I'm bumping this thread for another crack at the main forum. My surgery is this Friday and I now know that I will be banned from the pool for four weeks. It's the bike and the run I'm wondering about.

Plan on being on a stationary bike w/no resistance immediately for about 4 weeks on top of no pool. Walking sans crutches around 5 week mark. Recovery is slow...but you will be feeling good at about 12-14 week mark. Plan on an easy summer...
Some good threads out there on this...
My surgery April, raced sprint tri mid-August.

Good luck!

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Let the crazy out.

Your surgery will only be as good as your PT.

I suggest a PT who utilizes Pilates as well as other PT practices.
A Pilates reformer machine is amazing for working the hips, but make sure
you do it under the guidance of a skilled practitioner.

Good Luck, you will be fine.

Ken

FAI and labral repair both hips done 6 months apart in 2010 at age 40 Running comes back last. You will feel great at 12 weeks but don't let that fool you into thinking you can return to normal. 6 months is more like my experience. I've also implemented a permanent routiine of strength trainining and hip mobility exercises without which I likely could not run (fast). Your outlook is good. Just stick to a good pt program and never forget to prioritize hip health.

Thanks very much for your help. With respect to PTs, was seriously burnt by 2 local PTs already by this injury so I'll follow the detailed physio protocol my surgeon lined me up with. There's no point in my paying someone to wreck his good work.

I'm not asking about PT though. What I'm getting at is what sort of timelines and progression that people have had for the bike and run based on the type of repair done. For example, a microfracture will set things back for a labral tear/FAI repair by an extra 4 weeks.

I did check the threads but many are old and don't have bike/run specifics on how someone went to from no-resistance cycling and walking to biking or running at their healthy pace in X number of months. I think it would be helpful to have some information about that before having to learn by trial and error.

I'm a PT and while not going to give PT advice, definitely adhere to the post-op guidelines. Getting too aggressive too quickly will increase risk of hip flexor aggravation. Stationary biking will come along early to maintain hip mobility but expect to hold off on running for a bit. Hip extension past neutral and excessive rotation as well as active/resisted hip flexion should be limited the first 6-8 weeks (YMMV) to protect the capsule and surgical sites. Running and stretching of the hip flexor both put the hip into extension so counterintuitive to what you think you'd want to do for the hip flexors. Avoid overuse, active flexion and resisted flexion (long axis leg raise) as well as too much activity because these will all lead to aggravation of the flexor tissues and then you'll be tempted to stretch them more and more and this will just spiral into a "chronic" frustration and the surgeon (as well as you) will not be happy. I have a post op guideline on my desk right now from HSS so feel free to PM me and I can send you their approach to give you an idea from a top surgeon. I use it as a gold standard.

Best

John

John, your reply-post regarding post-op guidelines for arthroscopic labral tear surgery may be a few years old. You offered to send them to the original poster. If you have them available and would be willing to send them to me, I would appreciate it. I’m about to have the surgery.

My wife just had FAI removal and labral tear repair (hers was torn 40% of the way around) at the end of January.

Here's the timeline post-op if that's what you were asking for:
1 day: Begin PT
2 weeks: Stop CPM machine
4 weeks: Wean off of crutches
10 weeks: start elliptical
12 weeks: start jogging/treadmill
12-18 weeks: start sport-specific training, plyometrics
6-12 months: return to competitive sports

I will say it was more like 5-6 weeks before she was fully off of crutches. And she's right at 12 weeks right now but I don't think she's ready for jogging. Recovery has its ups and downs. She'll be feeling really good then overdo it and be hurting for a few days at least. She could probably jog fine right now, but she'd probably be in pain for days after. Unfortunately I'm not sure we're going to be able to go in for her 12 week appt, so not sure how we will progress to jogging. I'm thinking just adding 3-4 30 seconds of jogging to our 1-2 mile walks at first and see how she responds.

Thank you, Sean.