After the Georgetown Half (a heavy decline 13.1) I had some lingering pain that I can only localize to my between my left ab upper left quad area and under my hip bone. No swelling, no bruising, just a consistent sore pain when I’m lifting the leg up.
A little over 6 weeks later that soreness is still there after runs and soccer, but not after I bike or swim.
Has anyone had a similar strain/sprain or could give me some ideas of what this could be?
Sounds like maybe you iliacus or psoas or both are unhappy. I had similar pain and ART helped resolve it. Took awhile, but it did eventually resolve.
Thanks Slow,
Looked into it and I think I may have got both, but at least now I know how I can target and hopefully treat them!
You can see if this represents where your pain is…
http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/Iliopsoas.html
The click the ‘hip flexor inflexibility’ link underneath it for some exercises
A
psoas
strengthen your glute meds
exercises:
Clamshell
Lay on your side with your knees bent – the angle between your abdomen and your hips should be about 135 degrees. Keeping your heels together, use your glutes to lift the top knee (like a shell opening). I do sets of 20. You may have to fool around with the abdomen/hip angle to feel the right muscle but it will make your glutes burn. Note – though heels are together, your top foot will rotate up as well.
When this gets too easy, tie a resistance band around your thighs just above your knees.
A similar exercise here is the abduction machine at the gym – the one on which you sit and spread your legs.
Hip Hikes
Stand sideways on a stair or chair on one foot. The other foot needs to hang over the edge. You will move your pelvis up and down as if you were bellydancing. The glute of the leg ON the stair does the work as the pelvis rotates up/down. Again sets of 20, working up to 100 on each side.
Bridges
Lay on your back with your heels up against your butt (knees up). Contract the glutes to raise the pelvis. Arms can be along your side or out at 90*. To make it harder, hands can be “streamlined” behind the head or perpendicular to the floor.
Next challenge: single leg bridges. The foot is using the HEEL only as otherwise you’ll push too much with your calves.
Weird wall thing
This one is hard to explain. You need a rolled up towel or medicine ball or kickball (something that size to put between your legs).
Lay with your knees up, feet on the wall, butt pretty close to the wall. Plant feet on the wall; raise hips. Remember you have a rolled up towel between your thighs. Using one glute, rotate the pelvis up slightly – it’s a slight motion – so the foot on that side slides up the wall a tiny bit.
Next challenge is to lift the foot slightly off the wall rather than sliding it.
Keep squeezing the towel between your legs as you do this.
Dynamic exercises
These are all lateral movement. We spend so much time moving forward that sideways = good sometimes! You can
Walk sideways, grapevine ( leg crosses over in back, then front), increase speed of grapevine, do squats as you walk sideways (step, squat, step back up, repeat).
Tie a resistance band around your ankles (“monster walk.”). Take a diagonal step backward, squatting a bit so you’re low to the ground. Continue to step backward diagonally. I think stepping backward is harder than going forward. You can do it forward too.
Donkey Kicks
This one is a “hip extension” like the machine at the gym but done w/o machine. You can add ankle weights if it becomes too easy. Get on all fours. Lift one leg up behind you keeping the knee bent.
To make it more challenging: “Fire Hydrants.” Lift the leg to the side (abduction) like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant.
Combination of the two: with leg in fire hydrant position, straighten it back before returning it to the ground.
OR
-internal impingement in the hip
-tendonitis
-stress reaction on the bonr
-hip pointer
-inguinal canal pain
etc, etc
if not resolving shortly, have it checked.