Hip Pain
If you are looking for the cause of your hip pain or you do not know exactly what is causing your hip pain, let us guide you through our hip pain diagnostics and arrive at the most likely diagnosis. Not so long ago, it was rather rejected or at least it was controversial to do sports in case of an existing hip arthrosis. After the diagnosis of osteoarthritis, patients used to be given a general ban on sports by doctors.
In the meantime, however, it is now believed that a special sports and strengthening program can have a positive effect on the pain and the course of hip joint arthrosis and is therefore highly recommended for those affected. There are various studies that prove that exercise is considered the best therapy for osteoarthritis or even after the use of a hip prosthesis. Of course, this does not apply to all sports and exercises, which is why an individual plan is best worked out with a doctor or physiotherapist.
What should be avoided in any case is overloading the weakened joint. For this reason, exercise therapy for hip arthrosis is usually done in stages. First of all, there should be a passive mobilization of the joint, in which the muscles are moved, but the patient himself is not exposed to any effort.
Afterwards, active measures can be applied, but these should initially be carried out under relieving conditions. For example, exercises in which the leg is placed in slings to lose some of its weight are used for this purpose. Another possibility is to perform movements in water at the beginning.
The buoyancy relieves the muscles and when the water is warm, this can also contribute to relaxation and pain relief. Furthermore, especially in this early phase of the therapy, stretching the muscles is extremely important. Accompanying hip joint arthrosis, several muscles involved in the hip joint are usually shortened and thus contribute to the clinical picture and restricted movement.
The muscles most frequently affected are those that cause flexion, spreading of the leg and external rotation of the hip joint. To stretch these, several exercises are possible. Particularly popular is an exercise in which the patient lies on his back on a bench, over the edge of which he can let the affected leg hang down.
The other leg is then pulled towards the body using the hands. This stretches the flexor muscles in the hip. The next goal of sports in hip arthrosis is to restore the original strength of the joint by building up muscles.
At this stage, passive movement therapy and stretching therapy become less important and the patient is guided to active muscle building training. This training/sport can be done on special equipment (which can be found at the physiotherapist’s but also in fitness studios) or with the help of, for example, a therapy band. In addition to the hip muscles, the trunk muscles should also be strengthened, as these can also be affected by postural defects, which are usually unavoidable in hip joint arthrosis.
Above all, the coordination of the different muscle groups should be the main focus of this training so that a problem-free, pain-free movement can be regained in everyday activities. In principle, hip sports are useful for people of all ages and at all stages of hip arthritis. In addition to the obvious effects, such as strengthening the muscles and relieving pain, it also serves to reduce the risk of injury and regain more confidence when standing and walking.
Furthermore, such training programs often take place in groups, which also has the advantage that those affected can exchange information with each other and often even enjoy their therapy. Unfavorable are not only too much strain, but also unaccustomed strains that can occur in sports such as climbing, long-term strains such as jogging, or very one-sided strains in sports, which sometimes occur in squash, tennis or similar sports. These types of stress should be avoided as far as possible.
It is not only that lack of sporting activity has a negative effect on the course of an already existing hip arthrosis.Those who exercise regularly also reduce the likelihood of developing this clinical picture from the outset. Primary arthrosis (which, in contrast to secondary arthrosis, develops without a precisely identifiable cause) is often the result of an imbalance between the load and the load-bearing capacity of the hip joint. This imbalance is often due to the fact that a patient is overweight: This leads to increased stress on the joint and at the same time, due to a lack of exercise, the appropriate musculature is often missing to adequately counteract this increased stress.
