The hips are a part of the body that are essential for movement, making them a pretty crucial aspect of running. When you have hip pain from running, that makes it pretty difficult to allow that part of the body to recover from any soreness or injury that might have occurred. You are always using your hips, even during normal everyday routine motion. Here are some important tips to help you avoid hip pain, courtesy of Dr. David Miller.
Cautious Attention
At any point when you feel pain or slight discomfort, you must be cautious about your movements and tend to the issue quickly by helping it heal. Unfortunately, due to the very nature of their purpose in the typical motion of the body, hips are some of the slowest parts of the body to heal from an injury. So, pay careful attention to the level of pain that you are experiencing and never overdo it, that includes forcing yourself to continue running through the discomfort.
In the event that you injured your hip in some manner where you are feeling a low level of annoying discomfort, you have options available to help the hip recover properly while avoiding further injury from taking place. Most runners don’t want to hear this advice, but the first thing you should do is stop running for about a week to two weeks.
If this is something you can’t or won’t do, then you should at the very least reduce the distance and mileage you are running. Stretching is also vital during this time, not just in the hips but throughout the upper portion of the leg.
Focus on The Muscles
Among the most common reasons behind hip injuries is a tightness of the muscles around the area. When your muscles are not in balance they can start to pull and tug in ways that can lead to injury, both major and minor. In order to prevent any such injury, you must release the tension that can occur. Doing this requires stretching and loosening of the muscles in this region of the anatomy.
Focus on the hamstrings, the quads, the flexors, and the glutes. The IT band is also extremely important as this is the muscle located along the hip down to the outer portion of the knee. It’s one of the more common areas to feel discomfort while running and it stems from tension that can develop and become very painful.
There are many ways you can stretch out the muscles in the hip, chief among them being a foam roller. This is a very useful method for massaging the area and while it will help you alleviate the tension in the hip muscles, it can also be quite intense. You may want to ice down the area after you have used the foam roller. The ice will reduce swelling and help you recover. But when you’re finished, your pain should subside considerably.
If the pain continues unabated after about a week and nothing has helped, you should see a doctor and get a full diagnosis and treatment plan to deal with the matter.
