Understanding Chronic Anterior Hip Pain: The Role of Deep Hip Flexor/Adductor Weakness
Chronic anterior hip pain can be a debilitating condition, limiting your mobility and enjoyment of everyday activities. I mean, think of all the fun things you do with your hips on a daily or weekly basis. Your hips are the key to a lot of really awesome activities, if you know what I mean⦠Do I have to spell this out anymore? Don't make me. It's getting weird now.
Despite having strong hips in traditional ranges, some individuals continue to experience pain. This could be due to weakness in deep hip flexor/adductor muscles that manifest in non-traditional tests.
The Role of Deep Hip Muscles
Hip flexion and abduction involve more than just the commonly targeted muscles like iliopsoas, rectus femoris, gluteus medius, and gluteus maximus. Several deep hip muscles also play a crucial role in these movements. Therefore, targeting a single muscle group is often ineffective in addressing hip pain.
Strengthening End-Range Muscles
End-range hip abduction and end-range hip flexion exercises can bias strengthening of the muscles that are mechanically efficient and most activated in those positions. For instance, the hip flexion exercise above 90 degrees (think sitting down and pulling up from that position) promotes greater firing of the iliopsoas and less of the rectus femoris.
Improving Anterior Hip Pain
By incorporating end-range hip exercises into your routine, you can target a whole new set of muscles that may not be adequately addressed through traditional hip strengthening exercises. This is because our muscles in those positions are hardly worked. Most of the day is spent seated or standing in a locomotion pattern. Stimulating muscles in different positions that they're not used to aids and improved strength and proprioception in that joint. This can lead to significant improvements in anterior hip pain.
Remember
If you're struggling with chronic anterior hip pain, don't hesitate to seek guidance from Dr. Rob. At PhysioLogix, we can assess your condition, identify underlying causes, and develop a personalized treatment plan that includes these end-range hip exercises and other effective strategies to alleviate pain and restore optimal hip function.