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Injuries to the hip By Othon Molina, Ph.d.c, LMT First of all I want to make it clear that this information is not to diagnose nor prescribe, and it should not take the place of the advice of your doctor. This is intended to complement conventional medicine, not to replace it. Consult with your doctor before starting any kind of nutritional or physical program. Most injuries to the hips are due to misalignment of the pelvis. The torque can aggravate several areas. Most commonly the hip at the trochanter, where the femur meets this hip joint is a stressful area. You can get trochanter bursitis, because there is a bursa at the head of the femur, and it can be a painful situation. For this condition only an injection can help, as massage can irritate it further. The muscles involved there are the insertion of the gluteus group, and the fascia lata. One of the muscles involved is often the periformis. This deep gluteal muscle can have a lot of stress put on it if the pelvis is out of alignment. In fact, most runners have tension and some tightness in the gluteal muscles as these are the main hip extensors and are used in running, jumping and most sports. They are seldom injured as far as a tear, because they are very strong muscles. However, they can get stressed because of the over use syndrome. Mostly, runners get stressed there from long distance training. You can also get injured in contact sports, or from falling on your hip. Other injuries can happen to the ligaments holding the hip to the sacrum. These can be a problem. Heavy lifting or lots of bending over in the job can agrivate this area. Weight lifters doing heavy squats can hurt this area. Moving in the wrong direction, or a fall on the buttocks, are all ways to injure these ligaments as well. Treatment RICE (Rest-Ice-Compression-Elevation) of course is the treatment of choice for any injury, even if it s in the deeper gluteus muscles. The next approach is DTF (Deep Transverse Friction; a specialized form of massage), on the lesion. You can also use compression massage for the deeper gluteus group. Further down the road, working on balancing the pelvis, as well as deep cross friction massage to prevent further injuries can be helpful. The ligaments will respond well to DTF, and should improve in three to four weeks. Be careful not to stretch this area during the acute phase (Don t ever stretch torn ligaments or muscles as it makes it worse). Later they may respond well to manipulations of the sacroiliac joint (SI Joint). For the ligaments if all else fails an injection of corticosteroid can increase the healing. For stubborn and consistent pain in the sacral ligaments a proliferant injection will create stability and scar tissue to aid in the healing. For information on starting a fitness program; Othon Molina, Ph.d.c, LMT P.O. Box 1231 Kamuela, HI 96743 Cell: (808) 895-2688 www.molinamassage.com
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