SHORT NOTICE -- Sunday, October 23, 2016, come to the lucy activewear store at 11899 Grand Commons Avenue, Fairfax, VA, 2-4 pm, and see some Kangoo Jumps® rebounding in action! I will be there in my boots, along with another licensed instructor, Kathy Howell. We are hoping to bring enough to share (i.e., boots you can try on). There are about a dozen places in the DC-VA-MD area to take rebounding classes, and we are happy to help you find someone near you. You will find us easily -- I'm the one with purple roots in her hair.
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Kangoo Jumps® LIVE - Fairfax, VA, from 2-4 pm October 23, 2016
SHORT NOTICE -- Sunday, October 23, 2016, come to the lucy activewear store at 11899 Grand Commons Avenue, Fairfax, VA, 2-4 pm, and see some Kangoo Jumps® rebounding in action! I will be there in my boots, along with another licensed instructor, Kathy Howell. We are hoping to bring enough to share (i.e., boots you can try on). There are about a dozen places in the DC-VA-MD area to take rebounding classes, and we are happy to help you find someone near you. You will find us easily -- I'm the one with purple roots in her hair.
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Back in my boots, and barely off the ground
Gently, low to the ground, sometimes more walking through the choreography than jumping at all...I am back in my Kangoo Jumps rebound boots. Yesterday was eleven weeks after total hip replacement surgery, and I have been in my boots 4 times in the last week. This is absolutely not standard practice for this amount of time post-op.
Lest you worry, I am being careful. I am easing back into rebounding. I have (mostly) done my physical therapy before the surgery and since the surgery, and returned to my other dance fitness a few weeks ago. Caution is not forgotten. However, you don't rebuild muscle by watching other people work out. When the instructor says, "Go at your own pace," I take him at his word. Sometimes I do different choreography altogether, or at least modify what others are doing to match my capabilities at that moment.
I am also (mostly) eating in ways that support my healing, where I can see it and where I can't. I am taking specific supplements that support my energy, healing, and help keep further arthritis at bay.
For now, I am slowly regaining the skills I once had and I realize some will return faster than others. By being mindful and observant, and patient (OK, as patient as possible for me), and allowing for progress to happen at a natural (not forced or time-sensitive) pace, I fully expect to be able to teach Kangoo Jumps classes again in 2017.
For now, I am grateful to be back in my boots, and happy to be jumping low to the ground. Enough time later for flying!
Lest you worry, I am being careful. I am easing back into rebounding. I have (mostly) done my physical therapy before the surgery and since the surgery, and returned to my other dance fitness a few weeks ago. Caution is not forgotten. However, you don't rebuild muscle by watching other people work out. When the instructor says, "Go at your own pace," I take him at his word. Sometimes I do different choreography altogether, or at least modify what others are doing to match my capabilities at that moment.
I am also (mostly) eating in ways that support my healing, where I can see it and where I can't. I am taking specific supplements that support my energy, healing, and help keep further arthritis at bay.
For now, I am slowly regaining the skills I once had and I realize some will return faster than others. By being mindful and observant, and patient (OK, as patient as possible for me), and allowing for progress to happen at a natural (not forced or time-sensitive) pace, I fully expect to be able to teach Kangoo Jumps classes again in 2017.
For now, I am grateful to be back in my boots, and happy to be jumping low to the ground. Enough time later for flying!
Friday, August 5, 2016
The Bionic Hip...Just Add W.A.T.E.R.
After resisting a diagnosis of osteoarthritis for a couple years, I finally decided to have my right hip joint replaced six weeks ago. In order for everyone who was part of the process to understand that I had very high expectations for after the surgery, I began calling it my Bionic Hip even before I had it installed. Somewhere along the way, I may have started to believe my own publicity on this. I certainly was disappointed at how slow the immediate recovery was, before I left the hospital. It gradually dawned on me after coming home that it was just like planting a seed in my garden, I had to add W.A.T.E.R.
Water - Both inside (hydration, wash out remaining anesthesia and medications, encourage new growth) and out (feeling good and clean is healthy too), water and other healthy liquids are critical. (OK, for me, coffee is critical too, but no more than two cups a day for now; and hey, it's made with water.) Plus, swimming in water is a recent addition to this, now that the scar has healed enough.
Appropriate foods - A good balance of proteins, carbs, and healthy fats; don't starve your body for building materials for healing; fruits and veggies also counteract pain medicine side effects, besides being good for you anyway. Healthy treats are good for marking milestones (each week post-op) - thanks to my co-workers for a well-timed Edible Arrangement!
Time - Progress is gradual, step by step, and rushing can actually slow the healing. Invest time in doing the rehab work, and allow the time for healing to be thorough rather than quick. I know some people who see me at Chakaboom Fitness, already dancing again, think I am rushing it, but — believe me — I am being careful of the specific prohibitions from the doctor and the physical therapist. I want to heal well enough to be back in my magic rebound boots before 2017.
Effort - This is key: do the rehab work, keep your form accurate, try to understand how each specific movement is meant to help. Some moves help re-grow muscle and bone, some are for untraining bad habits picked up pre-op, some are strengthening and some are stretching gradually.
Rest - Some days you need more rest than others, but don't shortchange yourself even if you are not feeling tired. You know how hard you are working at rehab and ADL (activities of daily life) but you have no idea how hard your body is working inside at healing muscles and bones. Your stamina will come back if you don't force it.
My unnatural Bionic Hip is just like my very natural garden — just add WATER and wait for the magic to begin.
Water - Both inside (hydration, wash out remaining anesthesia and medications, encourage new growth) and out (feeling good and clean is healthy too), water and other healthy liquids are critical. (OK, for me, coffee is critical too, but no more than two cups a day for now; and hey, it's made with water.) Plus, swimming in water is a recent addition to this, now that the scar has healed enough.
Appropriate foods - A good balance of proteins, carbs, and healthy fats; don't starve your body for building materials for healing; fruits and veggies also counteract pain medicine side effects, besides being good for you anyway. Healthy treats are good for marking milestones (each week post-op) - thanks to my co-workers for a well-timed Edible Arrangement!
Time - Progress is gradual, step by step, and rushing can actually slow the healing. Invest time in doing the rehab work, and allow the time for healing to be thorough rather than quick. I know some people who see me at Chakaboom Fitness, already dancing again, think I am rushing it, but — believe me — I am being careful of the specific prohibitions from the doctor and the physical therapist. I want to heal well enough to be back in my magic rebound boots before 2017.
Effort - This is key: do the rehab work, keep your form accurate, try to understand how each specific movement is meant to help. Some moves help re-grow muscle and bone, some are for untraining bad habits picked up pre-op, some are strengthening and some are stretching gradually.
Rest - Some days you need more rest than others, but don't shortchange yourself even if you are not feeling tired. You know how hard you are working at rehab and ADL (activities of daily life) but you have no idea how hard your body is working inside at healing muscles and bones. Your stamina will come back if you don't force it.
My unnatural Bionic Hip is just like my very natural garden — just add WATER and wait for the magic to begin.
Sunday, May 29, 2016
The Best Laid Plans...
Our story starts in August 2011, when I first put on a pair of Kangoo Jumps® rebound boots for a group fitness class at Chakaboom Fitness. It was love at first jump. By October I bought my own boots. In August 2012, I took the instructor workshop. Sheepishly, I will admit it took another year to finalize the details and get the instructor license, but I never stopped working toward it. In October 2013, I bought a dozen pairs of boots, got insured, and taught my first group fitness class ever. I learned so much about teaching by teaching those first few classes: what to do when the music disappears from your playlist; what to do when your own boot breaks while teaching; how to graciously accept assistance so set up, payment, fitting boots, teaching, stretching, putting boots away, and taking boots away all add up to one professional whole.
October 2013 through August 2015, I taught classes in a variety of venues, both indoor and outdoor. I have taught in an elementary school gym, a high school cafeteria, the fitness center in a government building, a tennis court, two different parking lots, and even in someone's garage. (Yes, there was a height limit on the garage jumpers, for safety reasons.) I visited other venues, but for different reasons they did not work out. My wooden deck became the main rehearsal hall for trying out new songs, and creating choreography that would keep my jumpers coming back for more.
Through this entire time, I also kept taking classes where I began, in Franconia, VA. At my busiest, I was taking class three or four times a week and teaching class three times a week. It was so much fun I was determined to keep up the pace as long as I could.
Complicating the picture, I thought I injured myself shoveling snow in February 2014, and it was slow to heal. Well, it turns out that was the first sign of osteoarthritis in my hip joint, and it slowly and progressively got worse, despite my stubborn attempts at denial. I kept right on jumping, although a little more gently, and with fewer "high off the ground" jumps because landing the high jumps felt less secure some days. You might think I regret continuing to jump, because you might think this made things deteriorate faster, but I am pretty sure the opposite is true. By continuing to jump frequently, I kept the muscles in my legs and around the hip joints strong and flexible for longer than they would have if I had stopped jumping. I came to this conclusion when I did stop jumping as often, then chose to stop entirely for a few weeks, and saw the difference it made.
In February 2016, after the second orthopedic surgeon said he couldn't suggest anything I was not already doing, I became very frustrated and determined, and designed my own "improvement" plan, based on research in books and on the Internet. (I was still in denial that I would need a total hip replacement sooner rather than later, because at that point it still did not hurt when I was jumping, only afterward; and all day at work, and anytime I did not have my boots on.) My plan consisted of 19 supplements, better food choices, alternative forms of working out, and not jumping for eight weeks. Subjectively, it seemed like things were improving the first three or four weeks on the plan. (I only lasted seven weeks without jumping, by the way, and the first day back in boots was FABULOUS, with all the endorphins I remembered; the next few times were ok, but not great.) By the end of eight weeks, the good days were about the same as before, but the bad days were worse than before, and I was asking my primary care doctor about stronger pain relief options.
Today I am writing this from a place of frustration and hope. I hope each day will be good, and I am frustrated when some are not. I am frustrated that once I agreed to the hip replacement, THEN they told me it's a six month wait for a surgery date, with a slim hope of getting an earlier date if someone else cancels their surgery. I hope to bounce in my boots a year from now, summer 2017, although I am frustrated that I can't find any information on anyone who has done that after hip replacement. (I could be the first!) I am frustrated that I can't tell from day to day whether I will be able to jump, so I can't schedule classes to teach, and I hope that the people who keep asking me when my summer classes will start will still be around to jump with me next year if things work out the way I really hope.
For the next several months, there will probably be less about Kangoo Jumps in my posts, and more about other things I think about. It will not be all about the pain and waiting (I prefer to whine about that in person). I have learned to write my plans on a dry-erase board, rather than in stone, but not making plans feels like acknowledging there is no future. I'm not there yet! Stay tuned for the upcoming Adventures of the Bionic Hip.
October 2013 through August 2015, I taught classes in a variety of venues, both indoor and outdoor. I have taught in an elementary school gym, a high school cafeteria, the fitness center in a government building, a tennis court, two different parking lots, and even in someone's garage. (Yes, there was a height limit on the garage jumpers, for safety reasons.) I visited other venues, but for different reasons they did not work out. My wooden deck became the main rehearsal hall for trying out new songs, and creating choreography that would keep my jumpers coming back for more.
Through this entire time, I also kept taking classes where I began, in Franconia, VA. At my busiest, I was taking class three or four times a week and teaching class three times a week. It was so much fun I was determined to keep up the pace as long as I could.
Complicating the picture, I thought I injured myself shoveling snow in February 2014, and it was slow to heal. Well, it turns out that was the first sign of osteoarthritis in my hip joint, and it slowly and progressively got worse, despite my stubborn attempts at denial. I kept right on jumping, although a little more gently, and with fewer "high off the ground" jumps because landing the high jumps felt less secure some days. You might think I regret continuing to jump, because you might think this made things deteriorate faster, but I am pretty sure the opposite is true. By continuing to jump frequently, I kept the muscles in my legs and around the hip joints strong and flexible for longer than they would have if I had stopped jumping. I came to this conclusion when I did stop jumping as often, then chose to stop entirely for a few weeks, and saw the difference it made.
In February 2016, after the second orthopedic surgeon said he couldn't suggest anything I was not already doing, I became very frustrated and determined, and designed my own "improvement" plan, based on research in books and on the Internet. (I was still in denial that I would need a total hip replacement sooner rather than later, because at that point it still did not hurt when I was jumping, only afterward; and all day at work, and anytime I did not have my boots on.) My plan consisted of 19 supplements, better food choices, alternative forms of working out, and not jumping for eight weeks. Subjectively, it seemed like things were improving the first three or four weeks on the plan. (I only lasted seven weeks without jumping, by the way, and the first day back in boots was FABULOUS, with all the endorphins I remembered; the next few times were ok, but not great.) By the end of eight weeks, the good days were about the same as before, but the bad days were worse than before, and I was asking my primary care doctor about stronger pain relief options.
Today I am writing this from a place of frustration and hope. I hope each day will be good, and I am frustrated when some are not. I am frustrated that once I agreed to the hip replacement, THEN they told me it's a six month wait for a surgery date, with a slim hope of getting an earlier date if someone else cancels their surgery. I hope to bounce in my boots a year from now, summer 2017, although I am frustrated that I can't find any information on anyone who has done that after hip replacement. (I could be the first!) I am frustrated that I can't tell from day to day whether I will be able to jump, so I can't schedule classes to teach, and I hope that the people who keep asking me when my summer classes will start will still be around to jump with me next year if things work out the way I really hope.
For the next several months, there will probably be less about Kangoo Jumps in my posts, and more about other things I think about. It will not be all about the pain and waiting (I prefer to whine about that in person). I have learned to write my plans on a dry-erase board, rather than in stone, but not making plans feels like acknowledging there is no future. I'm not there yet! Stay tuned for the upcoming Adventures of the Bionic Hip.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Spring Fever and What I Wish I Had Learned Earlier in Life
Last month, I became licensed to teach the Kangoo Dance™ program, which automatically renewed the Kangoo Power™ license I already have. Since then, I have been taking a few weeks off from rebounding in my boots, to see if that has any effect on the arthritis in my hip. I've also changed how I eat, what supplements I take, and (less successfully) tried some alternative ways to work out. What we have here is a classic case of "if I had known all this when I was younger, I'd have taken better care of myself!"
Therefore, good readers, I will let you in on a couple things that should not be secrets. I had no one older and wiser telling me these things when I was a young whipper-snapper (very old word for younger person), but you have me! At the very least, once I have told you, I get to say "I told you so" if you don't pay attention and take better care of yourself.
(Insert standard disclaimer here: I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. Because really, "Music is the Doctor" by the Doobie Brothers.)
Sugar should be for special occasions, not every meal. It tastes great, but it should be a treat. In addition to the obvious links to metabolic disorders and weight gain, it leads to internal chemical warfare that is very bad for your joints.
The time to lose weight is when you have gained "some" -- not after you have gained "a lot." Carrying around the extra weight for a longer time puts a lot of extra work on your hips, knees, ankles, and feet, and they will wear out sooner than they would otherwise.
Foods and supplements that work for some people do not work as well for others, so I am not going to tell you specifically what I have decided to take. I highly recommend researching this area for yourself, and trying different things until you find what works for you. I will suggest that foods you can read the ingredients of are generally better for you than foods for which you need a degree in chemistry just to read the ingredient list. Supplements are a good choice when eating enough foods of various kinds to get the required nutrients would put you way above a reasonable calorie limit for your metabolism.
If you notice the range of motion in any of your joints is diminishing, don't wait for "permission" from a doctor to start fixing that with appropriate stretching, although seeing a doctor is a good choice if the onset is sudden or the effect severe. There are many good books on stretching and the use of heat and cold to keep muscles working as well as they can. They are YOUR muscles and no doctor cares as much as you do about them.
That's all I'm ready to share for now. I am halfway through my self-designed eight week plan, and seeing some improvements. Many of the nutrition changes and supplements take a while to make their effects known, so I did not expect an overnight miracle. I am quite hopeful for more improvement in the next four weeks. By then the warmer spring weather should allow for some outdoor classes to be scheduled. Stay tuned for opportunities to take your Spring Fever outdoors with me!
ITherefore, good readers, I will let you in on a couple things that should not be secrets. I had no one older and wiser telling me these things when I was a young whipper-snapper (very old word for younger person), but you have me! At the very least, once I have told you, I get to say "I told you so" if you don't pay attention and take better care of yourself.
(Insert standard disclaimer here: I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. Because really, "Music is the Doctor" by the Doobie Brothers.)
Sugar should be for special occasions, not every meal. It tastes great, but it should be a treat. In addition to the obvious links to metabolic disorders and weight gain, it leads to internal chemical warfare that is very bad for your joints.
The time to lose weight is when you have gained "some" -- not after you have gained "a lot." Carrying around the extra weight for a longer time puts a lot of extra work on your hips, knees, ankles, and feet, and they will wear out sooner than they would otherwise.
Foods and supplements that work for some people do not work as well for others, so I am not going to tell you specifically what I have decided to take. I highly recommend researching this area for yourself, and trying different things until you find what works for you. I will suggest that foods you can read the ingredients of are generally better for you than foods for which you need a degree in chemistry just to read the ingredient list. Supplements are a good choice when eating enough foods of various kinds to get the required nutrients would put you way above a reasonable calorie limit for your metabolism.
If you notice the range of motion in any of your joints is diminishing, don't wait for "permission" from a doctor to start fixing that with appropriate stretching, although seeing a doctor is a good choice if the onset is sudden or the effect severe. There are many good books on stretching and the use of heat and cold to keep muscles working as well as they can. They are YOUR muscles and no doctor cares as much as you do about them.
That's all I'm ready to share for now. I am halfway through my self-designed eight week plan, and seeing some improvements. Many of the nutrition changes and supplements take a while to make their effects known, so I did not expect an overnight miracle. I am quite hopeful for more improvement in the next four weeks. By then the warmer spring weather should allow for some outdoor classes to be scheduled. Stay tuned for opportunities to take your Spring Fever outdoors with me!
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