Hip Pain in Split

[matasorapit]

Hapy New Years to you all.

I have a question.

Many of you may have experianced or heard others speak of hip pain while attempting or performing side splits. I am one of those people and this pain is slowing if not stopping progress.

The pain is not on the hip flexor (front side) or the hip abductor (outside) but rather in between the two, on the angle. Now, others have claimed that the cause is from having the wrong pelvic position but this is not the truth. If that were the case then the stretch could not be increased. I get the pain from the moment of stretch about 2 feet above the ground from a standing position. Yet, I can endure the pain for a while and sink to just below 1 foot from the ground, some times even further. The problem is I rearly feel the stretch in my adductors and instead feel a stale, contracted pain in my outer hip region. When I do sink low enough to feel the stretch in my adductors, I am overwhelmed with excitement but this is rare.

The pain is there regardless what position I try and perform a straddle, from lying on my back with my legs up, to standing and straddle to seated with my legs spread. It is also felt (although not painful) during the lotus and butterfly type stretches.

Now for the record, 6 years ago I stopped training hard and over time my flexibility lowered, however not very much. Now this pain is there and it is causing concern because I am just as stubborn as the problem. I spent most of my teens and early to mid twentys being able to split with ease, flat but now I have the problems of a beginner.

If anyone, and I mean anyone has a solution or an idea to help please post your suggestions because I am keen to try anything.

Kind regards


Matasorapit

[kungfu]

Hi Metasorapit,

I am wondering if you ever checked the health of the hip joint capsule. This may be an expensive MRI venture, but it may be worth it.
I have a few exercises circulating in my mind, that may help you.
I have no medical training, but I have been injured plenty of times, so I did allot of reseach.
Try the Squat, Dead lift, long step lunge, the leg circles (it's in one of the news letters, that E.S. send out.)
All of those should strengthen your hip.
Try high reps, low resistance for a while.
Hope this will help.

Peace

[KLMBest]

What does the pain feel like?
Muscle, tendon, ligament, cartilage?

[matasorapit]

Hi guys,

Kungfu, I just tryed doing some exercises last night and felt the exact same pain while doing a wide stance squat. I am in the middle of researching what causes that too as being a more common exercise, there may be more written about it. Thanks for your advice, I will start adding some more exercises.

KLMBest, the pain actually feels like a muscle. At first I thought it couldnt be a muscle due to its placement but there is a contraction "mainly within the hips" and around the IT Band near the top.

[kungfu]

Sure
what about heat pad on the painful spot?

[matasorapit]

I have just completed a workout in a format similar to most rehabilitation programmes. I did a series of the leg circles from ES and changed the positioning of the hips through different sets. One flat, one side and one on the 45 between.

I also did a type of wall squat with a wide stance and a fitness (swiss) ball behind my back. When in this position the pain is just as strong as a straddle. So I figured that if I can add some sort of resistance to that area it may help. Trial and error

I also found a strong stretch is my problem area of the hips and tight quads in a stretch that I am not sure is good. I will explain. I did the hurdlers stretch although I did not lean foward to my hamstring but rather leant back on an angle. This really hit the sweet spot of the upper and outter thigh area. I am not sure how dangerous this is but it worked reasonably well.

The heat pad thing I do often but this problem is about 6 months old, maybe longer. I am under the impression that it is a weak muscle that is contracting during the straddle.

[Moderator]

Matasorapit,
The following may be of help.
-Get chiro adjustments and trigger point bodywork.
or
-Get a ball, tennis ball will do. Lie down so that the troubled spot is facing the floor. Place the ball between the floor and troubled spot. Allow your body to press down on the ball. Move your hip over the ball very slowly and pause every time you find another painfull spot.

Try this a few times and let us know how it worked out.

Moderator

[matasorapit]

I am afraid to go to a Chiropactor due to all of the horrific stories I have been told with them making matters worse. However, I have a friend who is a really good physiotherapist and I need to wish him a happy New Year anyway. I will see if he can do what you suggest with the trigger point massage, he is also an acupuncture therapist so hopefully he can help.
In regards to that ball massage, I have a few golf balls lying around in the garden shed so I am going to go and give that a go later tonight. It sounds painful, I like it!

I cannot thank all of you guys so much for all the assistance and help. You are all truely a blessing.


.................................................. .................................................. ........
An hour or so later.
.................................................. .................................................. ........
Moderator, my friend.
If you were here right now, I would hug you.
I didnt get a ball because finding something seems like impossible at the moment. However, I searched around for an object I could use to massage the area. I found the end of an old pair of battery operated hair clippers LOL. Then I raided my wife's cupboard but the best thing I found was moisturiser to compensate for massage oil.

Then I gave the area a good soild deep massage for a while on both sides. I just finished and tryed to straddle to find out if it worked. It worked even on the first application. There was no stiffness at all and all free movement.

I will follow up tommorrow and let you all know.

Again, Thanks

[Moderator]

You are very welcome. It's good to hear that you are better.
Please let us know if we can be of any more help.

Moderator

[KLMBest]

Glad that you discovered something that is helping you.

[Allstretch]

It can be that your pain was comming from pieces of lactic acid sitting in the muscles.
Welcome to the forum by the way!

[matasorapit]

Thanks again guys.

Today I resumed my stretching and gave myself a massage first using the tennis ball approach. It worked really well and I felt lose. The pain slowly came back over the duration but nothing in comparison to what it was like. Still it was only the second massage done on the area and my confidence has gone up really high.

[kungfu]

Hey Mata,
take a look at the oil massage. It helped allot of people here, it may be good for you.

[tanker09]

Hello everyone,
I have the exact same pain that Matasorapit has descibed. I have been searching everywhere and asking people if they have this pain on the side of their hip. It's even painful to hop on a bike. I have been trying to find what the cause of my pain was when I googled this forum. I am going to try out those exercise everyone has prescibed. Matasopapit, you say that the exercises help but I was wondering if you have found out the underlying mechanism for the pain was. I thought maybe it was trochanter bursitis or bone spurs. This is the weirdest injury I've ever had.