It's All in the Hips

Expert Contribution by Matthew Riordan, Professional Physical Therapy & Training

• Sciatica, low back pain or just a nagging pain in the butt?

• Hip bursitis, groin pain or piriformis syndrome?

• Deep sharp hip pain when you first stand up?

• Limitations with running or walking due to pain in the side of your knee knee (IT Band Syndrome) or low back back?

• Difficulty getting up from the ground or even going up stairs?

What is the common factor in all of these conditions? The answers are all in the hips. The hips play three major roles. 1) They provide power to propel your body forward or upwards. 2) They create stability to be able to hold your ground against gravity, other outside forces or to lower you down safely. 3)They allow range of motion to offer you mobility to travel over ground or to get up and down from it.

These amazing yet contradictory features of the hip are what allow us to be able to participate in sports, dancing, gardening, walking, running, balancing and basically any form of activities. Those two hips, that we often take for granted, have so many responsibilities! It is exactly that these major responsibilities are the reason why having healthy hips is directly related to being able to maintain our human movement in our day to day activities, sports, hobbies and just basic mobility needs for life which keeps our whole body healthy!

Causes of hip problems and what you can do: Do you sit for work or school > 4 hours per day? Sitting tightens the front side of the hip and also weakens the muscles on the back side of the hip leading to inability to participate in activities which can literally be a pain in the butt! Any little bit of standing can help such as spend some of the time standing on your train commute, get a standing desk or at least do a walk through the office every 45 minutes.

With so many directions and movements of the hips, strengthening all of those muscles can be confusing. The basics of squats, bridges and lunges are good, but there’s so much more than these single plane exercises. A little effort working on hip rotation can have a major impact on how you feel and move. Maintain range of motion through stretches and self joint mobilization. To see how to do some of these things visit www.HealthyHips.net.

Hip issues can be extremely complex due to their massive and detailed muscular attachments, extremely large range of motion and connections to the spine, knee and pelvis. In my clinical experience, I have uncovered issues previously diagnosed as knee or back problems, even with positive MRI findings to support it, to then in fact ultimately determine the prime issue to be originating in the hip--in some cases the opposite hip away from the pain.

If you are concerned or curious how your hips stack up and if they may be creating some limitations for you, there are a few tests that we can send you through videos as well as a more specific information and self-assessment. To get this information visit www.HealthyHips.net. Also, feel free to stop by our office located within the Madison Area YMCA.