Doctor said no more running!

[MadHatter04]

Exactly the title! 😭😭

During my last marathon, I stupidly jolted my leg whilst running and even more stupidly carried on with 15km to go.

Gave myself a couple weeks off running to recover and catch up on my social life. However since the run my hip has not been right but I have tried to convince myself of every reason why it could be hurting that hadn’t related to running.

Finally given in and have been to the doctors and they have advised me to keep exercising but not to run or do high impact cardio until my results have come back as my hip problem could result in surgery 😭

The problem is I loveeeeeee running! It’s my time from the craziness of life. Any advice
on what other cardio I could do.

I do have a gym membership with a pool, tried to get my confidence swimming
but I’m not an amazing and feel people are staring. Even though I know they aren’t - Hopefully 😬

I currently strength train, and always have done to support my running but I’m struggling to find a better love.

I also feel a bit unmotivated from exercise. Can anyone help me create a new routine please 🙏🏼

Cycling? Similar hip movement but no impact. Still getting outdoors, feeling the wind in your face etc.

Walking and cycling?

Rowing? (Indoor machine)

I feel your pain. I am banned from running for ever following a hip replacement. Don’t get me wrong, I am incredibly grateful for my hip replacement and for being pain free after so long being in agony with every step. But I so miss running. I have dreams where I’m running.
What helped is finding something else that fills the gap. For me, it’s Zumba and playing pickleball and table tennis. It’s not as good as running, but it’s ok.
Wishing you well.

I had to stop running too so now I stick to the cross trainer. Not quite the same but still good and much better on the joints.

I know someone this happened to, she used to run all the time then she had an injury and the doctor told her not to run again so she took up spinning at the gym and absolutely loves it!

You could use the pool to do aqua jogging till the results come back. You can get a special float that you strap round your waist, and you aim for more of an upright marching movement than normal running, but it is great cross training. People possibly might stare, but they won't know if you're crap at it or not!

Nobody in the pool cares what you're doing (how you swimf) as long as it doesn't interfere with what they want to be doing.

Pilates.

Cyclefit/Spinning. It's the biz.
I had to give up running but this is great and provides a similar high. It's a circular so low impact motion and won't jolt your hip.

Get yourself some swim coaching. Having the right technique will make a difference not only to your confidence, but also your stamina & speed. You can really get in the zone and block out everything else.

I agree that swimming and cross training are good options.

Please follow your doctor’s advice until you have your results, OP, or you could end up doing some serious damage. I’m currently recovering from surgery and it’s been such a pain, so restricting. You don’t want to do further damage. Good luck!

What is it the Dr thinks you might have done that would need surgery, and what results are you waiting for?

If you can afford it, I'd go to a private osteopath or physio to see what's going on and how you can improve it.

I'd also recommend trying a mobility/flexibility program - I use Tom Morrison but others are available... even if you have damaged something, strengthening the muscles supporting the joint and your core etc will help you work around the (potential) damage.

Get a bike
Visit a physio who specialises in sports injury, and a PT who specialises in rehabilitation.

I can’t run either but moved onto cycling and I love it. Maybe you could give that a try?

A good spin class. I was unable to run because of a snapped ACL. . It’s the only thing I found that enables the same heart pumping: sweat which I loved with running

Cycling. I took it up for a while when I had a bad shoulder injury. Didn't love it as much but you're outdoors and get a great cardio blast.

Rowing could be good - and if you join a club you’ll get some of the social side. Fixed seat is even less impact on the hips than sliding seat/rowing machine

Or kayaking - change to a completely different part of the body as the powerhouse. Obviously not a terribly useful suggestion unless you have a river (lake,sea) handy

I’ve been there! It’s tough.

You need to grieve your identity as a runner and accept no other exercise is quite the same. Nothing will be as good. You will always miss it. You will have dreams when you’re still running and wake up thinking you still run. Accept that.

As others have suggested: cycling, cold water/open water swimming for the community aspect and sense of endurance, hiking, yoga and Pilates, gym classes, gym. Enter events like long distance open water swimming events, cycling events etc. Find a runner friend and train for a triathlon as a relay with them doing the run.

It takes time! I would run again in a heartbeat but I’ve found other ways to be healthy.

Oh, and for your swimming confidence: have some 1-1 tuition. Swimming isn’t like running: you don’t just get better doing it on your own as your fitness improves. You need to improve your technique.

Second those advocating swim coaching - absolute game changer. After a horrible bout of sciatica I could only swim for exercise, but not well. Did a course of 'Adult Improver' lessons at our local pool, and now swim much faster and further than I could before, so definitely worth a go!

Spin. Get the same endorphin rush. Same cardio boost. Same calorie burn. Just no impact and if you get a good instructor some bangin tunes too. Honestly I love spin get yourself in to a class

Are you seeing a physio ?

Go to a physio, they have more specialised knowledge than a GP and are much more pragmatic about rehabilitation. GPs are much more knee-jerk about saying not to do something.

I'm not saying to ignore the GP, just get a second opinion. There can be a lot of strategies to build back up to safe running with specialised advice.

I get my 'high' from swimming - there's no better start to the day for me. I'm also much more likely to do other exercise in the day if I've had my swim.

Throw everything at physio - GP’s aren’t the right person for this sort of injury. Then reassess.