It sucks to be injured. While all of your friends are out running or hitting the gym, you are stuck at home! Well, sleeping in isn’t too bad, but it’s going to get old fast.
I once had a hip injury that kept me from training.
My injury kept me out for a few months. After I recovered, I learned that I could have easily cut that time down by four weeks.
How?
Rehabbing it easy and often-and I’m not talking about rest and ice.
Through my hip injury, I began to learn more about how to treat and rehab them.
HIP FLEXOR TENDONITIS
- Pain in the front of your hip when lifting your knee?
- Hurts when you step into the car?
- Gets worse after doing core exercises with your legs?
Hip Flexor Tendonitis is a prevalent condition that can plague fitness enthusiasts of all types.
If you run ½ marathons or perform high intensity training (HIIT), you are at high risk of Hip Flexor Tendonitis. You don’t have to exercise in pain anymore.
Rehab for Hip Flexor Tendonitis is highly successful when done correctly. I, personally, have not had this injury, but I have managed many cases of it over the years.
What is Hip Flexor Tendonitis?
Tendonitis is irritation to a tendon. It can be chronic (long term) or acute (new injury). The primary hip flexor is the iliopsoas. You have probably heard of it called the psoas, but it is two muscles and one tendon. The tendon could be your problem.
What causes Hip Flexor Tendonitis?
Hip Flexor Tendonitis happens when the hip flexors become dominant in the gait pattern. You’re probably thinking, how can this happen, right? Do some floor core exercises, and you’ll probably find your hip flexor can get super tight super fast. Muscles have what is called a healthy “length/tension relationship.” They want to be a certain length so they can work well. If your core is not holding your pelvis in an optimal position, then your hip flexor length will change. Think about being at work. I’m sure you have optimal working conditions.
- Not too cold, but not too hot.
- Not too many emails.
- Not too much background noise.
Muscles need an optimal environment to prevent breakdown. Having proper core strength and the ability to hold the pelvis in the correct position when exercising will decrease the probability of having downtime from this injury.
Hip Flexor Tendonitis Rehab/ Therapy?
As you can guess, to rehab Hip Flexor Tendonitis correctly, we need to create the optimal environment. This environment is not hard to design, but it is a lot of work on your part. Rehab exercise progression usually includes one that goes from easy to challenging. Before making things more challenging on the muscles, we always teach proper pelvis and trunk position. It is often a mental game that is frustrating to individuals, but it is one that’s very teachable.
Here is a theory of progression that we often use in cases of Hip Flexor Tendonitis:
- Open chain exercise to closed chain exercise
- Lightweight to heavyweight
- Complete rest to incomplete rest
What does rest have to do with it? Running form, lifting form, posture, you name it. It all breaks down as you become out of breath. So we need to teach you how to have control of it. The Lewit Exercise is a great starting point for a core program. We always teach breathing and bracing before we start any core program. This exercise is enormously challenging for most people.
Hip Flexor Tendonitis Treatment Options?
Here are some other treatments that can assist you in recovering from Hip Flexor Tendonitis:
- Active Release Technique
- Deep tissue massage
- Anti-inflammatory injections
- Prolotherapy
- Chiropractic adjustments or mobilizations
- Strength training/rehab/ core endurance
- PRICE therapy
- Running gait training
My favorite is strength and core training. Combined they seem to create the fastest and most lasting results. Soft tissue care, injections, massage and adjustments are useful in jumpstarting the healing process; however, the long-term strategy has to be correcting the movement pattern.
Treatment should start with a proper diagnosis, soft tissue care, adjustments and proper core and stability rehab to re-enforce new movement patterns.
