Hip problems

[espirita]

Sometimes when stemming, or if my body position puts a lot of strain on my hip flexors, it feels like my leg bone is going to pop out of my hip socket. Has anyone else experienced this? It is very painful and uncomfortable, and not always predictable - OK when top-roping but a little scary when leading!! What's going on? I do yoga every day to strengthen that area but it still happens...

[espirita]

Hmmm... I guess I must be the only one with this problem. Maybe I can get a bionic hip replacement! I'll be flying up the walls!

[sk]

i have alot of trouble with my hip flexers too. I just figured that was the cost of giving birth twice *muffy shrugs* i just try to stay as limber as i can and hope for the best.

[slothrop]

I've had a similar problem, but it wasn't really that painful for me, just uncomfortable. I could kind of pop it back into place by extending my leg in front of me and bending at the waist (hard to describe).

 

After playing a lot of soccer for a while, the same area started to get painful after games. I started doing a dynamic warmup before games that includes a few things:

 

- Walking forward, hike your knee up toward your chest as you step, moving your knee from inside to outside. You should feel the rotation through your hip joint. Walk for 20 yards like this a few times. My friend describes this as the "Robin van Pirsie" (if you're an Arsenal fan, watch him warm up).

- Grapevines, sideways and forward/backward

- "Indian hop": do a Google search for a good description, but it's basically hopping forward foot-to-foot, on a 45-deg. angle, bouncing once as you land; good strengthening exercise

- Short sprints, alternately with knees exaggeratedly high

 

The idea is to get the joint, muscles, and nerves used to the motions you'll be doing, and not just stretched out and warmed. These warmups might not be practical for doing at the base of the crag, but you can do the van Pirsie thing in place. You could do the others as part of some other workout for strengthening the joint.

[espirita]

Well this will certainly make approaches more interesting!! Thanks for the advice.

[Kitergal]

My hips recently started hurting after I run long distances. Only running. Biking, climbing, hiking, etc no problems. Just running. I'm finding out that it's my hip-flexors as well. Just need to work on stretching those bad boys out before and after exercising...I guess?!?

[slothrop]

Stretching them after exercise probably helps, but not before. You want to warm them up to get them ready for action. If you stretch too much, your hips will be all loosey-goosey.

 

But I'm just talking out of my ass here.

[Gary_Yngve]

There's a stretch I do where I sit in an L, bend my right knee so that my right foot is on the ground outside my left knee, and then lever my right knee leftward with my left elbow. Hope that makes sense.

[espirita]

It’s sort of a chronic thing. I first noticed this problem the first time I went skiing around um… 10 years ago. I didn’t do anything specific to that hip (the left one) on the slopes (not like I ran into anything and jacked it up), so I figured it was just that I didn’t stretch well enough or something. But then every time I went skiing it happened – and it was always the same hip, and always too painful to be able to go down the rest of the slope (though I did manage to get down, mostly I think on my butt). Consequently I stopped skiing altogether.

 

Since I’ve started climbing (about a year now) I’ve started to notice it again when I get in certain positions. I asked my doc about it and she said I might have some kind of genetic defect. I don’t really think it’s a stretching issue (though all the stretches you guys mentioned are awesome) because for the most part I’m pretty flexible and it always just happens in that one spot (never the other side).

 

Thanks for your responses – I was just curious if anyone else had the same problem!

[fern]

 

Squats! proper ones with an olympic bar

 

and any other resistance training exercise that works your body in all kinds of directions between your trunk and knees.

 

www.bodyresults.com has good info on exercises and training for climbing.

[minx]

happens to me a fair bit. i find that after the initial moment that it happens, it feels funny but i'm able to use it just fine. with in a couple of minutes and moves it's back to normal. i just try and move on like nothing happend.

[layton]

i would reccomend having someone perform muscle tests on your hip flexors, adductors, abbuctors, and hamstrings too isolate if a particular group of muscles is weak...not just tight. tight and weak go hand in hand. weak muscles become tight. and yoga doesn't stregnthen those muscles.

 

that combined with a hip stabilization track (exercises much like those in pilates) should help.

 

but there could also be a biomechanical problem (the way your hip sockets/femoral head are positioned). it's hard to say...go spend some money and see someone if the problem lasts more than 2 weeks.

[billcoe]

i would reccomend having someone perform muscle tests on your hip flexors, adductors, abbuctors, and hamstrings too isolate if a particular group of muscles is weak...not just tight. tight and weak go hand in hand. weak muscles become tight. and yoga doesn't stregnthen those muscles.

 

that combined with a hip stabilization track (exercises much like those in pilates) should help.

 

but there could also be a biomechanical problem (the way your hip sockets/femoral head are positioned). it's hard to say...go spend some money and see someone if the problem lasts more than 2 weeks.

 

 

Best answer of the month above.

 

Michael, who would you recommend they see, I noticed that regular doctors usually recommend a surgeon and then you get "Ta da" (musical interlude) surgery. Which sometimes is or is not, the best course depending on if you get lucky.

 

Sorry, I have a low view of surgery for things like this, neck and back pain.

[layton]

that's one of the reasons i went to chiropractic school instead of med school.

 

PT's are good but they can't diagnose...so you gotta see an md 1st. I'd see a chiropractor in Oregon who are also licensed to do PT. If you're in WA i'm not sure if insurance companies will accept a chiropractors referral to a pt. worth a call. if not, go call your doc and get a referral over the phone. if he or she says no tell 'em to get bent.

Edited July 18, 2005 by michael_layton

[ivan]

that's one of the reasons i went to chiropractic school instead of med school.

 

that and because the chiro-school groupies are so much hotter n' flexible...

Edited July 18, 2005 by ivan

[espirita]

Thanks, points taken. I'll let you know when I find out what it is...

[espirita]

So I finally went to my doc about this. She couldn’t tell what the problem was, and ruled out things like arthritis, bursitis, and any congenital defect. So she sent me to a PT. The PT did a whole bunch of tests, including those strength tests that someone mentioned. He said my outer hip muscle was a bit weaker than the others, and when I lifted my left leg as if to march, the hip didn’t rotate as it should. He also said one hip was slightly higher than the other, so after a bunch of pushing and pulling we straightened it out. I asked what would cause this – he said that anything that at one point jarred that area, which would then lead to the resulting weird rotation, leading to the weakened muscle (?). He said I could’ve done it skiing, though I don’t remember anything happening to that spot in particular. Selective memory, maybe. I have exercises to do every night to strengthen that area now, which I hope will help!