Why Resting Isn’t Enough: How Proper Exercise Heals Hip Injuries - Fighting Fit Physiotherapy Nerang Gold Coast

Why Just Resting Doesn’t Improve Your Hip Pain

Hip injuries are debilitating, leading to pain, reduced mobility, and lots of functional limitations in life.

While rest is essential in the early stages of recovery from acute injury, loading the hip joint through appropriate exercises and activities plays a crucial role in promoting healing, restoring function, and preventing long-term complications.

In this blog, let’s explore the importance of “appropriate loading” of the hip joint after injury, the benefits it offers, and key strategies for safe and effective loading during the rehabilitation process.

Not just going cowboy and crazy, but developing exercises that are appropriate for progression over time!

A recent patient of mine had been suffering from chronic hip pain for over 6 months following a partial gluteus medius tear to her right hip.

She was advised to rest and avoid loading her lower body for 8 weeks during the initial stages of her injury.

Her pain was not improving after this period of time and was advised to continue to rest, avoiding loading her lower body for another 10 weeks.

WTF?

Her hip pain continued to worsen, her symptoms increased and she was losing more function each day, week and month that passed!

Don’t get me wrong, some rest is an important part of tissue healing after an acute injury. But healing time frames with any injury are short, not that bloody long!

If you think about how much you use your hips in daily life they’re used for nearly everything we do.

Whether you’re sitting, moving to standing, walking your dog, running a marathon, vacuuming the house or a fighter in the ring, your hips are constantly loaded and constantly working to support the body to move and perform each task to the best of our ability.

So what happens if we just wait, rest and are slow or never start to load the hip again after we have an injury?

Well, the things we once loved and need to do in our daily lives become way harder to perform and more painful for the long term. This unfortunately becomes our new norm.

After you have a hip injury, your body wants to try and protect that area as much as possible after trauma. Although this can be important for tissue healing, it does however mean we lose strength, power and endurance due to changes in the injured and surrounding tissues.

It’s vital to have a structured rehabilitation program that starts immediately after injury and focuses on progressive loading through exercise of the hip and surrounding areas post injury. Think, legs, back, trunk, even further up and down!

Does this mean you just do banded exercises to gain my hip strength back after injury?

Answer is HELL NO!

The hip joint is designed to be strong.

The amount of loading that’s applied to the hip in day-to-day life will be much greater than the total resistance from any resistance band. They only give 3-5 kg of additional resistance. You need way, way more than that!

Although bands can definitely be useful especially during your early stages of rehab to start to build strength back in the surrounding muscle, much like anything in life it needs progression.

At Fighting Fit Physiotherapy, It’s important we run through extensive progression of exercise that includes functional movements, range of motion, endurance and strength.

To do this we need to extensively and regularly test/re-test based on your hip during each stage of healing and rehab to determine progression of your exercise programs post injury.

We then use this information to determine how much we can and need to load you and your hip in the gym to improve your pain and strength long term.

Our main focus is to progressively improve pain, function and get you stronger than any resistance band on that hip could provide so you truly handle anything that comes your way in the future.

Appropriately loading the hip joint after any hip injury is a fundamental aspect of rehabilitation as it promotes tissue healing and repair, muscle strength, bone health, and joint function.

By incorporating safe and effective exercise strategies into your rehabilitation program, you will heal up quicker, can accelerate rehab, restore mobility, and enhance overall quality of life following a hip injury.

Remember that loading the hips with exercise should be gradual, progressive, and tailored to your individual needs over time (as it will change) to optimize outcomes and promote a successful recovery journey.

If you suffer from hip pain or are recovering from a hip injury and unsure where to start or how to improve pain and function, come and see me and book in for a consultation at Fighting Fit Physiotherapy today.

Brenda Samosa

05:52 07 Nov 24

I had a really bad shoulder and had been seeing a different physio for 3 months (from a different place) I got told Tyson was good. After just a few sessions the movement was coming back. I’m 66 and was worried I would have to stop surfing. But with a lot of help from Tyson I’m back in the waves ( thank you so so much)

Cyana Ferguson

08:16 30 Oct 24

Steve Harris

22:33 15 Oct 24

Great team, all friendly, super helpful and first class clinical advice and a big shout out to my Physio Noah with my shoulder issue

Andrea Bell

05:33 19 Sep 24

These guys are the best in the biz 🎉

Ryan Brockett

04:20 18 Sep 24

Shout out to Max from fighting fit physio. He helped me out massively straight after shoulder surgery and back into work and sports in no time. Couldn’t recommend anyone better!

Scotty

08:31 31 Jul 24

Five star service from Max & the team!
Professional & very thorough, you know that patient outcomes are of the highest priority.
I highly recommend this business.

Riley Wilson

08:27 14 Jul 24

Be AWARE they’ll immediately try to commit you to multiple follow up sessions after your initial consultation. This happened to me and then I later found out that as it just so happens, they have a cancellation policy that says you have to pay 100% of the consultation fee for cancelling. They failed to tell me this when they were pushy in committing me to 6 sessions after my consult, so that was a really nice little surprise.

I was already uncomfortable with how pushy they were in having me commit to so many sessions, so when I heard about the policy I just cancelled all together. So, I can’t speak further to the quality of their service throughout therapy phase. FYI this was also a few months ago now, it’s possible (though unlikely) they may have changed the policy. Just ask the question.

Megan Shelley

06:51 03 May 24

Fighting Fit Physiotherapy is hands down the best physio I've encountered. Having tried multiple physios for various injuries, I always find myself coming back to them. Their expertise consistently exceeds expectations, helping me get back to my sport faster than I thought possible. Their personalized approach and attention to detail make all the difference. I could not recommend a better or more exceptional physio team!

Gina Matthews

08:41 24 Mar 23

Can't recommend this place high enough. I was in so much pain with my knee an had been for months through advise an exercises I'm now looking forward to returning to gym an back riding my horses in endurance thank you so much

Courtney Halse

01:36 29 Nov 22

Kyle was knowledgeable, personable and professional. He saw me through my second pregnancy and continued to work with me until 6 months post partum on issues with my back. Would recommend anyone to go and see him.

Also shout out to Georgia on the front desk. She makes you feel welcome and brings a sense of warmth to the place!

Alli Davenport

08:07 04 Nov 22

After hip replacement surgery in February I wanted toget back into weight training legs, I started with Mitch 18 weeks ago and after a lot of hard work and sweat I am able to safely train again, I cannot thank Mitch enough for his support,encouragement and knowledge. The staff are friendly and helpful and I always looked forward to my session's

Robert Parkinson

10:50 15 Aug 22

This is the second time I have been treated by the team at FFP.
As a health professional myself I have been impressed with the level of care I have received from all members of the team.
The personalised treatment and rehabilitation programs have produced excellent results and I have completed both programs pain free and feeling stronger than before my injuries.
During the program there was constant communication and follow up and they were very accommodating with my work schedule.
All in all it was a very holistic experience and I would highly recommend the service.

Kiri Canavan

07:30 08 Jun 22

Tyson was amazing! We came up with an 8 week plan at my first consultation with weekly check ins and updates to exercises. 8 weeks later, I am pain free and able to train harder than ever. Highly recommend and the staff are all fantastic and super accomodating!

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