It has been about 2 weeks since I went back to Kickboxing. Reactions of my new exercise choice ranged from surprise to concern from friends and family. Surprise because it didn’t seem to fit the image they had of me in their head; Concern because of my hip condition: Avascular Necrosis of the femoral head.
After Mina was born, I had considerable hip pain and had a pronounced limp until the doctors could figure out what was wrong. Xrays, MRI’s, and Physical therapy helped get rid of my limp, but somehow during pregnancy or delivery, the cells in the hip’s femoral head..died. I was told that 70% of the cells at the hips surface were dead, that I had an ugly hip of a 65 year–don’t carry your child, don’t walk up hills, just sit and try to prolong needing a hip replacement.
I was 33.
I am not the “Sit and Stay” kind of person. I don’t live in fear of the unknown but live in the NOW. I took various Chinese herbal medicines and Goji juice which eliminated the residual pain. Seven years later, I have defied the diagnosis and am pain free. It was time to push myself in other ways.
It may seem counter-intuitive to take up kickboxing when I have a degenerating bone condition. Actually, research shows that martial arts, kickboxing, etc create stronger bones because of the conditioning exercises.
Kickboxing falls under the category of a high-impact, muscle-strengthening activity. It strengthens bones by consistently working the muscles, tendons and ligaments around bones, thereby, strengthening the joints and providing a stable structure to support the skeletal frame.
Muay Thai and other kickboxing conditioning programs train fighters through repeated strikes with the forearms and shins. This forces remodeling of the bones — the building of new and stronger bone through forced, mechanical stress. According to a 2006 study on bone remodeling conducted by Athens University, bone remodeling is the body’s way of repairing bone tissue damage in such a way that it prevents the accumulation of old bone and replaces it with new bone. The actions of kickboxing lead to skeletal remodeling in response to the force of those actions. Read more Here…
I trust my gut a lot of the time when I make decisions. When asked how come I did this or that, my answer is usually “It just felt right to me.” I understand it is unsatisfactory answer in a logic driven society. Trusting yourself to make decisions for yourself is hard because what if you are wrong! Fear-based thought patterns immobilize. Pushing beyond comfort zones stimulates the body and mind in so many ways because of focused acuity in “X” situation. So what if you take a chance and hit a wall-at least you would know, re-calibrate and move in a different direction instead of sitting…wondering.
What if you trusted yourself, your gut, your intuition…and you were Right? How would that impact the way you live your life?
If I had listened to to doctors and not myself,
- I would have missed out on carrying my little girl on nature walks
- I would not have hiked in the mountains and seen wildflowers and secret lakes hidden at the top.
- I would have had 2 surgeries so far (hip resurfacing and Osteotomy) and prepping for my first [of many] hip replacement this year.
I may have only just started kickboxing, but I have already triumphed. I trusted myself because it felt like the right thing to do.
What are you afraid of? Life isn’t always Logical or controllable. It’s time to get uncomfortable with the uncontrollable. Take a risk…live large.