Poor Hip Control

Most people understand the importance of good core muscle control to fix back pain and improve sporting performance. Poor Hip Control, of poor control through your hip muscles is also very important risk factor in the development of hip and groin pain. Good control through the hip is very important for controlling the position and posture  of your hip, pelvis and upper leg, especially during one leg stance, walking, running, jumping and kicking. Which, when you think about it, affects all of us everyday!

What happens?

Just like most people have trouble ‘switching on’ their abdominal core muscles due to previous back pain, pregnancy, post-childbirth or sports injuries, the same applies to the deep hip muscles.

The deeper muscles in the hip tend to ‘turn off’ to a degree because of the pain or injury and usually struggle to properly ‘turn back on’ for a long period of time. This leads to ongoing pain or other problems developing throughout your hip and leg.
As a result your body compensates by:

• Increasing the workload of the larger hip and buttock muscles causing muscle fatigue, knots and tightness.

• Causing you to adopt a poor pelvic and lower back joint posture due to weakness.

Ultimately this means that other back and hip muscles tend to tighten up to try and stabilise your wobbly hip. This leads to secondary injuries such as hip injuries or groin pain. Unfortunately the long-term results can include a collapsing hip during walking or running, and an increased likelihood of joint stress and damage predisposing you to premature degenerative arthritis and pain, not only in your hip, but in your knee, back or ankle as well!

 

I have poor hip control, what can I do to improve?

If you have suffered hip injuries or groin pain that continues to niggle, it may be because you have poor hip control. Your doctor may have diagnosed you as having trochanteric bursitis, which is a secondary injury caused by poor hip control. While an injection of cortisone may help ease the short-term symptoms, bursitis tends to recur because the cause of the problem (poor hip control) responds to corrective exercises – not injections!

If you have a persistent back pain, hip injury or groin pain, then you need to contact Leading Edge to have your hip control assessed.

Your Leading Edge physiotherapist can do a full hip and pelvis assessment and start you on a remedial exercise program straight way.

Leading Edge has the latest technology to assess your hip strength and control, and will use the results from your assessment to laser-target your exercises to help you overcome hip and groin pain quickly.

Your next step is to have your hip control assessed by a Leading Edge Physiotherapist. Contact us or book online today.