– Mirabai Holland, a health coach based in Longboat, has undergone hip replacement surgery on both hips and has made a successful recovery.– She is now leading a wellness program to help other patients prepare for and recover from total hip and knee replacement surgery.– Holland has partnered with Dr. Edward Stolarski, a local orthopedic surgeon, to develop the SRQ Ortho Club wellness program.– The program offers one-on-one coaching for nutrition and pre- and post-rehabilitation.– Holland has already coached 20 patients through the program and believes that hip and knee replacement surgery is an opportunity for patients to make healthy lifestyle changes.
When Mirabai Holland coaches a client through rehabilitation after hip replacement surgery, she can speak from experience. The Longboat-based health coach had hip replacement surgery on both hips last year, but she’s made an impressive recovery and is leading a new wellness program to help other patients do the same.
“By three months, I was able to walk without the walker. I bypassed the cane. And by (four months) I said, ‘I think I can teach (again),’” explained Holland, who teaches fitness classes at Bayfront Park in addition to an array of other area health initiatives.
The nationally known wellness expert recently partnered with Dr. Edward Stolarski, a local orthopedic surgeon to develop the SRQ Ortho Club wellness program, which Holland said is a more holistic approach to preparing patients for total hip and knee replacement surgery, offering one-on-one coaching for nutrition and pre- and post-rehabilitation.
“I know very specifically what (patients) should do to get ready (for surgery) because I’ve gone through it,” said Holland. “But I also know the science of what they need to do.”
In the course of the program’s roughly six months, Holland has already coached 20 patients via phone and Zoom. As Holland explained, a hip or knee replacement surgery is the perfect opportunity for patients to make healthy lifestyle changes and build better nutrition and exercise habits.
Helping people build healthier lifestyles has been the focus of Holland’s long and influential career in wellness. Coincidentally, she found her way to the fitness industry thanks in part to a knee surgery patient living in Sarasota — her father.
Mirabai Holland coaches a client on proper technique for using a walker after hip replacement surgery, earlier in the year.
Courtesy photo
Holland was still a dancer and choreographer in 1979 when her father had knee surgery and grew frustrated by his lack of progress in rehabilitation. So he fired his physical therapist and turned to his daughter for help.
Holland was reluctant at first, but eventually she brought to bear her understanding of movement and the body, learned through dance. In just three week’s Holland’s father was feeling less pain — and frustration, she said.
That experience helped alter Holland’s course. She went back to school and earned a degree in exercise physiology from Columbia University in New…
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