I’m 5 weeks out from A THR. I’m a 48 yo male with FAI and did quite a bit of “prehab” before my surgery to get really strong and avoid rehab. My surgeon wants me to only do walking for PT. At 4 weeks post surgery my hip flexors and outside of my quads were still pretty sore. I was able to walk for only about 5 minutes, with the last couple minutes of muscles burning. I was trying to figure out how to get a normal gait back but couldn’t figure it out.

My chiropractor gave me red light therapy 4 weeks post op, at a frequency for mid-deep muscles, on my hip flexors. 12 hours later I was walking almost totally normal. The following morning I was walking almost totally normal and stopped after 12 minutes because I was concerned about over doing it, not due to fatigue. Absolutely no burning muscles and more than double the time! I got fatigued, but nothing painful, just slightly uncomfortable. Out of concern for over doing it, I slowly increased my walking but never felt burning muscles. I got fatigued around 15 minutes 48 hours after treatment, but again no burning muscles. 1 week later I’m walking 20 minutes 3-4 times a day with zero issues. It’s almost like before surgery on a really good day! I only stop walking now because I have work to do, not because my body needs rest. I had a second round of red light therapy this morning. He said he increased the intensity but shortened the therapy time. Last week I asked if he could treat my knee with it, but he said no because it would be too much radiation. He again declined my request for my knee today. He said it’ll heal on its own and should heal faster now that my hip muscles are healing better.

Red light therapy was an absolute game changer for my recovery! I strongly recommend it for anyone with symptoms similar to mine- tight, uncomfortable muscles with loose ligaments in the hip at 1 month out. He made me wait 1 month after surgery, so I guess it’s not something you jump into right away. There are different types of frequencies and strengths of red light, so you need someone who knows their stuff to get the right combination for proper penetration. I honestly didn’t think it was going to do much. I could not have been more wrong!