Episode #40: Inspirational Interview: FAI, Depression, Egg Retrieval & Barbell Training - Overcoming Negative Medical Narratives
THE WAY DOCTORS TALK TO THEIR PATIENTS IS OFTENTIMES INSENSITIVE AND WITHOUT CARE FOR THE PERSON RECEIVING THE NEWS. DOCTORS ARE IN AN AUTHORITATIVE POSITION AND THE LANGUAGE AND DELIVERY THEY CHOOSE TO USE CAN UNINTENTIONALLY CREATE NEGATIVE NARRATIVES SURROUNDING INJURIES, LIKE FEMOROACETABULAR IMPINGEMENT AND BARBELL TRAINING. DOCTORS MAY HAVE YOU BELIEVE THAT SURGERY IS YOUR ONLY OPTION OR QUESTIONING IF YOU’LL EVER BE ABLE TO BARBELL TRAIN PAIN FREE WITH FAI.
Our goal with bringing on some of our clients is to share their unique stories, experiences with barbell training, and how their training has impacted their lives positively despite the negative medical narratives and belief systems surrounding barbell strength training in hopes that it inspires even just one person out there.
In this series of interviews, each episode consists of a PRS client sharing their journey of overcoming injuries and illnesses, recovering from surgeries, and navigating changes in their lives and the role that barbell training has played throughout this process for each of them. These are just a handful of our clients that are truly inspiring and motivating and we hope that sharing their stories will inspire you, your patients or clients, or your family to incorporate barbell training into your life or continue barbell training during challenging times.
In this interview, we’ll sit down and speak with PRS client Amber, a committed recreational strength athlete who loves powerlifting and olympic weight lifting. After experiencing severe hip pain with squatting she sought clinical counsel. However, the news about what was going on in her hip and the way the doctor treated her left her in tears.
Amber shares her story to help support you through the “I’ll never be able to lift again,” moments. She shows you it’s possible to find support and work through your symptoms to help reshape the narrative around pain, injury, and barbell training.
You are not your MRI and you do not need to stand for the way medical doctors speak to you. Amber’s resilience and determination to return to pain free barbell training without surgery despite FAI is truly an inspirational story that you must listen to and share. And she does all this while battling depression and going through hormone treatment to extract eggs to freeze for the future.
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Email: podcast@progressiverehabandstrength.com
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Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:00:33] Thank you for joining us here on the Progressive Rehab & Strength Podcast. We're excited to share your story because we know that people out there have had hip injuries. Who are diagnosed with labrum tears in their hips and FAI, and their doctors have said, "you can't barbell train, or "you're never going to be able to barbell train," or "you have to have hip surgery," or "you need this injection in your hip." And it has halted their progress with training, taken them out of barbell training for the long term, or developed a fear of the barbell or heavy training. And then there's also the person who would benefit from strength training with barbells to help improve their hip pain and recovery. And they're scared because they've never done it. And, you know, there's this negative connotation around loading your body and how it can damage you and all this stuff, right? And then, throughout this process of recovery from the hip injury you've shared with me as your coach, some elements of your experience with depression and how you've been treating that. And then also, throughout this process, you've gone through some egg retrievals to save some eggs for the future. So I think we want to talk about your specific situation and what you were experiencing when you were first diagnosed or when you first became injured or started to have pain.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:02:19] And also the experience of like you've never missed a training session, and if you've missed a training session, you've made it up later in the week. So, you know, you always train, you know, you're very committed to training despite the symptoms you might be experiencing. We modify it. We work through it. We change things. We listen to it. And then also, when people experience depression, they tend to retract from the world or pull away from the things that they love and fall off from the gym during those times. And if you had never told me, I would have never known. Because I just have my own experience with anxiety. I don't have depression, but I have anxiety. And that really holds me back sometimes. And I know that mental and emotional health can benefit from exercise, but it can also influence someone's ability to maintain consistency with exercise. And then you add in the hormones and everything you need to do for egg retrieval. And it's like, Holy cow. Like, how are you so consistent with training? So tell us a little bit about your specific situation. What was going on when you reached out to us? And how did that impact you and your experience with barbell training?
Amber, PRS Client : [00:03:52] Yeah, I have experienced and been through a lot. It's been a hell of a year for me. I've been barbell training for over a decade, probably closer to 13 or 14 years. I didn't start until I was a little bit older. I was around 25. I mean, older in the sports world, I guess. And I'm 38 years old, so I've been doing it for several years. I did spend a few years competing in powerlifting, but more recently, I have kind of stepped back from competing and really just focused on the barbell lifts to maintain my strength, physical health, and mental health. And about a couple of years ago, I started getting interested in training the Olympic lifts, which was very new for me. I didn't know how to program or do the lifts properly. And after a little while of working with them, I started experiencing some injuries to my hip and shoulder. And over time, they got worse and worse, and probably coupled with going through a period of depression, I got to a point where I was barely training at all. This was before I reached out to you. I had gone several months where I was not being consistent in the gym like I liked, and I was starting to feel my body deteriorate. I could see muscle disappearing, and I felt older and not great.
Amber, PRS Client : [00:05:36] I was achy and just wasn't feeling good, and it freaked me out. I was worried that I was headed down a path where barbell training wasn't going to be able to be a regular thing in my life anymore. And for me, this is a thing that I've grown to love, and it's a major thing in my life. It keeps me going, and it's the thing in my life that makes me feel alive. And when I started experiencing these injuries, I didn't know about anyone like you working at this intersection of physical therapy and training and coaching. And, you know, I went down the traditional route. I went to a surgeon and got the same advice that probably many of your listeners have heard. You know, do your routine physical therapy and isolation exercises with the bands. Take a break from squatting or deadlifting and, you know, get these injections to get rid of the pain, and then we'll just send you to our physical therapist. And for me, I knew that that would not be a path to getting back to where I wanted to be. The doctor said that I should probably never squat deep again. I should never perform these exercises again. And I, in my highly emotional state, broke down crying in his office. It was almost traumatizing to hear that this thing I had found and been developing all these years.
Amber, PRS Client : [00:07:16] He suggested it was unsafe. And that was the kicker for me because this was something that was increasing my health physically and mentally. And so the notion that it was unhealthy for me to be doing this was jarring. So, you know, I happen to be in this turmoil state and get served an ad for your podcast. And it was about injury rehab. And, you know, I've been following you for over a decade or since you before you started your business. I've known you through the Internet for a long time, and I knew that you had become a physical therapist. But, still, I had never really put together what you were doing and how unique it was and that you were bringing together the physical therapy aspect with the barbell training aspect in a way that nobody else was. Not a lot of people were doing and certainly not doing well. So for me to hear that there was a path to work through these injuries, get back to what I wanted to be doing and that it didn't mean, you know, these traditional physical therapy routes that I had not had great success with. I was so relieved and so thrilled to come across this. And I immediately reached out to you with a plea for help.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:08:44] It was honestly the most it was like the most emotionally triggering letter, not a letter. I mean, it was a letter.
Amber, PRS Client : [00:08:55] It was a letter in the mail.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:08:59] You know, it was really sweet. You know, you sent you we have a consulate form on our website, and you sent this your history and like how you've been following us and how you were just desperate for help. So I sent it to the whole team. I was like, guys, like, I am crying reading this. But also I was crying at that experience with the doctor. Doctors are very authoritative figures in our lives. We go to them when we have medical conditions that can affect our life, our ability to continue living, to function, you know, if we need surgery or whatever. And we can't just trust a random Joe on the street to do that. You know, we have to see doctors to help us with our medical and health concerns. So when we're experiencing pain, injury, or something that affects our ability to do things in life, we trust them. And here you're going to this doctor to help come up with a solution so that you can continue to do something that you love, that's beneficial for your mental health, and, as you said, makes you feel alive. And the doctor was like, "No, I'm not helping you." Basically.
Amber, PRS Client : [00:10:41] He's also a sports doctor. I specifically thought him out because I knew he was a sports doctor and thought if anybody was going to help me find a path, it would be him.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:10:51] So, here we are. I mean, how long have we been working together?
Amber, PRS Client : [00:10:58] Maybe like six months.