I had a THR (ceramic) in January 2012 at the age of 48. As a runner and being physically active, this put a real damper on my life as I was use to running as my outlet for stress and maintaining my weight. I am so glad I found this site and was encouraged to hear that there are many within my my age group whom have had hip replacements and also continued to run with a hip replacement.
I always enjoyed spin cycling and began my recovery doing some indoor cycling -3 months post surgery. Although I can get a pretty good workout on the spin bike, nothing beats running outside just before sunset. Healing really took a long for me. I admit trying to run after about 6 -8 months post surgery but had many issues with hip muscles and leg pain. Went to see my ortho surgeon as I was in a lot pain and could not put any pressure like going up the stairs with my operated leg. At that time he indicated I had an IT band syndrome. My surgeon stressed no running-ever. So I left feeling depressed and went back to cycling and using the elliptical trainer.
Its been two years now and I have been doing some strength training exercises to strengthen my hip muscles. I read some encouraging posts on how many of you are actually running, so I started to add a few minutes of running back to my routine. I don’t think I will be running any marathons or going for those long distances but just started to do half cycle and half running on the treadmill. I went for my first outdoor jog-took it at a moderate pace and thoroughly enjoyed it. So maybe there is “Hope” in moderation?