Table of Contents
- Activities to Avoid or Change
- For Temporary Relief
- Stretches and Exercises for Longer-Lasting Relief
- Yoga Corner
Here, you will find self-care strategies for relief on your own from hip pain through the sacroiliac (SI) joint of your hip when stepping onto one foot. In this case, the hip feels unhinged and fragile. This pattern is often associated with a sharp, stiff pain in the lower back. How people describe this pain and the activities that activate it are discussed more extensively in this other post.
Activities To Avoid or Change:
If possible, discontinue the rough or jerky sports movements like jumping and quick changes in direction. Also, avoid strong side-to-side activities like cycling, skiing, and stair climber machines.
This hip pain flares up by more than stepping on one foot. Additionally, sleeping on one side with the painful leg draped forward at a sharp angle agitates it. People who sleep on their side consistently get relief from sleeping with a pillow between their legs.
Long walks on the beach, in the dunes, or hiking on uneven terrain aggravates this.
Obese clients benefit from weight loss and light exercise. However, some clients have taken on too intense training that shifts from one leg to another, aggravating the condition.
For Temporary Relief:
Pain Patch
Mid-sized IcyHot patches work well in the short term. Put one of these IcyHot patches on the green asterisk. To find the spot, lay your hand flatly on the back of your hip and rub it in a circle until you feel a walnut-sized bump. That’s the PSIS, which is the yellow circle in the illustration. You can put the upper corner of the patch on that spot so that patch covers the green asterisk.
The patch will offer relief if you have pain walking or sleeping or need relief after sports.
Stretch and Mobilize
You can target the trigger point with this stretch by moving the foot on the table toward your hip, as indicated in the picture. Play with the position of the foot to find the best stretch. This stretch works even better with ice-and-stretch or a little IcyHot on the trigger point.
This exercise may produce movements in the low back and sacroiliac joint that click and offer immediate relief.
These self-care activities, like over-the-counter drugs, are not intended to replace appropriate medical attention. If you have concerns about these self-care activities, get help from a professional. Use these suggestions and strategies with discretion and at your own risk. See your doctor when your pain is severe, persistent, or not responding to these simple suggestions.
Stretches and Exercises for Longer-Lasting Relief:
Pressing It Out
The tennis ball treatment for glutes may be effective in releasing this trigger point. Focus on using the ball near the spot in the illustration above. Don’t press directly into the spot at first. Instead, do the spokes in this post, starting at the front corner of the hip. You will soften and release most of the muscle before reaching this spot. You probably won’t get this to release completely, but if you do this well daily, you can see a big difference over days.
Many people want to do this with a foam roller, which isn’t quite as effective.
Overdoing It
If you aggravate it, stretch it under a hot shower. For example, plant your foot and push your aggravated hip into the hot water to stretch it.
Most people overwork these trigger points with the tennis ball. It would be a good idea to ice the glutes and SI joint afterward, even if you didn’t overwork this.
Morton Foot Structure
Some feet have a bone structure that creates more instability than others. This foot rocking can perpetuate foot, leg, and hip pain. A more stable foot and gait can dramatically reduce pain in the lower extremity, especially the hip, and knee.
This condition can remain mild or lead to expensive treatments and even surgery. If you have this structure and some of its symptoms, take a look at this overview.
That post offers practical suggestions to reduce pain and increase stability on the foot. There are simple self-care suggestions, like inexpensive foot pads from Amazon. You can prevent advancing that foot problem, which can perpetuate the trigger points described here.
I’d love your feedback on how this works for you and any suggestions you might have.
Email me at integrativeworks@gmail.com.
Yoga Corner
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This sitting piriformis stretch opens the posterior section of the gluteus medius near the piriformis’s upper border. Like the front leg of the Pigeon pose, and other piriformis also stretches, it opens this section of the gluteal muscles.
In you don’t get relief from these self-care activities, you should really see a bodyworker who specializes in pelvic balancing.
Does another Self-Care post
better match your pain?
Here is the post about the trigger point pattern associated with these Self-Care activities.
Check these posts on hip pain to see if there is one that better fits you.
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Tony Preston has a practice in Atlanta, Georgia, where he sees clients. He has written materials and instructed classes since the mid-90s. This includes anatomy, trigger points, cranial, and neuromuscular.
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*This site is undergoing significant changes. We are reformatting and expanding the posts to make them easier to read. The result will also be more accessible and include more patterns with better self-care. Meanwhile, there may be formatting, content presentation, and readability inconsistencies. Until we get older posts updated, please excuse our mess.