Your Hips Don’t Go Out of Place!
You’ve probably heard someone say that their hip is out of place (or out of alignment), or maybe you’ve said it yourself. You might think you’re walking funny, as if one leg feels longer than the other, or that you have back, hip, or leg pain on one side because that hip is out of place. If you go to a physical therapist and tell them your hip is out of place and ask them to put it back, most likely, they will tell you that isn’t your problem. While a person might “feel” like their hip is out of place, the truth is that there is no such thing. Your hips do not go out of place. You can dislocate your hip, but that is painful and would require a trip to the hospital. So, what’s really going on? Our top-rated physical therapist in Franklin explains:
Do Hips Go Out Of Place?
Your pelvis is divided into three major parts. You have a right and left innominate and a sacrum in between them, connected to each innominate. Traditional thinking is that the different parts of the pelvis can rotate or shift on one another, causing hip misalignments. The common procedure some use to correct this is to find the misalignments and restore the pelvis back to its original, aligned state by having the patient contract their muscles, as in the hamstring, and pushing against them. Once the hips are considered realigned, the patient’s pain goes away, and their hip is no longer out of place. This procedure can reduce pain temporarily, but is it really permanently realigning the hips? The theory that hips are out of place and can be realigned this way has come under scrutiny in recent times, and the best physical therapists are moving away from “fixing” misaligned or out-of-place hips.
Your Hips Are Resilient
Your hips take on a lot. They transfer force between your legs and your upper body every day. They are made to withstand a lot of stress. The hip provides stability, whether standing, running, or walking, and the joints are used constantly. The hip joint is the largest in the body. The muscles and ligaments that surround the joint are also some of the largest and strongest in the body. When we have lower back pain, leg pain, or hip pain, it may be natural to assume the reason is that the hard-working hip joint is out of place. But, this doesn’t actually happen.
Does Muscle Manipulation Help Aching Hips?
The long-standing theory is that a misaligned hip can be treated by manually manipulating the area to alter the position of the sacroiliac joint and restore proper alignment. Recent studies have found that this isn’t the case, though. The range of motion in the sacroiliac joint is extremely small, only several millimeters at most. This suggests that manual manipulation doesn’t do much of anything. It’s hard to agree with a patient that their hip is out of place and tell them that you can manipulate the joint into place when the hip joints barely move to begin with. \
What’s Causing You To Feel Like Your Hips Are Out Of Place?
Many people experience sacroiliac and lower back pain. It’s also common knowledge that not everyone has a perfect skeletal structure and symmetrical hip alignment. But many healthcare providers believe that, for the most part, small pelvic alignment issues are not a major cause of lower back pain. That begs the question: why do I have lower back pain then? There are two common reasons:
The first is that you may have an inflammatory condition within the sacroiliac joint that’s causing the pain.
The second is that the sacroiliac joint has become unstable due to laxity or tearing of the associated ligaments.
What Should You Do For Your Hip Pain?
A physical therapist can manipulate the muscles to decrease the pain, but it isn’t a permanent solution. In addition to that, our physical therapists in Franklin prescribe stabilizing exercises, such as lunges or reverse lunges to extend range of motion and help strengthen the surrounding muscles and ligaments. Squats and deadlifts are also good strengthening exercises, but they may be too painful to achieve in some patients at the beginning.
Trying these exercises on your own can hurt your hips more. Always check with your physical therapist to get a personalized routine for your pain.
Contact Franklin’s Experienced Physical Therapists At Beyond PT Today
If you are experiencing lower back pain on one side, it probably isn’t because your hips are out of alignment. Doing prescribed exercises by your physical therapist is your best option to relieve pain and address the underlying issue of your problem. At Beyond Physical Therapy in Franklin, TN, we’re here to help you get back to doing what you love without pain. Contact us today at (629) 239-3170 for more information!