Hip pain?

mudcow007

ive been experiencing "love sack" ache, been to the docs an he checked me out an said everything is fine "down there" however the pain seems to travel between my "spuds" an my hip

the pain in my hip seems deep inside my hip not like skin deep - if that makes sense. also pain varies between dull ache to quite sharp

ive been reading about IT Band Syndrome but that effects your whole leg doesn't it? besides my hip my leg is fine

my pain is just across from my hip to my groin

i'm probably doing about 30miles per day commuting an have been for over a year, nothing has changed regarding bike or set up

anyone any ideas?

im booked into the docs on tuesday so hopefully he will be able to shed some light on it

(i have put this in two separate threads just in case it was in the wrong place)

phy2sll2

It's not 'the boys' retreating back inside is it?

kingrollo

I am off the bike with a long term injury - but have done a bit of reseearch myself to try and get back on.
Heres a few thoughts. Not medically trained but here goes.

The ITB does indeed go almost to your hip. I got a lot of releif by stretching the IT Band. What I also found is that if you have stiffeness in this area is likley that a whole range of muscles may be tightnening.:-

Piriformis
Hip Flexors
Hamstrings
Glutes

So it maybe you some general conditioning in all of these areas. Be wary though of going hell for leather on hamstring stretches - that what I did and think is mat have made things worse.

In addition there are a whole host of nerves in this area - and it can be a domino effect - tightness in one area - causes a nerve to get compressed elsewhere.

I don't want to worry you - by my tale is that I pushed on through the pain - until it was unbearable - that was last june - Ive barley been on the bike since ...and indeed have another MRI this afternoon.

Best advice I can give would be
1.Do a bit of swimming - boring I know - but it calms inflamations - and gives all your muscles a general workout
2.Do a 3x daily IT band stretch
3.May some core strength work - or pilates
4.Don't leave it to long before a visit to the GP - bear in mind - the lead time for a physio referall etc
5.Be wary over being told to really stretch those hamstrings -

mudcow007

phy2sll2 wrote:

It's not 'the boys' retreating back inside is it?

all present and correct

thankfully!!

kingrollo wrote:

The ITB does indeed go almost to your hip. I got a lot of releif by stretching the IT Band. What I also found is that if you have stiffeness in this area is likley that a whole range of muscles may be tightnening.:-

blimey i hope its nothing that serious

the pain is weird as its jumping all over from between my hip to the "jewels" an then in between. it was ok this morning but after a short commutes its hurt pretty much constantly

im booked in with a doc for tuesday

Pross

Epididymitis possibly? It sounds similar to something I get intermittently, testicle aches and seems to spread into the hip / lower back area. More of a on and off nagging ache than really painful. When I've looked into it epididymitis seems the most likely cause but everytime I think I ought to get it checked out it goes away again for a few weeks.

kingrollo

mudcow007 wrote:

phy2sll2 wrote:

It's not 'the boys' retreating back inside is it?

all present and correct

thankfully!!

kingrollo wrote:

The ITB does indeed go almost to your hip. I got a lot of releif by stretching the IT Band. What I also found is that if you have stiffeness in this area is likley that a whole range of muscles may be tightnening.:-

blimey i hope its nothing that serious

the pain is weird as its jumping all over from between my hip to the "jewels" an then in between. it was ok this morning but after a short commutes its hurt pretty much constantly

im booked in with a doc for tuesday

It probably isnt anything 'serious' - just in my situation a tight ITB was accompanied by a lot of other tight muscles. Im not cured yet. I think i am getting closer though. I would push your GP for an physio referral and/or MRI scan. and maybe even see a sports physio. I pushed on and probably made things worse.

d87heaven

Difficult from your description buti would hazard a guess at maybe a tight Psoas or maybe neural related.
Trapped nerve due to a tight muscle can refer pain, it could either be on the nerve path or a nerve root in the lumbar spine (L1) Being compressed due to a tight muscle in the back.
I would start with stretching the Psoas, look for the one where you lay back and dangle one leg down. Do both sides and see if one is tighter than the other.
Good luck with the doc and a physio referal, personally I would go see a good sports therapist or a physio.

GrahamN

Don`t want to worry you or anything but I had these or similar symptoms about two years ago
and they got progressivly worse and it turns out I`ve got a degenerative hip and am now waiting
on a hip transplant.
I can ride max 10 miles or less if there`s a brutal headwind before the excrutiating pain starts , actually that`s not true , there`s no pain when actually cycling it`s when you stop and the swelling inside starts that`s
when it all kicks off.

I went through all the bollocks of talk of strenthening the core , trapped nerves , etc , in my case a waste
of my and the docs and physio`s time but hey ho .... hopefully this isn`t what you`ve got

kingrollo

GrahamN wrote:

Don`t want to worry you or anything but I had these or similar symptoms about two years ago
and they got progressivly worse and it turns out I`ve got a degenerative hip and am now waiting
on a hip transplant.
I can ride max 10 miles or less if there`s a brutal headwind before the excrutiating pain starts , actually that`s not true , there`s no pain when actually cycling it`s when you stop and the swelling inside starts that`s
when it all kicks off.

I went through all the bollocks of talk of strenthening the core , trapped nerves , etc , in my case a waste
of my and the docs and physio`s time but hey ho .... hopefully this isn`t what you`ve got

Intersting - how were you diagnosed ? Xray - MRI etc ?

GrahamN

regards my diagnosis , long story but to try and cut it short

came back from an 80 miler one day and about a hour after getting off the bike I knew something was
seriously wrong , I think morphine was being called for that day but could only find crack cocaine
so that had to do.

anyway ended up seeing a phsio the following week who thought it might be a degenerative hip
but wasn`t certain but that I should ask for an X-ray which after three months I got but a
degenerative hip was ruled out and that I should go to the NHS phsio who after another 3 month wait
put me onto stretching and core strenth exercises which did sweet nothing , I kinda knew straight
away that they weren`t going to work , anyway after going back to my GP I requested another X-ray
and another several months later was given another X-ray where it turns out the first x-ray wasn`t
conclusive and that yes I did require a hip transplant or a femoral resurfacing which is what Floyd Landis
got , the choice seemingly is mine , so am now waiting on speaking to the surgeon who I met 18 months ago but advised me at that time to hold off as long as possible as at the time I was 48 and these transplants have a shelf life of 12-15 years and if I was going to be lucky enough to live till eighty I`d need three , so the advice is to hold off as long as you think possible.

yes , I could have speeded up the whole process and gone private but having looked into it your talking somewhere
in the region of £4000

so come the 8th of March at my appointment with my surgeon that`s two and a half years since my very first
physio appointment , if your not willing to go private be prepared for a long wait


good luck anyone out there with hip problems

itsnotarace

Is your saddle a bit high?

GrahamN

itsnotarace wrote:

Is your saddle a bit high?

with all due respect , no , i`m 50 now and i`ve been riding (competitively in my 20`s and 30s) since I was thirteen
with the same set up I`ve never in my life suffered hip/back/knee etc problems ever
I think in my case it`s just sheer bad luck and wear and tear

Any surgeons out there ? can you have both hips replaced at the same time as I know the other one
is showing signs of wear also (though I will be asking my own surgeon the same question)

kingrollo

Good luck mate. I have a similar story - not as far down the line as you. I get buttock pain when sitting and esp when on the bike. I have had x rays , and MRI'S on my pelvis which have both shown as normal. However I seen a chiro in the week - who tried one two relalignments - some improvement. However he got me to pinpoint the pain - and it made me realise the pain is most severe at the very top of my leg - right up by the happy sack. Looking at one or two diagrams on the web - this is right at the bottom of the hip (ball socket) joint - and would explain why cycling makes it sore. Only weired thing is - I don't get pain when walking - more sitting.

anyway - just googling around the web - there is a hip resurfacing techinque - birmingham hip resurfacing. which seems to help more active younger patients - couple of cycling threads I read gave it the thumbs up - big time.

not medically qualified - but i don't think they will do 2 hips at the same time - mainly because this totally disables you - and you need one good\better leg for rehab.

let me know how you get on.