Living with hip pain can be a real challenge. Whether it’s getting up the stairs first thing in the morning, sitting for long hours at work, or trying to enjoy a long walk, hip pain will inevitably get in the way.
Maybe you’ve tried different treatments that have worked for friends or family, but you’re just not getting the results that you want. It can be defeating and frustrating to miss out on the things that really matter to you because of hip pain, and having no solution in sight only makes it worse.
But what if there were a few lesser-known treatments for hip pain that really get results? Luckily, there are, and we’re going to talk about them right now. Keep reading to learn more about the causes of hip pain, why common treatments for hip pain don’t always work, and three treatments you should know about that you can start benefiting from today.
Causes of Hip Pain
Hip pain comes in many different forms, and while it can affect people of all ages and backgrounds, it’s definitely not something that you should have to live with long term. After all, you want to live an active lifestyle and spend more time doing what you love, not wait around and hope for things to improve.
Some of the most common causes of hip pain are related to muscle tension, overuse, and repetitive stress. One major example is hip bursitis, where the padding around your hip becomes inflamed and painful. Another common problem is piriformis syndrome, where a tense piriformis muscle in your hip increases pressure on your sciatic nerve, leading to pain and other issues.
It’s not always easy to determine exactly what the cause of your hip pain is, and oftentimes there are multiple things happening at once that are causing pain. For example, you could be dealing with hip bursitis and sciatica at the same time. This complicates treatment and makes it harder to work on your hip pain independently with confidence.
So, how do you treat it? First, let’s look at some of the most common treatments for hip pain available today.
Common Treatments for Hip Pain That Don’t Always Work
While there are plenty of treatments available for your hip pain such as heat packs, pain ointments, and medication, most of them don’t focus on the root cause of pain. And while treating symptoms might feel good at first, it can slow down or completely stall your recovery.
For example, hip pain caused by piriformis syndrome might feel better when you take painkillers, but those painkillers aren’t really changing anything with your piriformis muscle or sciatic nerve to create a lasting change. So while you might feel better for a few hours, once the medication wears off you’ll be stuck where you were again.
It’s normal to be confused or frustrated by all of the advertising around treatments for hip pain that might not actually help you in the long run, and it’s okay to not have all of the answers. Even if treatments like heat packs and medication don’t address the root cause of your hip pain, they can still play a role in a comprehensive plan with other treatments that ultimately will.
But what are those treatments? Let’s take a look.
3 Treatments for Hip Pain Relief You Should Know About
While short-term solutions that side step around root causes of hip pain tend to be the most popular, most of them combined won’t get the same results as just one of these treatments for hip pain relief.
Let’s start with one that you might be familiar with already.
Exercise
When you’re having hip pain, it might feel best to rest at first. But if your goal is to move without pain again (which it definitely should be), exercise is one of the most important treatments for your recovery.
In most cases, strengthening and stretching exercises are the first line of defense for hip pain. But you’ve probably already tried the basic stretching and strengthening exercises recommended for hip pain and they haven’t worked, which is why you’re here – right?
In many cases, it’s not just strengthening that’s needed, but retraining your brain to activate the right muscles to produce movement in and around your hip. After all, if your body isn’t moving properly in the first place, the right muscles won’t be activated and therefore won’t be strengthened. When we rethink this approach to retraining movement and put the horse in front of the cart – where it belongs – then strengthening exercise becomes effective again.
When you’re struggling with nagging hip pain, movement retraining and strengthening exercise may not always be a realistic goal on your own. This is where the help of an exercise expert comes in. When you work with an expert, you can get the attention and hands-on help that you need to get started on the right foot and actually benefit from your hip exercise.
Massage Therapy
While you might think of massage therapy as an occasional treat for relaxation, it’s actually an exceptional way to accelerate your recovery from hip pain.
When done by a trained expert, massage therapy can help relieve hip pain by improving tissue flexibility, improving circulation, and quieting down pain signals moving from your hip to your brain. This means feeling more confident and getting moving earlier in your recovery, which translates to less time missing out on the things that matter most to you.
Massage therapy can be helpful early in your recovery to reduce pain and make movement more comfortable, but it’s also a great tool throughout your treatment to help with recovery from exercise and other bumps in the road, like flare-ups.
While you’ve probably heard of exercise and massage therapy for tackling hip pain, the next treatment will probably be new to you.
Shockwave Therapy
An innovative treatment for hip pain and other musculoskeletal pain, shockwave therapy is a game-changing tool for helping you feel better faster. So what is it and how does it work?
Shockwave therapy is an FDA-cleared tool that stimulates metabolism, improves circulation, and accelerates your body’s natural healing using specialized waves over a very specific area – all without needles, surgery, or other invasive means.
Research shows that EPAT Shockwave is just as likely or more likely to be successful than traditional treatment methods such as injections or surgery. In fact, 80% of patients living with pain become pain-free or significantly improved with the help of shockwave therapy, which is unheard of for most other treatments available for hip pain today.
If you’re tired of starting new treatments for your hip pain and constantly being pushed into more downtime or side effects, then shockwave therapy is revolutionary for your recovery. And when combined with the right exercise for the root causes of your hip pain, you can finally start seeing actual results that will get you back on your feet again.
Remember, Consistency is Key
It’s always important to keep in mind that even though most treatments can get you results immediately, none of them will provide a one-and-done solution for your hip pain. If you really want lasting results with your pain that will help you finally feel like yourself again, you’re going to need to be consistent.
Once you and your physical therapist have identified which treatments are right for you and your hip pain, the next step is to consistently show up and follow through with them. That means that if the best treatment plan for you is a combination of exercise, massage, and shockwave therapy, you should expect to see results that gradually build over time and ultimately leave you feeling more confident for the future. Remember that recovery is a marathon, not a sprint.
Hip pain can slow you down and make you feel limited, but with the right treatments, consistency, and help from an expert, you can start taking steps toward your goals again.
How DPT is Revolutionizing Hip Pain Treatment
As experts on hip pain and leaders in helping people reach their goals, our team at The Doctors of Physical Therapy is ready to help you succeed. With correction of movement patterns in the brain, rebuilding hip exercise from the ground up, expert massage therapy, and state-of-the-art shockwave therapy available, you can beat your hip pain for good
On top of stellar treatments for hip pain, you’ll get individualized treatments based on your specific needs, movement analysis to find the root causes of your hip pain, and coaching every step of the way to ensure you’re getting back to doing what you love with less pain. Not just for tomorrow, but for life.
Schedule an appointment today.
