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Serving Melbourne

for over 20 years

35 Churchill Ave , Maidstone

VIC 3012, Australia

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Serving Melbourne
for over 30 years

Group 11

35 Churchill Ave , Maidstone, VIC 3012, Australia

Hip bursitis? Why I see people fail at getting results! Got Hip bursitis? Here’s the top reason I see people fail to recover!

Do you have a hip bursitis? General pains and aches on the side of your hip? Have you been spending your hard-earned money on treatment that just doesn’t seem to help? This article could make a huge difference for you!

“Hip flexors muscles are one of your biggest hip stabilisers! Dysfunction of this area of the hip can lead to several different hip problems, including bursitis.”

Before we get into bursitis, let’s just first clear up what a bursa is.

A bursa is a fluid filled sack that sits between muscles, tendons and other tissues to create a form of lubrication to prevent friction from damaging structures. They’re like little pillows that have been strategically placed into areas of the body to help protect them from wear. Of relevance to us right now is the one in the hip sits right on top of your hip bone. In fact, if you stand up and poke on the most outer part of your hip, you have found it.

When this cushion gets irritated long enough then the damage to it starts off a healing process resulting in inflammation. This is when you start to feel the aches and pain through that area.

What causes it to get irritated you ask?

Well the hip is made up of loads of muscles that help it perform lots of movements in any direction and under great force. Its an incredible joint. However, once you get dysfunction to certain muscles of that area, the hip stops working the way it is supposed to generating incorrect forces through and around the joint.

“The most important of this group with hip bursitis is the hip flexor unit.

When you walk and your leg comes forward the main muscle that deals with the forward movement is your hip flexor. This big muscle elevates your leg allowing you to step forward. When it fails to perform its job well, it puts a whole lot of dependency on other surrounding muscles to do the job for it.

With repetition, these muscles become over worked and start to develop their own strain patterns.

A common muscle that gets effected by this is the tensor fascia Lata (TFL). This muscle is attached to a band that runs along the whole side of your thigh. It starts from the top of your hip and goes to the side of your knee!

This muscle often becomes the major compensator for the dysfunctional hip flexor!

Underneath the TFL sits your main hip bursa. When the TFL becomes overworked, the bursa is loaded with extra pressure becoming damaged and then inflamed. This is where we start to notice pain through that area.

Once of the biggest fails I see when I comes to treating this area, is that there is a lot of focus on the TFL. Stretches or foam roller exercises seems to be the norm given by most practitioners. Although this creates much relief for many, I find it often tends to be temporary and doesn’t really resolve the underlying original cause!

By loosening the TFL, you are taking the pressure of the bursa, however, with the hip flexor dysfunction still in play, the TFL often will tighten up again to support the poorly functioning hip mechanism creating a recurrent pattern of injury and delaying healing.

This is also why a cortisone injection may not be the perfect solution either. A strong anti-inflammatory injection to the area may help reduce the inflammation and pain, but does it actually have any effect on the dysfunction that caused it…? Yep, probably not. In fact, I often see the pressure and rubbing effect will continue and eventually inflame that area up again.

Fix the problem!

Therefore, it is important to make sure that the hip is working the way it is supposed to prior to worrying about any form of rehabilitation or inflammation control. If we can get the hip flexor unit functioning properly then the TFL muscle doesn’t have to work as hard. This stops the constant pressure on the bursa and allows it to recover.

There a many reasons that can contribute to a muscle becoming dysfunctional, strength being one of them. The body in motion is an incredible work of art and hip dysfunction could be coming from a myriad of different things.

I rarely see hip bursitis or lateral hip pain permanently recover with simply stretching and massaging of hip muscles. Everyone is so caught up treating the sore and tight area that they forget about the simple neuro-biomechanical influences of this region. Correcting function through the hip region is to the key to long term recovery.

If you have hip pain or hip bursitis and are sick of using the same old stretches or foam roller techniques than I’ve got some quick and simple tests  you can do too see if your hip flexor unit is functioning properly.

  • Standing single leg squat – Place your hand on a bench for support. With one leg lower yourself to the ground and get your bum to touch the floor and get up again. A healthy Quad should be able to do this.
  • Sit in the car and slowly lift your leg and place it on the ground outside – Do you notice tightness or pain when trying to place your leg out of the car?
  • When sitting down try lift your knee as high as you can – Is there pain when holding it there? What if someone applies a little weight to it. Can you hold it up? Compare both sides.

If any of these tests were difficult then it’s likely that you’re suffering with some form of hip flexor dysfunction and this may be contributing to your problem.

If you’re in pain or just want to find out if your hip is working the way it should, then hit the link and let’s organize a chat and see if we can get you moving again quickly.


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Serving Melbourne
for over 20 years