Any cause that affects the hip joint movement will lead to pain. Aging is one of the biggest causes of hip pain. The pain can either be due to arthritis which degrades the protective cushioning in the joint or inflammation of the joint lining called bursitis. Any hip injury can also cause pain. All normal activities ranging from walking to climbing can become cumbersome.
You don't have to live with the pain. You can make some lifestyle changes and use home remedies for hip pain. To understand how, let us first understand how the hip joint works.
Don't get surprised if your hip pain has nothing to do with the hip. Sometimes hip pain can be due to pinching of sciatica nerve in your back bone. It is a referral pain in hip. Similarly any other trauma in the back can cause hip pain. Therefore it is important to first identify the underlying cause of the hip pain before beginning to treat it.
Following remedies will help to relieve you from hip pain that is arising from hip joint or surrounding structure.
1. Exercises to Strengthen the Hip and Relieve Pain
Exercise improves muscle strength. You need to do specific exercises that improve strength of the muscles around your hip joint. Most of these exercises are simple and easy to do. You need willingness and time.
- Brisk walk for 45 minutes on a straight surface. You can do it on the ground or on treadmill.
- Walk in shallow pool. If you have easy access to a shallow pool then walk for 30-45 minutes.
- Swim for 30 minutes or more
- Do yoga
If you can do any one of the above, then you will be able to strengthen your muscles around hip joint soon and your hip pain will disappear or significantly reduce.
Avoid doing any heavy exercises such as heavy weight lifting, running or squatting or where you leg has to do extra stretching. Your objective is to slowly but steadily improve your muscle strength around the hip joint to relieve pain. Any strenuous exercise will do more harm then benefits are some muscle or ligament tearing will further complicate the pain. So just do what is required. Do not overdo.
2. Stretching for Hip Pain Management
There are a number of stretching exercises you can learn to do. The simplest one involves. Standing straight by keeping a chair in front of you.
- Hold the top of the backrest of the chair with both your hands and stand on your toes. This will stretch all the muscles on the back of your leg up to the hip.
- Hold it there for a minute and get back on your soles.
- Again stand on your toes for 15-20 seconds
- Repeat the cycle for 5 minutes.
You can be creative in stretching exercises. Develop your own stretching exercises which do not put too much strain on your leg muscles.
3. RICE for Hip and Knee Joint Pain Relief
RICE ( Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation) is a scientifically designed program for recovery from knee and hip muscle, ligament or other tears. This program can help you to relieve your hip pain too. Follow it on a daily basis until recovered.
- Rest - Take Rest for 2-3 days if you have joint pain. This will help to reduce swelling if any. Stop all activities that can increase pain.
- Ice - Apply ice on the swelling. Ice reduces swelling. Do it 2-3 times a day
- Compression - Wear a thick bandage around pelvic and hip region. This will reduce swelling.
- Elevation - Elevate your feet by keeping a couple of pillows underneath your leg. If possible incline the whole bed for your legs to remain at a higher level than you head. This will help reduce swelling.
As you can see that the focus here is to reduce swelling. Once the swelling subsides, you can do other things such as exercise and stretching to reduce hip pain.
You would have realized by now that your muscles have to be active and strong to get relief from hip pain. It is good for any other body pain. So keep active and strengthen your muscles. You will leave a pain free life in your old age too.