Hip tightness and pain

[Eddrick Brooks]

Can anyone suggest anything that will help with my hips? They are really tight. When I walk fast I can feel the tightness and pain in the hip flexors. I was told before that there is arthritis there. My ankles are really tight as well. My dream is to be able to squat hamstring to calf one day, then overhead squat, and finally do a one legged squat. I am starting to get discouraged about it. Does anybody have any suggestions.

[Steve York]

Age?
Training years?
Injuries?
Postrural alignment?

A good stretching program is the obvious starting point.

[Aileen Reid]

Yes, I think serious stretching is in order. 30 mins a day at least.

I ran my first 10 in a while this morning and then walked around in a shopping centre for 2 hours and talk about pain! ITB at the left hip. That could be some of yours as well as the hip flexors. For me its still a symptom that my pelvis hasn't settled down enough to stay in alignment. Another thing for you to check out - particularly if your symptoms are all one side or more ones side than the other.

[Eddrick Brooks]

I am 31 y/o. 245 lbs. I played football at Baylor university and have been training since the 8th grade. It wasn,t alway proper training. I have some big time imbalances, Shouldes are most noticeable. Bench press fever until I got ollder and wiser, now I just need fixing.

[Steve York]

Just with that limited info, I'm gonna guess that you have an anterior pelvic tilt and thus shortened hip flexors. So a bit of reprogramming to assist with the shortened or tight muscles, postural retraining and a balance between your agonist and atagonist muscle groups. Chest up, shoulders back!

[Bryan Veis]

Originally Posted by Eddrick Brooks

Can anyone suggest anything that will help with my hips? They are really tight. When I walk fast I can feel the tightness and pain in the hip flexors. I was told before that there is arthritis there. My ankles are really tight as well. My dream is to be able to squat hamstring to calf one day, then overhead squat, and finally do a one legged squat. I am starting to get discouraged about it. Does anybody have any suggestions.

Eddrick,

Who told you that you have arthritis in your hips? Did that person specify whether it is osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis? Have you had your hips X-rayed? That might be the place to start. Arthritis should show up on an X-ray as areas of "sclerosis" (hardening) -- it will be much whiter than the surrounding bone. If you have cartilage damage, you also may be able to see narrowing in the hip joint. If the person who told you it was arthritis didn't do an X-ray,I suggest that you try to eliminate arthritis as a diagnosis before looking further. If it is arthritis, then you should see a rheumatologist for treatment (which would vary considerably depending on what kind is).

There's no reason not to stretch in the meantime, but you can't expect much help beyond simple suggestions from a forum like this when we can't be sure what your problem actually is.