lost my weight through an aggressive diet, one that was supposed to cause me all sorts of maladies. None of the naysayers were right - post weight loss, my health was superb. Excellent blood chemistry, no loose skin, good muscle tone, etc. which was pretty much the opposite of what was supposed to happen to a 6' 1" 295 pound male who lost 120 pounds in 7 months by eating 800 to 1000 calories per day.
    The reason I undertook that diet was because I spent quite a bit of time doing research and I was comfortable with what I learned.
    About 14 months ago, I noticed that I had to consciously lift my right foot to get my running shoe off. I didn't seek medical advice until I had pain on the top of my right glute. When I saw my internist, I truly thought I would go through a course of physiotherapy and be back on track. The good doctor told me to get a hip X ray "just to rule out arthritis" and, lo and behold, I was diagnosed with mild to moderate osteoarthritis of the right hip. The causal factors were, primary, moderate dysplasia of the right hip and, second, a history of obesity.
    I was floored. I had been an athlete even after college and was in the 82nd Airborne. Even when I was overweight, I enjoyed hiking in the Rockies and here in the mountains of SoCal.
    I really thought that was all over. Thanks to medication, I was able to walk OK but a hip replacement was definitely in the works.
    Just like I did with weight loss, I spent a fair amount of time doing research. A rough estimate is that I spent at least 80 hours, poring over documents from a variety of sources including NCBI and ortho journals in the US, the UK, and Australia. All told, I interviewed seven doctors and/or surgeons.
    One of the key questions was "would I be able to return to running". Most of them said "No". When I asked them why, they told me that running could prematurely wear our the prosthesis.
    One of my responses was "I'm not a heel striker. When I started running, was actually landing on my forefoot so I had to learn to land on my mid foot. Given the different impact transient for a midfooter, shouldn't that make a difference?"
    Not one of them had any idea about what I was talking about. None of them had had training in kinesiology as it pertains to running.
    I'm not knocking those docs, at all. They're great at repairing damaged bones but that doesn't mean that they fully understand why they're making their recommendations.
    What I found "in the data" was that there just isn't much data and the little data that's there shows that there is no perceptible difference in outcomes at the 5 and 10 year marks, which were the limits of the studies.
    Think about that for a minute - the most recent study was 2013 so the newest hips were from 2008 which means those hips were designed in 2005±. The newest hips were designed a decade ago! Some of the older studies had hips that were implanted in the 90's - a full 20 years ago.

    The reason for that lack of data is pretty simple. Runners tend to be healthier than most people and since obesity is the most common cause of arthritis (which is the most common reason why hips need to be replaced) there simply aren't that many people who are involved in running who end up needing hips.

    Over the course of the time I was learning and shopping for a surgeon, I decided to have an anterior THR and I found a surgeon whose background appealed to me. First off, he was young. Second, he was not a med student during undergrad - he was an economics major. My thinking about a young doc was that he/she wouldn't be in the "same old, same old" mindset. And I liked the idea of a not-med student because, as the grandson of a doctor, as well as my fiancee being the daughter of a doctor, my thinking was that he/she would have better people skills.

    When I interviewed Dr. Park, I asked him about running and he said that he had "concerns". A discussion followed and he explained to me that he wasn't concerned about wearing out the prosthesis. Instead his concern was about "micro separations" that might occur because, as the foot lifts off the ground, the head of the prosthesis will tend to separate from the socket. He did agree with me that there was very little data about the whole issue so it's not something that he rules out.
    I accept that Dr. Park could have realized that I was going to start running again regardless of what he said so he was just going along with me but I didn't get that vibe from him. Over the course of my meetings with him, I've found him to be open and honest with me. He admitted that he's had three dislocations and that one of them was because he installed the prosthesis incorrectly. Think about that - a surgeon admitting that he made a mistake that caused a patient to dislocate! I respect honesty.
    Anyway, back to your issue.
    Doctors have a reputation for holding themselves in very high esteem and, frankly, I just don't buy into it. They have a lot of knowledge and a lot of responsibility but, don't tell them this, but they're not all knowing and all seeing. In addition, docs have a track record and it's much easier to tell someone "no running" than it is to have someone go out running, step off a curb, and dislocate their hip.
    As a technologist I also realize that it's complete folly to worry that I might take 5 years off the life expectancy of my hip. Think about the technology changes that we've seen in the past 20 years - the rate of change will only increase! A big driver there will be market forces. With 600,000 hip replacements being done in this country (2014) and with more baby boomers getting new hips, we will continue to see more improvements in all areas of medical technology.
    I'm certainly not telling you to go out and run and you would be unwise to take my advice blindly. What you might want to try is to ask the surgeon why you shouldn't run and then, ask for citations. The mark of a scientist is a willingness to argue their theory - if they won't show you the data, walk out the door. You are the customer and there are plenty of good doctors doing THR's.