Hip pain: any sports med people out there?

Triathlon Forum
1

I’ve been having off-and-on hip pain in my R hip for a few weeks; usually worse after I’ve been sitting for a while and then get up. The pain is right on the underside of my iliac crest and seems to be where the IT connects. Any past pain that I’ve attributed to IT band problems was over my knee or the trochanter; this is totally different.
It doesn’t bug me biking and running hurts a bit but warms up. I know I should just rest it and see if it goes away but not running kinda drives me nuts so I thought I’d see if anyone had any happier “sure, you can run on it” diagnoses…
thanks

2

I’ve got the exact same problem in my right hip and have had it for about 9 months. I especially notice it when I take my first step after sitting down.

I finally went to a physical therapist last week, as I got fed up with the pain, as I thought my yoga would help resolve it.

My problem is with the muscle attachment at the top of the iliac crest, which happens to be the top of the IT band. It sounds like you have the same problem. I also have a lot of tightness in my gluteus medius, which causes my lower back to feel “compressed”. I also get a pain in the butt when I sit for too long, which is piriformis syndrome.

I also have a “sacral torsion” which bascially means that my pelvis is slightly off center, causing me to compensate with other muscles. I have to get that re-adjusted by my chiro. Apparently, once you get that problem, it is easy for your pelvis to get out of whack again.

It all seems to come down to stretching and strengthing the hip-related muscles. I sit all day at my desk job, which shortens all the hip muscles. Running then stretches them, but unfortunately, in my case, over-stretched them, since they were tight to begin with and I didn’t ease into my running program last year.

I am going to have the “active release” technique done by my chiro to help break up the muscle adhesions (aka knots) and will get some deep tissue massage to help with that as well. I’ve had this same problem in the past.

You have to be really diligent with the stretching. My PT has ordered me to stretch my IT band, piriformis and hamstrings 3xs per day.

3

I won’t bore you with the details, but I started having a similar problem two years ago during my build up for IMC. I had similar diagnosis by a host of practitioners, but it only got worse. In the end MRI’s showed three herniated disks.

Just sayin. If your insurance will cover it, it might be worth elininating disk issues first.

Good luck.

scott

4

thanks for the input; sounds like I just need to stretch my IT and everything around it a little more. Good luck with your aches and pains…

5

I’ve been getting ART done on my psoas for pain very similar to that. also, the less i sit down at work, the better it is…

6

Well, I’m not a doctor, and nor do I play one on TV…

You should still get it looked at just to make sure it is nothing more…

Good luck to you!

7

IT Band pain is not confined to the knee and can present at the hip. How are your biomechanics?

8

"The pain is right on the underside of my iliac crest and seems to be where the IT connects. "

I have been getting the same thing… and it seems to affect my R leg when sitting for a while also. If I walk for a while, my left knee hurts also.

Here’s my summation: There’s a hip/glute issue, perhaps piriformis, which is a deep muscle under the glute but which attached directly to the hip. Sometimes the pain might be in the bum, but sometimes it pulls on the hip. (For me, I knew there was a muscle/bones imbalance because my other knee is affected - misalignment, thrown off-kilter!)

I had this before and I cured it in 3 days (!) through yoga exercises I found on the Internet. Below are some articles I read… I haven’t had the focus to do the damn stretches (duh, and I call myself a coach?) but I can swear that they work when you get actually do them.

Even if you don’t do yoga they explain the stretches. It might even get you interested in yoga!

Running doc on piriformis:
http://www.drpribut.com/sports/piriformis.html

http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/636_1.cfm

http://www.trinityyoga.net/yoga-articles/article/piriformis_syndrome/

Best,
Lauren

9

Hi Lauren,
Thanks so much for the links to stretches… I’ve been trying to get my piriformis stretched out because I know it’s tight, and some of these feel like they’re getting it better than the stretches I was using.
Thanks again!
Shannon

10

Have a look at www.Julstro.com, there is an on line book and a forum that has a number of problems resolved by stretches and referred pain.

I managed to by the pain free triathletes book and had it sent to the UK, very helpful re this type of problem.

Hope it helps

Gary

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Julie Donnelly, the creator of julstro.com, is an amazing woman. She spoke at a conference recently and our attendees (i am involved in planning) wouldn’t even leave the room at break for brownies & coffee.

I recently posted about some pain I was having, fearing ITB, but had *no *knee pain. come to find out, sounds a little bit like yours. Anyhoo chiro did all these different test stretches to see where it would hit. lo and behold, it’s the joint, he gently held my leg under the knee in his forearm and tugged a couple times and wa-la, I felt 500% better. It was almost surreal that he could pinpoint it like that.