What is hip pain?
The hip is comprised of the acetabulum- a ring shaped surface, and the head of the femur- a ball shaped structure. It’s where the leg attaches to the trunk. The hip has the functional ability to rotate out (external rotation), rotate in (internal rotation), move forward(flexion), move backward (extension), move toward the center of your body (adduction), and move out from the center of your body (abduction). Conditions named for the hip are those associated with pain during production of any of the above movements and/or pain located at your hip bone or inner thigh region with activity.
Why is it so confusing?
Many muscles that act on the hip also have attachments around the pelvic girdle (a collection of bones/joints that house the urogenital and reproductive organs) and have a role in supporting the low back. Further, there are conditions that originate in the low back that can cause pain in the region of the hip/glutes. As a result, people will think that their pain is from the hip when it can be stemming from elsewhere, leading to google searches that offer inaccurate condition results and treatment ideas.
Common Causes of Hip Pain
- Arthritis: characterized by pain in the front of the thigh/groin during walking, sitting, ascending stairs, squatting
- Results from age-related wear and tear, overuse, trauma, or underlying disease processes
- Loose Body: characterized by sharp/shooting pain and immediate giving-way sensation in the leg
- Results from acute injury, osteoarthritis, flake fracture
- Buttock Pain:
- Hamstring Tendinopathy: pain with standing, walking, running
- Tendinopathy results from repetitive microtraumas to the tendon
- Hamstring Syndrome and Piriformis Syndrome: marked by pain with sitting, walking, and running; potential numbness/tingling; piriformis syndrome may also present pain with standing
- Piriformis syndrome can result from overuse or blunt trauma
- Hamstring Syndrome can result from repeat hamstring injury and/or history of low back pain or surgery
- Gluteal Bursitis and Gluteal Tendinopathy: pain with sitting
- Bursitis also results from impaired movement patterns, but increased pressure over the bursa (fluid filled sacs designed to improve tendon gliding) can cause them to swell and take up space not allotted to them
- Tendinopathy: see hamstring
- Hamstring Tendinopathy: pain with standing, walking, running
- Groin Pain:
- Sportsman’s Hernia: marked by lower abdominal and/or groin pain on one or both sides that is worsened with exertion and/or breath holding
- Traumatic injury associated with twisting, turning, and direction changes with speed, common in sports like soccer and hockey
- Labral Pathology: pain with sitting and climbing stairs; symptoms of clicking, locking, and giving way are common during weight-bearing activities
- Result from acute macrotrauma or repetitive microtrauma, joint surface wearing, or inherent bony development
Why Physical Therapy?
- Personalized Care
- Increased Strength
- Increased Mobility
- Reduced/Absent Pain
- Improved Body-Awareness
- Education regarding your condition and how to manage it
Our licensed Doctors of Physical Therapy are able to evaluate the cause of your hip pain, determine if it is truly generated by your hip, and prescribe a treatment plan to address YOUR specific injury. If the condition proves to require further medical testing, the evaluating therapist will be able to determine that and direct you accordingly.
Whenever pain is a factor, muscle groups stop working efficiently and people avoid pain provoking activities. The result is:
- weakness
- reduced mobility
- more pain in your hip
- potential of developing pain in other areas, like your back or knees.
Waiting to get your hip pain evaluated only extends the time it takes to get you back to living the life you want, participating in activities you enjoy, and being able to comfortably sit, walk, sleep, etc. Time is the only thing that you can’t get back. Spend some time with our team of therapists and athletic trainers, so that you can spend more time focusing on the things and people that matter most!
By Candace Harding PT, DPT, OCS
Call LSTC today at, 703-450-4300 to schedule your evaluation and start living pain free again!
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