Training through osteoarthritis and neck pain
When you want to lose some weight and have issues with your neck and hips, what is the safest and most effective way to deal with that?
Do you stop exercising – particularly when it hurts your body to move – or is it best to keep going?
Here is Veronika’s experience of overcoming these challenges with her Personal Trainer Danny O’Sullivan.
How did it all start?
Veronica: “I’ve been training with Danny for over a year now – after years of giving up on gyms and PT’s because of ongoing pain and mobility issues.
With Stage 3 bilateral hip osteoarthritis and a condition known as cervical dystonia, which causes my neck muscles to contract resulting in headaches and pain, I had given up on ever being able to move or train with confidence again.”
Danny: Veronika began training with me at Movement HQ in December 2020, and now trains on average three times per week.
Mark Glanville (Movement HQ Co-Founder) trains her husband, and he referred her to me as she has some special conditions needing specialist attention. She is naturally hyper mobile, and needed someone with experience in mobile individuals.
Veronika initially wanted to lose weight. In the past however, her trainers had tried to put her through high intensity training which had a negative impact on her as it created too much inflammation in her body, and would cause major setbacks in her training.
Upon our first assessment we quickly identified that it had been quite some time since she had trained so her body had become quite de-conditioned.
“The primary focus when we began training with each other was for her to control her own body.”
This involved learning how to create a good muscle / mind connection to allow her to maintain tension in her body throughout exercises.
We did many different isometric holds (planks, hangs, hollow body holds, supermans) and paired this with some compound movements like deadlifts (started at rack pulls) and bench presses.
How has Veronika responded to the training?
Veronica: “When I began training with Danny, I did so tentatively. I had a mountain of fears to overcome. After every session, I kept expecting inflammation to seize my hips or for my neck muscles to freeze.
To my astonishment though, Danny was able to guide me through a training schedule that kept me moving and getting stronger, without causing my body to grind to a painful halt.”
Danny: Veronika’s confidence for training has drastically improved. She looks forward to our sessions (and so do I).
She understands that sometimes we can’t push as hard as we did in prior sessions (if sleep is off, that time of the month, feeling stressed etc).
She is really understanding her own body more and now looks at training as a part of her life and not a chore.
What progressions have been made?
Danny: Veronika had the goal of being able to push up off the floor again.
We began this journey with chest press on the rings, gradually getting lower, and pairing this with chest press work with dumbbells and barbells, eventually working down to an elevated on a box, then to a step.
Veronika: “Danny has a brilliant approach to training – he changes up the exercises until I can actually feel the muscles being targeted. And he is able to skilfully push me to my limits, but never beyond them.
The most incredible part of the process, though, is that I actually enjoy training now.
Sure, Danny has a great personality and is fun to workout with but, more importantly, he’s given me the confidence to move and keep moving.
I no longer dread weights training for fear of crippling pain – I actually look forward to it. And, for that, I truly can’t thank or recommend Danny highly enough.”
He’s given me a confidence in my body’s ability to move and heal that I never thought I’d experience again.
What’s the strategy with Veronika’s training and weight loss?
Danny: We still work on weight loss, and she’s recently signed up for the Movement HQ Weight Loss Challenge to help with the nutrition side of things.
We have a few niggles in the body which have set us back a little, but we are addressing them with specific rehab exercises on the shoulder and hip.
We train three times per week (twice at the gym and one home session). On Tuesdays and Thursdays we work primarily on strength with a cardio element, and on Wednesdays we work on her mobility and rehab.
Outside of the gym I have encouraged Veronika to walk more, and to continue being active on her property, she looks after sheep, geese, ducks, chickens, and soon horses 🙂
