10 Jan 2016
Left Hip Injury
September 2015: after completing Insanity in June, and continuing to do it regularly and also running some of my fastest times, and doing a lot of capoeira, my left hip started to hurt. I had a similar pain on my right hip a few years ago – which forced me to stop running for eighteen months. I stopped running around May 2010, and didn’t get back into it until November 2011. While not running I got into cycling to and from work and for leisure and started Capoeira, I also did a lot of physio.
So, back to September 2015, been doing Capoeira for over four years, T25 and Insanity, jogging, cycling. I’m thinking my core muscles are fairly strong, probably the strongest they have ever been. So when my left hip started to hurt I assumed the recovery would be quicker. I took anti-inflammatory, stopped running for 8 weeks (but continued walking similar distances twice a week), had four sessions with an osteopath (that’s all I could afford) who thought it was a referred back issue. I didn’t stop Capoeira though, as that didn’t seem to aggravate it.
At this point the pain was very deep in the buttocks, maybe the piriformis, maybe either gluteus. I massaged it, with a tennis ball, and I was also rolling, like I have been since a knee injury, in case it was the IT band, and my knee still aches sometimes, on the outside. During the 8 weeks off I was doing sun salutations in the morning, capoeira, and Insanity/T25 about three times a week only. It got better and I started to run again in November. In my calendar I noted sore lower back the next day, but I guess that was to be expected. Then a couple of weeks later I complain of a sore hip after too much jumping in Capoeira class (17 November), but continued to jog, slower and 1km less than usual, around 5.5km, twice a week.
Then, I was ill for over a week in December, had a run on the 23rd of December, and hip started to ache again. Took break from pretty much everything the following week. On Jan 5th 2016 I went for a run but had to abandon after 10 minutes as I was getting a very sharp pain on my left hip. So I’m keeping a record of what I think it could be, pretending to be Dr. House and his team 😀
Interactive guide to muscles, awesome!
I have my trusted trigger point book, according to that it could be referred pain from either gluteus maximus or medium. So for that I did the ball massing and stretching. Then there are the hip flexors(exercises), and recently, since the new year, the pain has moved to the tensor fascia latae area, so I’m concentrating on that from now on.
There’s so much info out there, but last time no one I saw seemed to know for sure what the issue was, but it got better with exercise, slowly. So I don’t think I’m going to see a doctor just yet. At least this time there’s no clicking when move right leg in circular motion. I have been taking Cuprofen for 3 days now, but that doesn’t seem to be helping with the pain, however I think I will take it for a full week, in case it’s an inflammation. But here’s an article that discusses Evidence on NSAID use in soft tissue injuries, just to confuse matters. Because life is never simple!
Going to be doing this every morning for a while
10 DP = 10 deep breaths, that’s about 60 secs)
5 sun salutations A
5 sun salutations B
Inverted triangle 10DP
Camel Pose 10DP
Kneeling hip flexor stretch this one is really helping release it!
Plow 10DP
Happy baby stretch 10DP
Four Part Sequence for Stretching the Hip Joints
Streghtening single leg glute bridge – switching sides 10x, leg up/down 10x
Wobble Cushion exercises (single leg hold 30-45sec hold/squat up to 20 rep) I have one of these from last time I had hip injury, might as well use it again.
Couple of lunges on wobble board for strengthening, start with 10, build up to 20 reps.
12 Jan 2015: More info http://b-reddy.org/2012/10/08/you-shouldnt-stretch-your-hip-flexors-if-you-have-hip-pain/
According to this, this is the recommended stretch for hip pain:
26 Jan 2016
Hip pain saga continues. I have been doing capoeira and taking Cuprofen (1 week), then Naproxen (1 week) but still hurts. So yesterday I went to get a deep tissue massage with the wonderful Baris Yazar. I never had deep tissue massage before, but the pain was on a similar level to what I experienced with the Osteopath and previous sports massage. PAINFUL!!!! When I got home I iced my hip a few times, on Baris’ advice. He also gave me stretches, which were similar to what I’ve been doing plus an extra hoola hoop exercise.
Interestingly there was a huge knot on my right gluteus area, which side is compensating for which, who knows. But my left hip is the weaker one at the moment, this is checked simply by pushing against his hand. He also massaged the left iliopsoas and iliacus muscles, that was the most painful!!! He also found a an area of tension on my left thigh and worked on that. Once we were done my hip felt a lot less tight and was actually less tight as I could move it further than at the start of the session!!! So, yeah, this appears to be a exo muscular issue rather than anything more serious. Fingers crossed. It all feels tender today so I’m taking it easy. Mestre Poncianinho also gave me 3 exercises to get the blood flow to my hip, so will combine with Baris’…
They all need to be done when muscles are warm, so I still need to do the sun salutations first. Baris also suggested doing them after a hot bath.
08 Feb 2016
Have stopped painkillers (took them for two weeks in total) – and the first week without them (same week I saw Baris) was very painful! Last week I did a lot of hot/cold packs and physio exercises and it seems to be improving. But then I went to Capoeira and it feels like a step back again. The whole area seems a lot less tight, been massaging too, strecthing, the whole lot. But there’s one spot – trochanteric bursitis, that just won’t get better I don’t think until I REALLY REST.
So yesterday I made the difficult decision to do just that. REST! Two weeks at least. I’ll also be doing the yoga sun salutations and various physios exercises I have gathered. Like the injury I had on the other side, bursitis was a possible diagnosis too, the most likely.
I was going to go cycling today, as cycling is a good recovery exercise, but it’s incredibly windy… So instead I did physio, and had some fun with this elastic band 😀