Hip pain

[Charger]

Lately I have had some pain in my hip. It started a couple months ago but not too bad. Just lately it is getting worse. I am going to see my Chiropractor next week and get his opinion.
I have even been off for 2 weeks and thought if no other good would come from the forced break, my hip would get better. I think it's worse now, any ideas??

[Hibiscus09]

Sorry, Charger. I've never had hip pain but Brian gets it occasionally from running. I was curious myself, so here's some info I found on a rehabilitation site:

Hip Pain
By Richard Lauro

Anyone suffering from hip pain, before trying any methods to treat should at first go and see a doctor as it is obviously the best option to have the hip properly diagnosed by a medical physician. Then once the problem is diagnosed proper treatment can then be addressed.

To better understand the hip pain, it’s prudent that we at first understand the mechanism of how Hip joints works. The hip joint is a ball like structure and socket joint which by its design allows a large range of motion but at the same time is extremely stable. It shares many muscles and nerves with the low back and with the knee. It is obviously a major weight bearing joint and as such is subject to great impacts often many times body weight. In order to offer some protection from this it has a thick layer of cartilage covering the bone ends and some extremely hard muscles. These muscles contract and absorb shock, moments before the foot hits the ground.

The symptoms for hip pain can arise from:-

The bones
The many ligaments that support the joint,
The tendons of the very powerful muscles that insert close to the hip
Small sacs of fluid called bursae which cushion or alter the pull of some tendons

Basically there are four causes in which a person can experience hip pain; these are osteoarthritis, groin strain, trochanteric bursitis and the fracture. Osteoarthritis is the most common cause of pain in the hips. This condition is the most common type of arthritis and probably affects almost every person over age 60 to some degree.

Osteoarthritis in the hip can cause pain, stiffness, and severe disability. People may feel the pain in their hips, or in their groin, inner thigh, or knees. Treatment for such a condition includes walking aids such as canes or walkers which reduces stress on the hip. Osteoarthritis in the hip may limit moving and bending.

Trochanteric bursitis is an inflammation of small sacs of fluid that exist under the tendons of the buttock muscles as they insert into the top of the femur (thigh). They cushion these tendons and help to give them a better angle of pull. They can become inflamed with overuse or unfamiliar use of the hip. The pain is normally felt over the side of the hip and is extremely sore when palpated. Treatment may involve anti inflammatory tablets and/or Mat therapy.

The best way to avoid hip pain is to make sure all muscles are balanced. Muscular inbalances in the foot or lower leg can also lead to hip and lower back pain. Muscles of the feet and lower leg play a very important role in distributing forces throughout the rest of the body. If the feet cannot properly supinate and pronate the stress will be transferred to the hips. If the hip musculature is not in balance then the lower back muscles will be stressed leading to lower back problems. Example: As the foot hits the ground while walking, it rotates this rotation travels up through the foot, to the lower leg, the knees, the thigh bone, and eventually reaches the hip region. As this rotation may be a very small amount at the foot, by the time the rotation reaches the hip, the amount of rotation is increased by more than what actually exists at the foot.

Therefore, if the foot properly supinates and pronates, the amount of rotation at the hip is decreased; allowing the hip to function in a proper manner, reducing pain, stress, and offering better balance as well.

Hip replacement surgery should be considered only when all other alternatives have failed. It is up to the individual living with the pain to decide how severe and limiting the pain is.

[Charger]

Thanks for the research Hib,
One thing that I picked up on was the mention of soreness in the inner thigh region, which I have also. I did lunges yesterday and it hurt, not bad but I noticed them.

[Macattack]

Maybe a little arthritis or inflamation in there Charger?

i try to look at my overall training and what i am doing at work that could be straining an areas, lately its been my back having muscle spasms and its pulling my spine alignment out and pinching nerves i need to go see the chiropractor also very soon, then that shoulder injury for nearly 4 months so this is getting rediculous and it seems to take longer to heal from these injurys, we may need to re think our training methods and DIET as we age buddy

Keep us up to date

[Charger]

I hear you Mac, I think my hip may be work related but not sure.Hopefully I can get in to see the Doc in the next coople days, this sucks!

[IPR]

Charger.....I developed hip pain several months back, but could still work around it or so I thought.

I then saw a recommendation for trigger point therapy on this forum, and tried it for my shoulder which worked reasonably well. So I decided to give it a try for my hip.......first attempt and BAM...all pain gone!!

Basically trigger points are knots in the muscles and refer pain to a different location.

Before doing anything more drastic I would check this out.

[Charger]

IPR, I'll do that. For a little town in Iowa, we do actually have several good massage theropist from what I have heard. May give one a try. Thanks for the suggestion! I read that also about trigger points, makes you wonder.
My chiropractor has worked with everything else so far, I'll try him first.
My pain I beleive is a result of alot of hours lately sitting operating equipment. Plus I also question my squats. Something new for me was adding plates under the heals when doing squats. I like to go deep and I just wonder if the combo is also having an effect???

[IPR]

Originally posted by Charger
My pain I beleive is a result of alot of hours lately sitting operating equipment.

This sounds just like trigger points then. A normal massage won't work, it need to be very specific to the actual point, and i will hurt when you find it

[Valerie]

Could be related to sitting at equipment for prolonged periods. Is there anything that you repetitively do like operating something/machinaery with your foot and moving the leg inwards a lot? It's just that if your doing something repetative day in and day out with no break the muscles in use or ligaments wouldn't get time to recover. You can even get a muscle imbalance which would cause more pain.