Have you been battling a clicking hip for far too long? Are you under the impression that your hip has degeneration in it, and it won’t get better?
The size of your hip flexor muscle can have an impact on the function on your hip. Studies have shown that weakness in this muscle can contribute to tears in joint capsule. So, what other damage may be happening in the hip area?
Are you starting to find that your hip issues are getting in the way of your daily life? Hard to get out of bed, difficult to play your favourite sport, or finding it hard to do your job?
Do you feel kind of fed up with all the strength exercises that seem to be going nowhere?
Hip dysfunction can be very debilitating and often you can get put into the too hard pile or there is nothing you can do basket.
The thing with hip pain is that the hip joint sometimes may not show you signs of problems until the issue is more advanced. The pain is always bearable at first but then it eventually worsens and worsens. Our hips joint is absolutely phenomenal at compensating tiny imbalances that it will continue to workissue free for a long time and you may not catch wind of it until there is significant issues with it.
The great news is that sometimes you can find the specific imbalance its causes and help the hip significantly!
There is a huge component to hip function/ stability that seems to be misunderstood and potentially not dealt with as good as you could. This is the hip flexor muscle unit. The hip flexor muscles that most people refer to as your “quads”. The group of muscles that are at the front part of your thigh. They have and important action, and that is to bring you hip forwards (like you would when kicking a ball or running).
So how can problems arise?
If your hip flexors are working on all cylinders and contracting properly then this is where we start compensating for it. We do not do it knowingly. Your body will just do it naturally for you do keep going. It will only become a problem when the compensation muscle groups start to struggle with the compensation. This could possibly go on for a long time.
A common example is your tensor fascia latte (TFL) compensation. A muscle that runs along the side of your leg. Predominantly helps bring your leg out away from the side of your body. If the main hip flexors are not working properly, then with a slight internal rotation of your hip you can involve the TFL muscle in hip flexion without knowing about it. The catch is, that this is not this muscle primary job. This means that eventually the muscle will get tired and possibly strain. These are the kind of strain patterns that may lead to hip pains in the side of your hip.
This is just one example of many possible hip compensations that can happen that can lead to hip dysfunction.
So how do you fix this?
There is no one straight answer on how to help get this issue better. This is because there are many reasons as to why the hip flexor can become dysfunctional. It can range from strength and condition issues all the way down the nutritional issues.
There is no doubt in my mind that a dysfunctional hip flexor will cause or contribute to significant hip change that could lead to pain and degeneration. So if you feel like this is you. If your finally fed up with your hip issues, then here is my gold standard test to see if your hip flexor is part of your hip issues.
The test is really simple, stand next to a desk or a table so you can use it to support your balance. Lift the leg with no pain or hip problem and raise it to roughly hip height. From there perform a one-legged body weight squat with the problematic leg.
If you can touch the ground with your bottom, then come back up again pain free and smoothly then the hip flexor is most likely not contributing. However, if you lose stability, feel like you’re going to fall over or just simply can go down all the way or get back up then your hip flexor most likely is contributing.
If this is the case and this is something your really keen on getting this sorted out. Then please call us immediately so we can arrange a time to give you a full assessment of your hip and find out more about what could be driving your hip flexor issues.
