Pinpoint Your Symptoms

There are several potential reasons why someone might develop hip pain. To treat your pain effectively, we need to pinpoint what that cause could be.

When you visit us for your initial appointment, one of the first things we’ll do is ask you to share your symptoms. “Hip pain” often causes a lot more than just pain, and being able to describe your pain, mobility limitations, and other concerns helps us get a clearer picture of your condition.

For example, you know that your hip hurts. But when do you experience pain (i.e., during activity)? Does your pain come and go? Where do you experience pain? Is it just in your hip, or do you feel it elsewhere? Is the pain a dull ache? Sharp and shooting?

Make sure to share additional symptoms you might be experiencing, too. Here are some common ones:

• Stiffness/limited range of motion in your hip
• Weakness throughout the lower extremities
• Mobility issues, including walking, going up or down stairs, or struggling to stand up 
• Difficulty performing everyday tasks, such as putting on your shoes — and let us know which ones

Identify a Cause and Develop a Treatment Plan

Thanks to your detailed symptom description — as well as a health history and comprehensive physical exam — your therapist should be able to determine the underlying cause of your hip pain. 

If you’re 55 or older, there’s a good chance your hip pain stems from osteoarthritis. This degenerative condition causes cartilage and bone tissue to break down, leading to pain and restricted mobility. 

However, hip pain can also stem from an injury. If you’re an athlete or particularly active person, you may have suffered an acute injury, such as a labral tear, in which a ring of cartilage in the hip socket becomes damaged. You may have also sprained your hip — that is, damaged the ligaments that hold the joint together.

However, even if you haven’t had an obvious injury, an injury could still be to blame. Overuse injuries are injuries that develop gradually and, in the hip, generally affect the soft tissue — your muscles, tendons, and ligaments. They usually occur due to repetitive movements or improper biomechanics.

Your treatment plan will vary based on the underlying cause of your pain, but in most cases, we aim to…

• Help manage acute pain with manual therapy, modalities, or gentle stretches.
• Improve mobility and range of motion through targeted stretches and exercises.
• Build strength in the muscles surrounding the hip to support the joint.
• Restore your ability to perform everyday movements, such as going upstairs — and for the athletes, we’ll help restore your ability to perform sport-specific movements.

8 Nutrition Tips for A Healthy Summer

Summer weekends at the beach, backyard barbecues, and outdoor dinners are finally here, but these gatherings are often loaded with high-calorie pasta salads, chips, ice cream, cocktails and beers. Enjoy your warm weather favorites while keeping your nutrition in check with the tips below. 

1. Drink green tea instead of sweet tea. Green tea has a natural component that helps speed up your metabolism. Skip the box tea and opt for the brew-it-yourself with boiling water and a tea-bag-type tea. 

2. Serve seafood. Summer is the ideal time to get the freshest catch from your local grocer. Grill salmon, tuna, lobster, steamer clams, and calamari for a low-calorie, protein-packed lunch or dinner. 

3. Don’t skip breakfast. When you wake up in the morning, your body is running on fumes. Eating a breakfast with protein, carbs, and healthy fat kicks your metabolism into high gear and provides energy for the day. 

4. Enjoy summer fruits and veggies. It’s easy to sink into a vegetable rut, eating the same boring veggies week after week, but with summer comes fresh choices. Including a mix of in-season colorful veggies in your meals gives your body a nutrient kick. 

5. Snack at work. Bring snacks to work and graze throughout the day. When you eat more often—five to six times per day—you’re far less likely to overeat and more likely to stay energized. 

6. Hydrate often. The summer heat makes you more susceptible to dehydration. Start off your day by drinking two glasses of water and keep drinking at each meal, as well as before and after your workout, to stay hydrated. Carry a water bottle with you as a reminder to stay hydrated. 

7. Recover with a post-workout shake. After exercising, blend your favorite summer fruits and a scoop of whey protein into a shake to kickstart the muscle-building process, help your body recover from training, and boost your energy levels. 

8. Pre-plan your meals. You plan your weekend getaways and activities for summer. Why not your meals? Make it easy by preparing all of your food on Sunday so that you have enough meals for the week. The best part: You’ll save money.