Your hip withstands a lot of wear and tear and repeated motions. You use it to move, maintain your balance, support your weight, etc. As the largest ball-and-socket joint in our bodies, it is designed for fluid movement. When you’re in motion, the cartilage prevents friction and allows smooth, pain-free movement.
So when you experience hip pain, you may experience discomfort around the hip joint, groin, thigh, lower back, knee, etc.
A lot of the time, patients may confuse pain on the outer side of the hip with hip bursitis—an inflammation between your thighbone and surrounding tendons. However, several other conditions could be leading to your hip pain.
Hip pain may not be constant; it can come and go. For instance, you may feel discomfort while walking or running, but it may improve with a few rest days. You may also experience hip pain at different times of the day, like in the mornings right after waking or at night, especially if you prefer sleeping on a particular side.
Hip Pain? MYo Lab can help – schedule your visit today.
Meet our team of skilled professionals who wake up every day with a commitment to make a difference in your journey to wellness. Our Chiropractors, massage therapists, and physiotherapists work together to provide comprehensive care, ensuring that all aspects of your health and well-being are addressed.
“Amazing team of professionals with a large focus on patient education. Dr. Schwindt has really helped relieve discomfort in both my hip flexors and glutes!”
Brieanna D.
“I had my chiropractic treatments from Dr. Evan Schwindt and as I have had long time chronic pain on my shoulder and hip joints, it was due to my incorrect posture. After treatments, I could recognize my problem and realize how I could improve my mobility and strength. Thanks Dr. Evan, strongly recommend him!”
Jinhong K.
“Dr. Evan Schwindt and his team at MYo Lab were fantastic! Dr. Evan treated my nagging low back pain and hip pain when I was in Calgary to visit friends and family. He was able to treat me right away and gave me exercises to do at home to avoid any future injuries. His office is tremendous, spacious and the equipment are state of the art. Great doctor!”
Alvin B.
“I’ve had a pain in my hip/ leg for far too long. After my first appointment I felt so much better. Amazing what a couple sessions can do for you. Zack is a great massage therapist, very thorough and efficient. ”
Brittany S.
Experience the difference – schedule your visit today.
Hip pain could be a symptom of certain conditions, including but not limited to:
Osteoarthritis (the most common type of arthritis caused by wear and tear on the joint)
Rheumatoid arthritis (an autoimmune condition causing inflammation in the joints)
Ankylosing spondylitis
Injuries like fractures, dislocations, sports injuries, sprains and strains
Bursitis (inflammation of the bursae, small fluid-filled sacs that cushion the hip joint)
Tendinitis (inflammation of the tendons around the hip, often due to overuse)
Labral tears (tears in the cartilage that follows the outside rim of the hip joint socket)
Abnormal contact between hip bones causing joint damage
Sciatica
Tight muscles in the buttocks and hip
Spine problems
Hip dysplasia (a congenital condition where the hip socket does not fully cover the ball of the thigh bone, causing dislocation and pain.
Snapping hip syndrome (a snapping sensation or sound in the hip due to tendons rubbing over the bone)
Sign and Symptoms
Some symptoms of hip pain include:
Pain in the hip joint that may radiate to the groin, buttock, or thigh
Stiffness or reduced range of motion in the hip
Limping or difficulty walking
Swelling or tenderness around the hip
Clicking, popping, or snapping sensation in the hip.
How Chiropractors Treat Hip Pain
Your hip is no ordinary joint; it’s a powerhouse responsible for helping you perform a ton of work daily. After we assess your hip, our Chiropractors may treat hip pain using a variety of techniques to achieve three things: Improve joint function, reduce pain, and enhance overall mobility.
Here’s a breakdown of the methods used by our Chiropractors to treat hip pain:
Chiropractic Adjustments
Spinal Adjustments: By adjusting the spine, we help improve the overall alignment. This helps alleviate pressure on the nerves that might be contributing to your hip pain. It’s not just about the hip; a well-aligned spine can positively impact your entire musculoskeletal system.
Hip Joint Adjustments: Sometimes, the hip joint itself needs a little help. Our Chiropractors use gentle, precise adjustments to restore proper alignment and movement in the hip joint, which can significantly reduce pain and improve function.
Massage Therapy
Who doesn’t love a good Massage? Chiropractors use Massage techniques to relax and stretch tight muscles, improve blood flow, and reduce muscle tension. This can be incredibly soothing and effective in alleviating hip pain.
Exercise and Rehabilitation
Strengthening the muscles around your hip joint is crucial for stability. With the help of our Physiotherapy team, we may design a set of exercises tailored to your needs to help build muscle strength and support the joint.
Here at MYo Lab, we believe that motion is lotion! Flexibility is just as important as strength. Specific stretches can help increase your range of motion and reduce muscle tightness, which can alleviate hip pain.
Postural Assessment
This is often overlooked, but good posture can make a world of difference! We may assess your posture to identify imbalances or misalignments that might be contributing to your hip pain. Our team then offers advice and adjustments to improve your posture.
Modalities and Other Techniques
Gait Analysis: How you walk can also affect your hips. We may analyze your walking patterns to identify abnormalities and provide solutions to improve your gait, thereby reducing hip pain.
Shockwave Therapy: Applying electrical impulses to muscles and nerves can help reduce pain and improve muscle function. This is particularly useful for managing chronic pain conditions.
Low level light therapy: This is also an effective modality that can help with swelling and inflammation if they occur.
Custom Orthotics
Sometimes, hip pain starts from the ground up. Custom-made orthotics can correct foot alignment and improve overall body mechanics, thereby reducing stress on your hips.
Our Chiropractors offer a comprehensive approach to treating hip pain, addressing not just the symptoms but also the underlying causes. Our goal is to help you achieve mobility, long-term relief, and get back on your feet—literally and figuratively!
Our Calgary Location
MYo Lab Health & Wellness is located at 227 10 St NW, Suite 300, Calgary, Alberta. It’s a short 5-minute walk from the Sunnyside C-Train station.
Parking: We offer 5 complimentary parking spots out back (spots 209, 213, 214, 215, 216). There are also several 2-hour paid parking spots on the streets around us. Additionally, there are two parking lots across the street from our building, one outdoor parking lot and one underground parking lot.
If you need further direction, feel free to call (403) 930-8686 for assistance.
Why does a Chiropractor treat my back for my hip pain?
Chiropractors often treat hip pain by addressing issues in the surrounding structures, including the spine. The spine and hips are closely interconnected, and dysfunction in one area can affect the other. For example, areas of the spine that don’t move well, particularly in the lumbar region, can lead to compensatory changes in the hips, causing pain and discomfort. Chiropractors use manual techniques such as spinal adjustments to help the spine move, relieve pressure on nerves, and restore proper function to the musculoskeletal system. By addressing tightness in the glutes, hip flexors, and lower lumbar muscles will help alleviate the symptoms you may be experiencing.
Why are my hips always tight?
Hip tightness can stem from a sedentary lifestyle, muscle imbalances, overuse, poor posture, and previous injuries. Tightness can also be neurological, with the brain tightening muscles to prevent injury in muscles that are overloaded or weak. Addressing the tension may involve stretching, strengthening exercises, mobility drills, and lifestyle changes.
Sitting for a period also stretches the glutes, which can cause them to be less active because a stretched muscle is not a strong one. This can create a sensation of tightness, and the brain will prioritize using other muscles to prevent injury. Typically, when this happens, we start to feel pain symptoms in other areas such as our lower backs, as they take on the load from the glutes not doing their job.
Feeling pain? Here’s an exercise to help with tight hips:
How do I stretch my hips?
To stretch your hips, try these exercises:
Couch stretch: Kneel with one knee on the floor and the other foot flat in front, then tilt the pelvis forward slightly.
Piriformis stretch: Sit with one leg crossed over the other and gently pull the knee toward the opposite shoulder.
Figure four stretch: Lie on your back, cross one ankle over the opposite knee, and pull the non-crossed leg toward your chest.
Perform these stretches regularly to improve hip flexibility and reduce tightness.
Check out our video as we go over the absolute best way to stretch your quads and piriformis.
Why do hips click or pop?
Most noise associated with joint movements (crepitus) is completely harmless. Hips may click or pop due to nitrogen gas released in the joint, but uncomfortable clicking may be caused by tendons moving over bones or muscle tightness. The latter two (tendons and muscle tightness) can be managed through manual therapy techniques to help the joints and muscles move better.
In more severe cases, clicking can also indicate labral tears, structural issues like hip dysplasia, or advanced arthritis. If your clicking is accompanied by pain or reduced motion, or general discomfort has been increasing over the course of a couple of months, please seek out an assessment with a qualified healthcare practitioner so they can provide a diagnosis and a proper treatment plan to ensure you can reduce the worsening of the issue.
Do I have arthritis in my hips?
Arthritis is an umbrella term for conditions that result in inflammation in the joints. The most common type of arthritis is osteoarthritis, which is also known as degenerative joint disease. DJD develops over time and is often noted as an ancillary finding on X-rays—meaning there’s evidence of bony changes to the joints long before pain or other symptoms present. For instance, arthritis in the SI joint can start in your 20s.
Now, many people think of inflammatory arthropathies when they think of arthritis—they think of rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis, which are both different diseases that can progress to affect the joints. Because all of these get grouped under “arthritis,” the general public views them all the same way.
Diagnosing hip arthritis requires an assessment from a health care provider, in addition to symptoms like pain that improves with rest, stiffness, and reduced motion. The good news is that osteoarthritis does not have the same progression as inflammatory arthropathies and that x-ray findings of degenerative joint disease are poorly correlated with symptoms. So you may have arthritis, according to your x-ray, but that does not mean that you have to live with pain. Motion is one of the best ways of managing pain related to arthritis, making sure that the joints are moving well and within healthy ranges of motion to encourage blood flow and reduce stiffness.
Do I have sciatica?
Determining whether you have sciatica requires a comprehensive evaluation by a healthcare professional. Sciatica refers to pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve, which runs from the lower back through the hips and down each leg. Common symptoms of sciatica include sharp or shooting pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness that typically affects one side of the body. Additionally, pain can be worsened in the morning or with specific movements that place an excess load on the damaged nerve. Chiropractic assessments can give you a clear recommendation on how to fix and prevent the recurrence of injury through soft tissue therapy, exercises, and adjustments.
Broadly speaking, sciatica is the irritation of the sciatic nerve. “True Sciatica” results from pressure on the nerve roots that make up the sciatic nerve. Most commonly, this pressure is due to a bulging or herniated lumbar disc. This type of sciatica usually includes symptoms like sharp and electrical pain down the leg, paresthesia (pins & needles) in the leg, numbness, or muscle weakness, and is best addressed by addressing whatever is causing the compression on the nerves in the back.
However, many other conditions can cause sciatica-like symptoms, such as tightness in the piriformis muscle or other glute muscles, trigger points in the lower back muscles, compression in the lower back, or tension in any of the muscles along the path of the sciatic nerve. In this case, the best treatment is to identify the location of the compression, and reduce it, either with Massage, Dry Needling, or other techniques, improving the tone of the muscles and allowing the nerve to slide past the muscle, like with nerve flossing exercises.
Diagnosing your symptoms requires an evaluation from a healthcare practitioner. A Chiropractic assessment can give you a clear recommendation on how to fix and prevent injury recurrence through soft tissue therapy, exercises, and adjustments.
How MYo Lab Can Help
We tailor our treatment plans to the specific needs and conditions of each of our patients. If you’ve been experiencing hip pain, you can book an appointment with one of our Chiropractors, and let’s talk about how you’re moving, what it currently feels like, where you want to be, and how we can get—and keep—you there. We’re here to ensure your joints are in tip-top shape and that hip pain doesn’t crash your party.
You can also call us at (403)930-8686. We’re currently accepting new patients.
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