Hip Bursitis-Cathe, please help!

[Asha]

Cathe,
First of all, I think you are fabulous and your workouts are the best there is. You never cease to amaze me with your strength! I have a problem and would like to know any information you can give me. I have been having pain in my hip. I believe it is hip bursitis. I increased my cardio, mainly step, the last three weeks in an effort to burn off some excess bloat and it seems to have been a little too much repetitive motion. My husband, a P.E. teacher and coach, has told me to stop cardio for at least two weeks. This panics me as I have been working out 6 days a week for the past three years. This week I have only done upper body and I'm already itching to get back to cardio. How long do I have to lay off? If I am only doing upper body workouts, what will the effect be on my cardio capacity and could all this result in the dreaded "weight gain after injury"? How should I ease back? I would really appreciate your help and opinion so I have a little direction.

Thank you soooo much!

 

[catwoman]

I'm not Cathe, but what you describe has happened to me twice. I can tell you that I was in miserable pain for months! MONTHS!!! There's not a whole lot that can be done to help bursitis get better -- except rest, rest, and more rest.

Pain is a sign that something is wrong. Your body is trying to tell you something. Listen to what your body is trying to tell you? Take two weeks off. Knock the height of your step down when you get back into cardio. And cut back on the cardio for a while. Otherwise, you will end up like I did the two times bursitis flaired up in my hip - unable to do much of anything that involves moving your leg for 4-6 months. Two weeks and taking it easy, or 4-6 months of no working out at all. I'd opt for the first choice myself, especially after experiencing the second option twice already. And I can assure you that option 2 is NO FUN AT ALL!

Also, don't expect the pain to go away completely for a long long time (if it does, count yourself lucky, but at least expect to feel more discomfort in coming weeks), which means you will really need to take it easy for a while.

 

[Lollie61]

Hi Asha,

I have bursitis in my hip. I've had it for a while. First, there was only swelling, now there's pain. I LOVE cardio and high impact cardio, but now I am not able to do as much high impact as I would like.

I went to a PT and he gave me stretches to do. It has helped a little but when I over do it, my hip lets me know. I have a spinning bike and I also have a bike on a trainer. I use spinervals a lot and I also do my own spinning routines for the spin bike. I LOVE Cathe's Low Max. It does not bother my hip. For her other workouts I just modify. Ten years ago I only worked out on an 8 inch step. Several yrs ago I went to 6 and for Imax 3 I went to 4.

When I do high impact I have my mats down. That has helped. I also pull out the rebounder. Last Dec. I went running w/ my daughter, by the evening I could hardly walk my hip hurt so bad. I took 3 weeks for the pain to be completly gone. LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!!! Take the two weeks off. If you don't have spinervals, it's a great cardio workout w/ out the impact.

Lollie