cathe update

[FitBoop]

That's interesting, Dawn. It seems that Cathe is viewing her future recovery from this surgery differently from her previous recovery.

Hopefully, Cathe will be able to continue, but I think it's too soon to know how this injury and surgery are going to affect her future.

[rykram]

I wish Cathe a speedy recovery.

I can be patient and wait until she is fully recovered and ready to film.

[Tait]

Originally Posted by DRD0

Hey, It was mentioned that athletes do not continue. I know a lot of men and women who continue to play baseball and softball well after 40 and 50. I have already mentioned that I see lots of older runners. I also see many, many swimmers competing. At the Nationals I competed at, there were some incredibly fast 90+ swimmers. while swimming does not affect legs, you certainly have to watch your shoulders and over training.

I was talking about professional athletes. You don't see a lot of them still playing professionally. Yes, men and women do continue to play baseball and softball but not professionally. I know a lot of people in their 60s and 70s that are very active too. The key is really listening to your body and knowing what you can and can't do.

Susan

[hdw]

Originally Posted by Tait

I was talking about professional athletes. You don't see a lot of them still playing professionally. Yes, men and women do continue to play baseball and softball but not professionally. I know a lot of people in their 60s and 70s that are very active too. The key is really listening to your body and knowing what you can and can't do.

Susan

They don't play professionally after a certain age (30s and up usually) because of the NEW talents who are much better. Competition -- they can't complete with these young athletes... Even after their retirement, these athletes are still playing and athletes in their own way,...

[Kathryn]

Originally Posted by hdw

They don't play professionally after a certain age (30s and up usually) because of the NEW talents who are much better. Competition -- they can't complete with these young athletes... Even after their retirement, these athletes are still playing and athletes in their own way,...

FIt TV recently ran a show on Martina Navritalova (sp?!), who came out of retirement to star competing again in her 40's (she's 49 now). I haven't watched all of it yet (saw part of it and taped the rest), but she did talk about how much more recovery time she needs, and how much longer injuries take to heal. She just came out with a book that sounds interesting, detailing her fitness and nutritional regimen.

[Tait]

Originally Posted by hdw

They don't play professionally after a certain age (30s and up usually) because of the NEW talents who are much better. Competition -- they can't complete with these young athletes... Even after their retirement, these athletes are still playing and athletes in their own way,...

Why is the new talent better and why can't they compete any longer? Does age and injuries play into this? I am sure they continue to play some and obviously in their own way. Being old does not mean not mean you cannot continue to be active but some of the ways we do things when we are younger change as we get older.


Susan

[KathAL79]

Eh, a select few baseball pitchers and hitters seem to get better with age (although a few are accused of having some help in that regard), but after a certain time (mid-40s) their bodies just can't keep up as well. I remember Nolan Ryan's last season, when he was 46 (or was it 47?); he spent half of the inning pitching and the other half in the locker room trying to recover from back spasms. Ricky Henderson would still be trying to steal bases if teams gave him the chance, but his knees finally caught up to him, too. Some teams are willing to take a gamble on seasoned veterans, but they are a big risk (if they get injured, the chances of it being season- and career-ending could be seen as being greater because of the increased recovery time)--and a lot more expensive.
Is it worth comparing Cathe to them? I have no idea how her regular regime stacks up with that of elite professional / Olympic athletes. You could argue that her filming sessions are sort of like competitions, but I have no idea what's involved exactly in either situation.
Don't forget that some of our other favorite fitness pros are in their 50s (Karen Voight, Kathy Smith) and 60s (Charlene Prickett, Margaret Richards). I don't think Cathe'll be throwing in the towel just yet!

It seemed to me that the definition Cathe provided of her injury implied that the band was something she had had since birth but for whatever reason now bothered her. I'd like to hear someone in the medical profession or with the same condition comment on that.

[Tait]

Originally Posted by KathAL79

Is it worth comparing Cathe to them? I have no idea how her regular regime stacks up with that of elite professional / Olympic athletes. You could argue that her filming sessions are sort of like competitions, but I have no idea what's involved exactly in either situation.
Don't forget that some of our other favorite fitness pros are in their 50s (Karen Voight, Kathy Smith) and 60s (Charlene Prickett, Margaret Richards). I don't think Cathe'll be throwing in the towel just yet!

It seemed to me that the definition Cathe provided of her injury implied that the band was something she had had since birth but for whatever reason now bothered her. I'd like to hear someone in the medical profession or with the same condition comment on that.

I consider some of those moves that Cathe can do super human. Does she compare? Well, I don't know for sure. Charlene Prickett is very fit and definitely super human. I think Charlene hikes and is VERY active in her everyday life. I think Margaret Richard is terrific but I don't even think she is as fit as Charlene.

I would think that all of the above mentioned ladies would heal better than the average couch potato. The more fit you are before an injury just has to help recovery times.

I would love to hear more thoughts on this.

Susan

[Lexy]

Disclosure: I am not Cathe or even close. But I have had knee surgery, and neck surgery, and others. What I know is that being fit helps but isn't a miracle-recovery like some think. On the other hand, being super-unfit is a detriment to recovery.

If someone takes a pieces-part out of your knee, it will take however long it takes to heal. Some people heal more quickly than others in general, not because they are super fit. I'm thinking that a normal-fit person would heal no differently than a super-fit one. The tissue/bone/ligaments/tendons won't heal that much differently. If they do, I'd like to know.

There are many threads here about knee surgery and the many, many months it took to heal completely. Every one of us was told that the surgery would heal within a couple weeks. The docs definition of "heal" and our definitions didn't seem to coincide. I think it also depends on what you're "going back to". My doc told me I could go back to work two weeks after neck surgery. I reminded him that I teach 4-5 year olds and he said "oh, you'll need to stay out of work for 2-3 months."

I hope Cathe's estimate for recovery is correct but it seems very optimistic. I'm confident she'll be back to her ole self, just not as quickly as she's being told.

Lexy

[Erica H.]

Originally Posted by KathAL79

It seemed to me that the definition Cathe provided of her injury implied that the band was something she had had since birth but for whatever reason now bothered her. I'd like to hear someone in the medical profession or with the same condition comment on that.

I was diagnosed with plica syndrome last year. I had injured my knee doing a video workout (I think - I remember thinking that what I was doing didn't feel "right" and that night I had pain and swelling), but I continued running on it and ended up having other problems. I think my alignment was off or I was running differently to avoid pain in my knee and ended up injuring my knee in other ways and aggravating/inflaming the plica.

I was scheduled for arthroscopic surgery to remove the plica and also to look for any other problems, but I ended up canceling the day before the surgery because I was feeling improvement and wanted to avoid unnecessary surgery. This was 4 1/2 months after the initial injury. I'm glad that I canceled, but I still do have problems when I run too much.

My guess is that having the plica removed will only be a positive thing for Cathe. It was inflamed and causing pain and now it's gone. The plica isn't needed for anything, so she only needs to heal from the surgery now and not deal with a recurring injury. When I was scheduled for my surgery, my surgeon said that I would be running again in 3 weeks, but I thought that was awfully optimistic.

Erica