Do I Have Altered Hip Movements?
Your hip is a very complex ball and socket joint capable of multiple types of movement while also supporting large amounts of pressure. In order to experience complete hip health, it is important that the hip moves in a very coordinated and purposeful manner. Sometimes this coordination can become altered causing hip pain, weakness, and advanced deterioration. By identifying and making oneself aware of altered hip movement patterns you may be able to correct the altered movement patterns thereby restoring ideal motion and posture.
The hip extension involves the action of three muscles contracting in a coordinated sequence. The three muscles are the gluteus maximus (primary mover/agonist), biceps femoris (synergist), and erector spinae (synergist). Any deviation from the specific muscle activation is considered an altered movement pattern. This will cause hip extension dysfunction, muscle imbalance, and pain and contribute to changes in posture. The normal sequence of muscular contractions for hip extension involves the contraction of the gluteus maximus and the ipsilateral biceps femoris, followed immediately by the contraction of the contralateral (opposite side) erector spinae and then the ipsilateral erector spinae.
An altered hip extension movement is often caused by weakness or inhibition of the gluteus maximus and can be the result of an injury to the muscle, deconditioning as a result of an illness or injury limiting the activity of walking, overuse due to excessive repetitive motion and overactivity of hip flexors (the psoas muscle and the rectus femoris). This overactivity is normally the result of a weak gluteus maximus and prolonged sitting in a flexed position.
When this occurs the low back musculature (the erector spinae) changes its function and begins to act as the primary muscle responsible for initiating a hip extension and stabilization of the pelvis. This increases the stress placed on the lumbar spine and normally is seen to cause pain when walking.
Another example of an altered movement pattern that can develop in the hip is hip abduction. An altered hip abduction movement is any change in this movement. Changes in the movement will occur when the gluteus medius muscle can not initiate and perform hip abduction by itself.
One sign of altered hip abduction is “hip hiking”. Hip hiking is the raising of the pelvis on the side of the body during gait movement caused by the premature contraction of the quadratus lumborum muscle on the side of hip abduction before contraction of the ipsilateral gluteus medius muscle. The contraction of the quadratus lumborum muscle initiates the sequence of hip abduction. This will occur when gluteus medius is not strong enough or is inhibited in initiating the movement of hip abduction. Another sign of an altered hip abduction would be when the hip drifts into flexion during a hip abduction. This would indicate overactivity of the hip flexors. Normally this is seen in conjunction with an external rotation of the lower extremity, this happens because of an overactive piriformis muscle.
The result of these issues the majority of the time are muscle spasms in the hip flexors and piriformis, sacroiliac dysfunction, trigger points in the gluteus medius, and knee pain.
Summary
By learning more about altered hip movements, we can better understand how to prevent and treat symptoms associated with it. When altered hip movements are present, whatever is required depends on the area affected and the symptoms present, and that is why it is important to have a team of doctors that is able to identify the root cause.
At BBC Health in Lewisville, Texas, we know how to identify, treat, or refer in the proper direction for any problems with your altered hip movements. As a primary care provider, we can quickly provide medical, chiropractic, and rehab treatments in order to get you well as fast as possible. If you’re suffering from pain, don’t delay, and contact us immediately to see how we can help.
