Competitive Bodybuilder Back to Champion Status After Minimally Invasive Spinal Fusion

Julia Buitrago, 53, is the epitome of physical fitness, a competitive bodybuilder and owner of the Body Concept by Julia gym along with her husband Mario, a boxing coach. Ms. Buitrago overcame obesity as a teenager and young mother in her 20s. After losing 40 pounds, she committed herself to working out regularly and teaching fitness classes. She started competing as a bodybuilder in 2005. The strains of weight-training on muscles and joints at a bodybuilder’s level can take their toll—although her back condition was not caused by her bodybuilding regiment. Ms. Buitrago was diagnosed with spondylolisthesis by Michael Gomez, M.D., neurosurgeon and director of minimally invasive spinal surgery at Baptist Health Miami Neuroscience Institute. She underwent a lateral lumbar interbody fusion, “which is sort of a newer surgical approach, considered a minimally invasive type approach to the spine,” said Dr. Gomez.