Many people of the same age and activity level who do not have hip pain show arthritis on a hip X-ray. At Performance Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine, we do not recommend relying on an X-ray alone to decide what comes next. A careful physical therapy examination helps identify movement, strength, and flexibility factors that may be contributing to your pain.
Hip pain can lead to limping, which can make nearby muscles and joints work abnormally and add more force to the hip. Our goal is to help you get back to normal naturally with an individualized plan.
Your hip muscles act like shock absorbers. When they are weak, more force can be placed on the joint. Tightness in the hip joint capsule and surrounding muscles can also limit movement, concentrate force on a small area of the joint, and contribute to inflammation and pain.
Exercise restores hip strength while also improving the strength of the leg and core muscles that help control hip joint forces.
Targeted stretching addresses tight hip, leg, and trunk muscles to help reduce the extra force placed on your painful hip.
Manual physical therapy can be used to stretch a tight hip joint capsule—an area that self-stretches may not fully address.
People with hip arthritis can improve without a hip replacement by strengthening the hip and restoring flexibility. If pain continues to limit you, hip replacement remains an effective option. The time spent in therapy is still valuable: the practice notes that people who improve hip strength and flexibility before a replacement recover faster.
Our therapists provide care for Eastern Connecticut at offices in Colchester and Hebron. We are specialty trained in orthopedics, sports medicine, manual therapy, and more.