Did you know your hip pain isn’t always just a hip problem?

 

Your hip and pelvis are complex and what’s happening on the inside of your pelvis can have a whole lot more of an impact on your pain than what’s happening on the outside.

 

When we look at hip pain we often start by thinking about the boney structure of your pelvis, your lower back and your femur (thigh bone), as well as all the muscles that attach externally to your pelvis. Some commonly known examples of these muscles are your glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors and adductors.

 

BUT these aren’t the only things that attach to your pelvis.

 

You have both a superficial and a deep layer of pelvic floor muscles that sit inside of your pelvic cavity and run from your pubic bone to your tailbone to form a sling. This sling of muscles and fascia helps support your pelvic organs and assists in maintaining continence.

 

In some cases the muscles of your pelvic floor can be weak, but in other cases they can be ‘tight’ or overactive.

 

Why do pelvic floor muscles get tight? That’s the mystery we slowly unravel. There are many potential causes in your body, ranging from your past history, the exercise you do, how you hold yourself and what’s happening at your uterus.

 

A ‘tight’ or ‘grippy’ pelvic floor that struggles to relax and let go can impact your back, pelvis and hip directly through their attachments onto the pelvis, but they can also cause pain via their direct connection to the muscles of your deep pelvic floor. The obturator internus is a muscle that wraps from the side to the front of the pelvis and is often a culprit in hip pain because of how it directly attaches to the pelvic floor. That’s why at The Physiotherapy Clinic we often treat your hip pain from the inside out!

 

But what does this look like? An internal exam gives us lots of information about what is happening inside of your pelvis. We will assess your resting tone, your pelvic floor function and often most importantly in cases of hip pain, your ability to let go. We can even treat your pelvic floor muscles internally to help relieve hip pain and restriction. We do this just like we would treat your hip externally…except we are inside the pelvis!

 

Our women's health physios in the shire (Woolooware), Bondi Junction and Cammeray are passionate about always keeping this inside out approach front of mind, because in so many cases we have seen external treatment alone fail and we want to get your body as good as it can be.