There are a LOT of causes of hip pain. So we have to break this series up. Today let’s talk about hip pain as it relates to back pain, and a sedentary lifestyle.
The hip is actually a complex of interlocking rigid and flexible parts, including a true ball and socket joint. In women the pelvis flexes more, but in general it is a joint regardless. Then there is the Sacro-illiac joint, as well as a labyrinth of complex muscle fibers, in which a major nerve pierces a very easily shortened muscle (piriformis), and can become impinged. Finally, the muscles here often originate from the low back and attach to the leg, and are easily affected by low back problems, such as lumbago.
Enter the Labyrinth
So what’s going on here, what’s the crux of the problem of pain? The crux is that if you sit a lot, as most people do when using computers at work, or driving, or if you have back problems stemming from the neck region down, you may induce hip misalignments which go unnoticed for decades. Then when they rear their head, it can be suddenly confusing.
How can neck or mid back pain cause hip pain? How can I avoid shortening muscles (like illio-psoas) and avoid hip pain? What about bursitis?
All of these issues get into the complexity of what I call the system of pulleys that is the erector system. The fact is that our bodies are not regularly shaped, and in some people not even symmetrical. That creates a problem of front to back, top to bottom, and side to side balance. The muscles, through the peripheral nervous system, try to adjust for this, and your idiosyncrasies of slouching, sitting with a wallet, text-neck, etc. by striking balances with all big and small or intricate muscles. It will not usually succeed, or not permanently! When the imbalance begins to accelerate, such as pinching a nerve on a long plane ride or drive, or sleeping wrong, and never getting it fully healed, then the pain signal your body used to send anyways (but was blocked) now reaches prominence in your reticular formation of the brain. NOW you have a problem.
But actually, of course, you already had the problem for awhile. Probably since you first started gaining weight. Remember your bulging discs? Remember your sprains or strained neck? Remember the knots in your back and neck? Remember your constipation? So the problem isn’t new. What’s new is the prominence of the signal to the brain.
What We Do
What we do in acupuncture is try to reduce the signal while fixing the muscle arrangement (hip alignment). Most of this is a combination of local and distal styles, and not just ortho-neuro style. But every person is a little different. When we relax low back muscles though, the risk is you will get awareness now of your problem, and you wanted no awareness. You want to get away with bad posture and bad work habits!
Well, that isn’t healing, so we have to dig into new ways of moving, stretching, and behaving in general, as well as learn about the anatomy. If you know more you can prevent bad ideas. Twisting + lifting is an example. Good Morning weight lifting or bad deadlift habits, is another. For some people crunches and situps are just the worst idea. Your knee dominance in squatting (or inability to squat) is a common, almost ubiquitous adult problem.
So we have to train you, and re-train you. That all takes time. Hence the Chronic Care Plans which save you money. Also you get to try multiple modalities to change up the care. Rather than the same routines you can opt for other means to attack the problem.
It’s possible we will be ending plans, so get in today and get started to take advantage of the concept. Regardless, you need to be in here regularly, because how else can we help you reset those hips and your low back? It isn’t going to reset itself, and massage and chiropractic have limited value as compared to tuina and acupuncture and cupping, in terms of resetting the complex of muscles. So I hope to see you in here, soon! Book online today.
-Ramon