Jamie Weisberg

I've been an athlete my entire life, from swimming, cycling, brisk walking, weight training, and eventually yoga. I've always had hypermobile joints, which made me a great athlete with a flexible body, but which also led to my first surgery in my shoulder. Labral tear, bone spur and shredded rotator cuff. I had that surgery back in 2010.

I started back up with my yoga practice not too long after my shoulder surgery in 2011, and although that was fine, I always had a nagging pain in my left hip flexor for at least 10-15 years. A trainer friend of mine suggested it might be torn labrum, but I brushed it off, and just thought it was age...until February 2016 when I was yoga class doing half malasana, and found that my entire left hip area started to feel sore, and eventually, I couldn't walk or put any pressure on my left leg. I immediately went to my physical therapist the next day. and I could barely lift my left foot off the floor. Not even an inch.

At my PT's suggestion, I sought out a hip specialist, and found Dr. Nawabi at Hospital for Special Surgery. I thought his background and knowledge was perfect for my situation, and knew that he would be the guy for me. So we went through the necessary steps, and I found out that I not only had a torn hip labrum, but a femoralacetabular impingement. Not fun. We discussed options, and although I'm 45 years old, Dr. Nawabi felt that a hip arthroscopy was the best bet. We went with it, and on June 6th, 2016, I underwent surgery, stayed in the hospital overnight (the nurses were amazing and the facility was fantastic), and then went home to rest up and heal as I started my physical therapy.

I was on crutches for 7 weeks, and began walking pretty normally after that. Occasionally I would have to use a cane, but sparingly. 4 months after my surgery I started my yoga practice again (carefully and with modification), and now at 7 months, I am 95% back to a regular practice. I can walk and run, do Pilates, and practice yoga with little to no soft tissue pain, and no hip joint pain at all. The joint feels amazing, and I couldn't be happier to doing the things I love! Now I just need to lose the weight I put on during recovery, but it's not stopping me! :D

Always remember to honor your body, inside and out. Hypermobility may make it easier to do some sports and activities, but it's not always the best thing. This surgery has taught me, as both a student and instructor of yoga, that we need to acknowledge pain (it let's us know when something is wrong), use our muscles to stabilize unstable joints, and never let the ego get in your way. Take a step back. Let yourself heal and rest. More people injure themselves because they don't know when to stop until it's too late. So if you feel pain, get it checked out. Don't wait for something worse to happen.