Massage, Remedial Massage & Myotherapy for Hip Pain
Hip pain is an extremely common symptoms we see in clinic. Often it’s in conjunction with a lower back ache, but sometimes not. Massage therapy in general terms, can be extremely effective for hip pain.
It’s extremely common for some key muscles in the hips to harbour trigger points. This is when you are developing trigger points, but they aren’t bad enough for you to notice – until they are!
Once trigger points reach this stage we often find it can do any or all of the following:
- Cause restriction through the hip and sometimes lower back
- Create a dull ache through the hip, sometimes this translates up into the same side of the lower back
- A sharp pain (sometimes mistaken for sciatic nerve pain) that can run down the back of the thigh, sometimes this can occur on the side or from as well
It’s these above symptoms that either make movement painful or cause an ache at rest. In some cases unfortunately it is both.
The fear for may when you are experiencing hip pain is arthritis. Even worse arthritis leading to a hip replacement. To help put your mind at ease, arthritis is a part of ageing, improving joint function helps to release arthritis type pain and many people have hip replacements that could have been avoided. We’ll talk more about that a little later.
How Massage Therapy, Remedial Massage & Myotherapy Help Hip Pain
We talked before about trigger points. They often start forming without you realising. This can be due to posture, repetitive tasks (or change of use) or an acute injury.
When these trigger points become active (when you start feeling the pain) is often the first sign for many there is an issue. One, two or all three of the symptoms we talked about above hit you.
Massage, Remedial Massage & Myotherapy is extremely helpful to release these trigger points. This will ease muscle pain, improve muscle function and improve joint mobility.
As we were saying earlier this often occurs in key muscles. This means we know exactly where to target.
A typical massage, remedial massage or myotherapy treatment for hip pain will start with an assessment. We work out what muscles are tight. Also the structures that are causing your pain as well as limitations in movement.
We then set about releasing these tight muscles. Usually a combination of deep tissue massage Y& trigger point therapy. Sometimes your therapist will recommend some cupping or dry needling as well.
Following your treatment your treatment your therapist will often give you some exercises to perform at home. We do this to maximise the effectiveness of the treatment, and to get these gains to last longer.
In terms of follow up we follow Rapid Recovery’s pain free pathway. Generally after the first session we follow you up in a week. Then we look to stretch that out as you become pain free.
Hip Osteoarthrtitis & Joint Replacements
Simply put it is my firm opinion that there are many people who have hip replacements that could have put it off.
Osteoarthritis is a common and normal part of ageing. Yes there are times where osteoarthritis in the hip can get that bad that a hip replacement is 100% warranted. Often it isn’t, and on many occasions people spend time in a lot more pain than what they should or need to.
Unless it’s a severe case osteoarthritis pain will typically affect joints that are weak and not function properly. Does that mean that we just sit this out and wait for it to get bad enough that it’s ready to be operated on? Or what if we strengthened the joint and improved it’s function. I know what I would go for.
Our Massage, Remedial Massage & Myotherapy Treatment for Osteoarthritis
With osteoarthritis we target our treatment to improve muscular & joint function. Often this is enough to significantly reduce pain. In fact I was reading a study on this the other day that showed incredible benefits of a small black of fortnightly massage appointments for people with Osteoarthritis. That was for the knee, but I think the same principles apply for the hip. Also our treatment is more targeted than what was in that trial.
Following improving the movement of the joint we look to strengthen it. Sometimes we give some basic exercises for you to take home. Othertimes we work with some of the other fantastic health professionals in our local area who will give you more specific exercises. We leave this as your decision.
So in conclusion. Osteoarthritis is a normal part of ageing. If your hip osteoarthritis is starting to become painful, immediately seek treatment to stop it getting worse. We then look to reduce this pain and make the joint stronger. In many cases this helps to avoid joint replacements and the long and painful path too it, not to mention the recovery!
Fast Tracked or StandardApproach
As with many types of pain or injury, at Rapid Recovery we offer a standard of fast tracked approach. In the case of hip pain in acute instances we will offer either. If the pain is chronic, you’ve had the pain for a while we often follow the standard approach.
Disclaimer:
At Rapid Recovery Clinic we’ve put together this article as a way to give back to our industry. For clients, potential clients, GP’s & other allied health professionals to gain a better understanding of how massage,myotherapy & remedial massage can help hip pain.
Everything in this article is the views of the author and what they have found to be the case in their clinical practice. This information is intended only as a guide. It is up to you to seek your own independent medical advice for your individual circumstances & hip pain
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