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While not my back, I have real problems with my hip that effects, well, everything. My left hip is not fully formed. I was in a splint as a baby to try and force the joint into the socket. This left me with a foot that points pretty far out to the left, twisted muscles and ligaments all down my left leg because of the hip issue, and issues on my right leg which has compensated for my problems with my left.
I used to have enough pain that I could not walk some days. If I was active, I tended to be fine. The movement and activity helped strengthen all the muscles so I tended to not have problems. When I got lazy, ie college and graduate school, I could be in excrutiating pain. When my Husband proposed, I knew I wanted to lose weight, I was over 200 pounds. I found a trainer who took one look at my left leg and went "That is bad". We spent the first month only doing flexability and balance drills to start to help the left leg and he kept reminding me to focus on pointing my foot out straight, just like my right foot. It felt so weird.
Three years later and I am in week 37 of my pregnancy. I have had two bad hip days the entire pregnancy (and they were bad) but that is remarkable given the way the hip is structured. I have learned to walk with my foot forward pretty much all the time and it no longer feels strange. There are still issues but there is no way to solve those without surgery.
We can retrain our bodies to perform better if we want to take the time and make the mental adjustments. It is not easy but I prefer the lack of pain and increased mobility that comes from having focused on correcting my stance and strengthening the leg to the pain that existed when I did not focus on it. I might be able to postpone a hip and knee replacement for many years. These are good things.
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