Chronic Hip Pain? We Can Help
Are you having pain on the outside of your hip or thigh when you are driving in your car? How about when you are going for a walk, a jog, or climbing stairs? Are you unable to lie on your side to sleep at night because of pain in your hip? If you answered YES to any of these questions, there is a good chance you are suffering from chronic trochanteric bursitis, or hip bursitis.
In our bodies we have small sacks of fluid called bursa strategically located throughout our musculo-skeletal system in places where a lof of biomechanical stress occurs, such as our shoulders, knees, elbows, and hips. One such bursa is located on the outside of our hip, over the easily palpated bony prominence called the greater trochanter. As you can see from the diagram below most of the muscles in our buttocks and hip all meet at a common location on the outside of the hip called the greater trochanter.
Due to the intersection of all these muscles in one spot, our bodies have placed a bursa there to help absorb all of the stress and shock that goes through this bony prominence. Overuse or injury to any of these muscles can result in irritation of this area and the bursa, resulting in bursitis leading to the common symptoms previously described earlier. It can be very painful limiting your ability to sleep comfortably or run and walk for long distances.
The good news here is this is very manageable with evaluation and treatment from a highly trained Physical Therapist at one of our offices! Your Physical Therapist will evaluate which structures around the hip are weak and or tight resulting in unusual stress on the greater trochanter causing the bursitis. A comprehensive treatment plan will be constructed for you including specific exercises, manual treatment techniques, and anti-inflammatory modalities (such as Phonophoresis and Iontophoresis) to address all aspects of your injury!
As a quick fix courtesy to all of our valued clients and followers here is a sneak peak of a couple of our favorite exercises when treating Trochanteric Bursitis:
Perform this maneuver slowly and stay below your hip bone (greater trochanter) and stay above the knee joint. Rolling should be very slow and deliberate. Try to perform this for 2 minutes if possible.
