Dan M.

I was a three-sport athlete in high school. Then I went on to play college soccer, and ended up coaching soccer and teaching English in high school.  About seven years ago, my hip started to give out.  After practice sessions at school, I would need to go home and lie on the couch because it hurt too much to stand up.  The next day the pain would dissipate a bit, and then after hobbling around practice again, I would experience the same pain the following night.  This went on for some time, and I thought I would actually have to give up coaching.  The chronic pain was as difficult emotionally as it was bodily.

Eventually, I went to physical therapy. He suggested I see a doctor.  The doctor recommended surgery. Had the surgery.  After the surgery, the doctor told me that “I could walk, bike, or swim” but that anything else would exacerbate my condition and speed up the time before I would need my next surgery–hip replacement–which he said was imminent (ten years) because of all of the arthritis and damage to my hip.  He basically told me I had the hips of a seventy-year-old man.  To say the least, I was a bit crestfallen since I had been active my entire life.

After surgery, and PT again, the pain in my hip decreased, but my mobility was horrible, and I had difficulty coaching because I couldn’t perform the instruction with the same vigor and athleticism anymore.  Not to mention, no matter what I did–even just standing and walking around practice–the pain in my hip began to build up again.  On top of that, I started coaching year round instead of just coaching in the fall, so it was hard to ever find any relief from the pain.  Being pretty stubborn, I decided just to suffer through the pain and continue, but I really wasn’t sure how long I could maintain that routine, and I was frustrated that the surgery left me in a similar position that I was in before.

Luckily for me, I stumbled upon one of your videos two years ago–realized “Oh Shit” maybe I never needed the surgery in the first place– and I started to incorporate some of your movements into my workouts. For the first time in many years I finally felt some relief in my hip area.  Next, I bought the FAI Fix.  Used the massage, stretching, strength trio.  Rolled my quads for what seemed like a year before they loosened up, and now I am focusing on my adductors and hip flexors (Are those two different things or one-in-the-same?).  I’m basically doing what both you and Matt suggest: I keep chasing the pain.  Once I fix one area, I move on to a new one.

Because of that retraining of my muscles, I am now able to move much more freely. I’m back to playing some “light” soccer, I can jog slowly versus just walking, and I can train my legs in the gym again.  I still want to get to the point where I can sprint and play soccer comfortably without waking up with pain the next day, but that is more an issue of me not being able to dedicate enough time to your program, versus the program itself.

All I can say is that before I started using FAI, I was a bit depressed because I felt elderly at age 47, and it seemed as if there was no solution to my pain and immobility.  Now, two years later, I am making steady progress towards moving as freely as I once did, or at least close to it, and your program has allowed me to continue coaching the sport I love.