Sid’s Story: Avoiding Surgery with Physical Therapy & Personal Training
Dealing with an injury can be frustrating. Trying to work out while you’re injured can be even more frustrating. At Fitness on the Run, we do not advocate working out "through" an injury. Ignoring pain and doing certain movements anyway is simply a bad idea. We prefer you see a doctor and/or physical therapist to help rehab an injury. In our business, it’s called “refer out.” We will then work in tandem with your clinician to complement their work in getting you up and active again. A perfect example of this is Sid Hatcher.Sid has been coming to Fitness on the Run since May 2013. Watching him train today you’d never know that back in September he was on a specific training plan to help mitigate a knee injury.Where many people would choose the "easy" option of surgery to fix a ligament tear in the knee, Sid realized after physical therapy he could avoid this option. Surgery had to be a last resort for Sid because even a temporary setback would have a major impact on his life: his job as test pilot for the Navy, husband of a hard-working spouse (recently featured in Street Style), and father of two elementary-aged children.So Sid decided to see if he could resume his normal fitness routine without surgery. The starting point for Sid was physical therapy, which launched a balanced effort between physical therapy and workouts at FOR. And unlike Meredith and Nancy where we worked around injuries and/or dysfunctions (there’s that word again…), we tackled Sid’s injury head on. We built a training plan that focused on strengthening the area around Sid’s knee and programmed tons of core and hip stability work. Sid needed to work on rotation but with great care and an extra set of eyes.
Everyone who trained Sid followed this plan religiously. We documented each workout in case Sid trained with another trainer. Sid credits the “team effort and incredible communication among the trainers being critical to my success.”Each session, Sid was presented with challenging exercises that focused on strength and stability...although Sid sometimes had a different opinion of what it meant to be challenged. During one session this past winter he said to me, “This is so frustrating. I just want to sweat!”
It took a while, but judging from his workouts today, this is no longer a complaint. In fact, he he may secretly long for those "boring" single leg drills.As a pilot who has an hour-and-a-half drive each way to and from work, Sid’s everyday life is a recipe for injury. Sitting is a normal human function, but we were not designed to be stationary for long periods of time. In fact, it might be single worst thing we do…and most of us do it way too much.
Disc Pressure
Simply put, even if you have the best intentions and maintain a fitness routine, sitting for too long will likely lead to injury. Why? Because when one part of your body becomes weak, another will compensate. Repeat that statement. Our bodies compensate all day long. This is good in that it keeps us functioning, but it’s also bad because the part compensating isn’t meant to carry that work load.For example, if you have a weak core and try to do a push-up, your shoulders and elbows will do more work than they’re supposed to, which, over time, can lead to injury. You can only imagine how much compensating your body does when it’s been in a seated position for 8 hours or more.If you find yourself getting injured, or simply just hurting, every time you start a fitness routine, maybe it’s time you seek out some help. This is especially true for the men out there. Too often we men think we don’t need help. As an athlete and gym rat my entire life – this was me. I would eat up athletic coaching, but exercise coach...nah. I knew what I was doing. It wasn’t until I came to Fitness on the Run that I learned about the importance of strengthening overall movement patterns and the benefit it can have…at any age.