In my experience, hip pain usually comes from excessive stretching of the piriformis muscle. The external rotation of the hip joint during this stretch is often too much to handle and the joint will be pushed out of alignment. I advise my patients to skip the stretch unless they are suffering from piriformis syndrome (a painful condition where one of the muscles in the buttock area will press against the sciatic nerve.) If the patient wants to be proactive with keeping their piriformis muscles loose, I would advise instead to do the therapy where they sit on the tennis ball and massage the area.

Other instigators for hip problems are excessive sitting, sitting with your legs crossed, and pressure on the hip while sleeping on your side without a pillow. Rarely do hip issues come from physical activity in my experience but they do on occasion. After getting the hip adjusted I usually recommend icing the area for 20 minutes to help with any inflammation that is occurring within the joint. I personally prefer to adjust the area with an Arthrostim because I feel the hip can move out of place by going too far posterior, anterior, lateral, medial, caudal, cephalic, internally rotated or externally rotated and being specific with the line of drive for an adjustment is important.

Hip pain often can radiate down the outside of the leg and sometimes into the groin area. If you suspect you may have an alignment issue with your hip, please feel free to contact our office for a free consultation.