Healthy Hips for Athletes

The hips are a power house of the body. Hip strength, development, and mobility are crucial to success in any athlete venture. I treat too many athletes with hip injuries that require them to miss practice time from their sport or even stop working out!

The majority of hip injuries I see happen either early in the season when a player’s body is adapting to the stresses of the sport, or late in the season when fatigue and overuse becomes a significant factor. A young player who has recently gone through a growth spurt and is getting used to their new body, is easily susceptible to these injuries. Gaining balance in mobility and stability from the feet to the shoulders is important to keep your hips healthy.

Types of hip injuries range from strains of the hip muscles to surgical cases. An athlete could miss up to 6 weeks for a simple strain (an over stretching of a muscle tendon or a tear depending on the severity) or in the worst-case scenario, may require surgery and be out for 6-9 months. For those with minor hip injuries, the quickest way to get back on the field is through Physical Therapy for hip pain.

Here is a Physical Therapist assessing the hip of a CrossFitter

The Hip Joint is a Ball and Socket Joint, which pretty much means it has a ton of movements! This mobility is from the sphere shape of the Femur allowing the joint to move in all planes of motion. Joint issues themselves can arise through developing stiff or tight joints or joint capsules. Traditionally these require manual intervention to help increase the mobility. Since this joint is extremely mobile the muscles/tendons have a major factor on the overall mobility of the joint. It is crucial to keep your muscles healthy, mobile, and flexible to ensure overall Hip Health. There is a ton of education about the hip that we can go into (not the highlight of this article, but if interested check out our seminar https://www.ironhealth.co/hip-seminar)

The purpose of this article is to take away something useful and do it today by keeping your hips moving healthy from the video above!

Educating yourself gives you more power. The larger amount of educating you give yourself in keeping your hips moving and healthy the more power you will have in life. Do not wait until there is pain, start today to enhance tomorrow. If you are currently suffering from pain understand it is not too late, but you must act now to help yourself progress in life further. Do not delay anymore, educate yourself here:

Disclaimer: If you continue to experience unbearable, recurring pain, be sure to schedule an appointment with your Physician or join our Physical Therapy Family and allow us to help you regain function.

Iron Health is located in Briarcliff Manor, Ardsley and the greater Westchester NY area; our neighboring towns include Chappaqua, Mount Kisco, Tarrytown, Irvington, and Pleasantville.

If you are ready to keep learning and take your Hip Health to the next level https://www.ironhealth.co/hip-seminar Click here to start learning.

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