Femoroacetabular Impingement (FAI)??

Simon_454 · Mar 17, 2015

Anybody else ever have this issue and have surgery to fix it? I've been battling it for nearly 3 years now and have decided to undergo surgery looking for other peoples experiences and how recovery was.

I gotta say I'm pretty bummed out from what I've heard it's a long recovery and not sure how I'm gonna handle having this much time out of the gym and not even sure if it will fix the issue entirely just looking for some support as I'm feeling pretty depressed I've been training for 10 years nonstop and have competed the last 3 years this really puts a damper on things

patricio2626 · Mar 17, 2015

Simon_454 said:
Anybody else ever have this issue and have surgery to fix it? I've been battling it for nearly 3 years now and have decided to undergo surgery looking for other peoples experiences and how recovery was.

I gotta say I'm pretty bummed out from what I've heard it's a long recovery and not sure how I'm gonna handle having this much time out of the gym and not even sure if it will fix the issue entirely just looking for some support as I'm feeling pretty depressed I've been training for 10 years nonstop and have competed the last 3 years this really puts a damper on things

No bad FAI here (I do have it, it just doesn't limit me that much), but I do know how you feel. I tore my right rotator cuff and had surgery on it about 5 years ago, and I was pretty damn bummed about it. Now that shoulder's 100% but the other one is now impinging and getting worse haha. You always have a lot to be thankful for, and you can always switch hobbies and types of training for a while (or even permanently, if necessary) to stay motivated and feeling good about yourself.

Injuries only mean that we're human, and they don't mark an inevitable decline into old age and physical weakness. I know that those were the feelings and thought I had when my shoulders and my back were injured, anyways.

Hope this helps at least a little bit.

Kaladryn · Mar 17, 2015

Simon_454 said:
Anybody else ever have this issue and have surgery to fix it? I've been battling it for nearly 3 years now and have decided to undergo surgery looking for other peoples experiences and how recovery was.

I gotta say I'm pretty bummed out from what I've heard it's a long recovery and not sure how I'm gonna handle having this much time out of the gym and not even sure if it will fix the issue entirely just looking for some support as I'm feeling pretty depressed I've been training for 10 years nonstop and have competed the last 3 years this really puts a damper on things

FAI is extremely common, in fact I think it is almost normal for most people to have at least a little. My FAI is fairly simple, my femoral head is too large in diameter (probably from lifting weights), and I impinge the labrum in certain positions (deadlifts, deep leg press, etc).

After an MRI on both hips, I had a ortho recommend surgery, and I researched it extensively. There are few studies on long term results, and the studies that are have poor results. Up to 85% of people still have issues after 5 years. Remember that treating this condition (arthroscopically) is only about a decade old.

In most cases, FAI pain is from the labrum being inflamed. When the labrum is inflamed, it makes your FAI worse. If you can figure out how to NOT irritate your labrum, and make the inflammation go down, you may find that you can go back to things that used to bother you without a problem. Just don't irritate the labrum again.

I opted out of surgery, and I now do leg press and deadlifts without an issue, and zero hip pain. Sometimes I will mildly irritate the labrum, it will be sore for a few days, but I make sure I don't let it get too inflamed and it goes right away.

Things that will cause my femoral head to impinge the labrum for my type of FAI:

Yoga hip openers. Squats too deep (I can still go past parallel). Deadlift, especially too heavy (rack deads are fine). Going to deep on leg press.

It all depends on your type and degree of FAI, but most mild FAI does not require surgery...

Simon_454 · Mar 18, 2015

Kaladryn said:
FAI is extremely common, in fact I think it is almost normal for most people to have at least a little. My FAI is fairly simple, my femoral head is too large in diameter (probably from lifting weights), and I impinge the labrum in certain positions (deadlifts, deep leg press, etc).

After an MRI on both hips, I had a ortho recommend surgery, and I researched it extensively. There are few studies on long term results, and the studies that are have poor results. Up to 85% of people still have issues after 5 years. Remember that treating this condition (arthroscopically) is only about a decade old.

In most cases, FAI pain is from the labrum being inflamed. When the labrum is inflamed, it makes your FAI worse. If you can figure out how to NOT irritate your labrum, and make the inflammation go down, you may find that you can go back to things that used to bother you without a problem. Just don't irritate the labrum again.

I opted out of surgery, and I now do leg press and deadlifts without an issue, and zero hip pain. Sometimes I will mildly irritate the labrum, it will be sore for a few days, but I make sure I don't let it get too inflamed and it goes right away.

Things that will cause my femoral head to impinge the labrum for my type of FAI:

Yoga hip openers. Squats too deep (I can still go past parallel). Deadlift, especially too heavy (rack deads are fine). Going to deep on leg press.

It all depends on your type and degree of FAI, but most mild FAI does not require surgery...

Great info, the thing is I've been working around this now for over 3 years and I've actually began to get some atrophy in the effected hip I have maybe 75% of my strength in this leg. As a result this has basically thrown off all of my lifts my left side is considerably weaker than my right this in turn makes my psoas muscle tighten up all the time which is actually where the majority of my pain comes from if I could fix this issue I believe things could balance back but with this impingment it's always causing my psoas to tighten up its very frustrating any insight on how to fix the psoas muscle?