Dealing With Hip Pain?

Hip pain can be incredibly uncomfortable and frustrating to ease. The hips help us perform almost everything we do throughout the day, and keeping them strong and in good shape is essential. 

The hips can withstand repeated motion and a fair amount of wear and tear. Despite its durability, the hips aren’t indestructible, and with age and use, muscles and tendons in the hip can get overused. Bones can break, and other conditions can lead to hip pain. 
 
Hip pain often decreases your range of motion, strength, and muscle activation and increases pain that limits your ability to walk, run or perform daily tasks. There are many different causes of hip pain. These may include:

• Arthritis
• Sciatica
• Tears
• Fracture or trauma
• Osteonecrosis (loss of blood supply to the bone)
• Bursitis (inflammation of the bursa) 
• Hamstring strain
• Hip flexor strain
• Groin strain
• Referral from your back

Hip pain can manifest itself in a variety of symptoms. These may include: 

• Pain in your groin
• Pain in the front of your hip
• Buttock pain
• Discomfort in the thigh 
• Difficulty moving your hip and leg
• Difficulty walking, running, or climbing stairs
• Pain when rising from a seated position
• Difficulty sleeping on the hip
• Snapping or clicking sounds in the hip
• Stiffness 

Sometimes when the muscles in the hip are not correct, the body may look to other areas to bear the weight, such as your back, leading to back problems. 

There are many ways to relieve hip pain, like maintaining a healthy weight, which puts less pressure on the hips. Stretches and exercises may alleviate pain. Ice, compression, and elevation can also be helpful. But if the pain is severe and affecting your everyday routine, more medical attention is necessary than stretches and ice. We recommend working with a physical therapist if symptoms still interfere with daily activities after two to four weeks. As physical therapists, we help you get rid of pain and also help prevent the problem from happening and slow the progression of issues so you can stay active and happy. 
 
What can you expect at your first appointment? We are looking to gather as many details as possible to take in the whole picture. We will ask lots of questions, “what you’re feeling, when you feel it, where you feel it, what it feels like, what makes it better or worse, what approaches have you already tried, what activities in your life are made difficult by this pain.” We’ll ask you to move, walk, squat, etc., which helps us determine other tests and measurements we may perform. We’ll gently move your leg in all directions to see your range of motion. We’ll also ask you to resist as a physical therapist gently pushes your leg and hip in different directions so we can test your muscle strength. 

Treatment options for hip pain include:

• Exercises
• Manual therapy
• Join mobilization
• Soft-tissue mobilization

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Working with a physical therapist will help reduce your pain, improve your leg, hip, and back motion, improve your strength and balance, and help you return to your daily activities. 
 
Don’t delay coming to see a physical therapist. If you delay treatment until the pain is bothering you every day, you run the risk of it becoming a chronic problem that may not entirely disappear. Call us today to start your healing journey. ​