Stretches and other advice for hip pain after sitting

October 31, 2018 10:05 PM

When I sit down, I feel fine. When I stand up and try to walk after sitting, it hurts. The longer I set the worse it is. It seems to walk itself off, but sometimes it is exruciatng in the meantime. X-ray shows nothing abnormal. Doc said physio. I'd like to see if I can do anything to help it myself because physio is a PITA.

Like I've been working at my computer for a couple of hours and I literally couldn't walk across the room. I had to do something and I decided to get down on all hours and crawl instead because it hurt too much to walk. On the way back I realized that I *could* walk, if I did it sideways. Face perpendicular to the way i'm going, separate my feet thenn bring the "back" foot together. Repeat. This doesn't hurt at all. Walking normally is awful right now.

My doctor ordered a hip x-ray which showed nothing abnormal. She said that means it's muscular (presumably including tendons/ligaments etc., I assume). She said I needed physio. I'm not completely unwilling to do physio, but the thought of wasting part of my day on this every day is not thrilling. I'm busy these days.

And I feel like if it's muscular, and if the answer is physio (much of which is often stretching/simple exercises anyway), then it seems like I should be able to make some progress on this by learning some stretches etc. myself.

So..what kind of stretches/exercises/other things should I be doing?

posted by If only I had a penguin... to Health & Fitness (19 answers total)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG9qbvAN3gQ



Found the above link by googling “hip pain after standing”. I totally hear you that physical therapy is not convenient but you might be able to go once and see what exercises they have you do.
posted by MadMadam at 10:25 PM on October 31, 2018

an x-ray won't show a labral tear, which is damage (either an actual tear or just a wearing away) or the lining of your hip socket, the pain you're feeling is pretty much exactly what my labral tear feels like and is stimulated by exactly the same thing -- sitting for too long. the pain can radiate down the thigh and be nauseatingly unbearable. it can be treated by quad strengthening exercises and hip flexor exercises, but the only thing that really truly helped mine was steroid injections right into the hip socket.

tl;dr do whatever exercises you can for quads and flexors but don't let your doctor brush you off about an MRI if the pain persists.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:38 PM on October 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: You have my sympathies. My lower back has been less than kind to me over the past year, although not as bad as what you're describing, but I've been prescribed some exercises that have helped me.

There's probably a variety of exercises and stretches we could recommend to you, but we're not diagnosticians and some of our suggestions may waste your time and others may be counter-productive.

I'd recommend a two-step process:

Step 1 - Get assessed by a sports medicine doctor. (I'm assuming you saw your family doctor, not a specialist.) This will be covered by OHIP and will take up part of your day, but you only have to go once. If the doctor thinks that you may need ultrasound for a full diagnosis, look for a clinic that has an ultrasound lab right there so that you don't have to devote multiple days for a full diagnosis. In Toronto, I usually recommend the Sports Medicine Specialists at 150 Eglinton East because the doctor, diagnostic lab and physiotherapists are all right there on the 5th floor. Once you trot back to see the doctor RIGHT AFTER you get ultrasound, they'll probably be able to finalize the diagnosis and write a prescription for physio with a therapist attached to that clinic.

Step 2 - See that physiotherapist ONCE for an assessment appointment that will take about 30-40 minutes. Take notes. Ask questions. You should be able to leave with a set of printed home exercises designed to work on your specific problem. If you have health insurance that covers physio, you can get some or all of the appointment cost back because you have the doctor's prescription from step 1.

There's a small chance that your condition may require a few physio sessions or other interventions in addition to home exercises, but you won't know until you get assessed. Good luck!
posted by maudlin at 10:48 PM on October 31, 2018 [5 favorites]

The location of your pain is a little vague but your description of walking it off immediately after standing up closely matches my own experience of sciatica many years ago. Sciatica is caused by pressure on the spinal cord from a number of causes some of which might be hard to see in an x-ray. The pain extends over the lower back, butt, and hips. Physio consisting of abdominal exercise to strengthen my core is what helped me, along with a few months of anti-inflammatory medication to relieve acute symptoms.
posted by migurski at 11:05 PM on October 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

The longer I set the worse it is.

This is what we detectives call a Clue.

I'd like to see if I can do anything to help it myself because physio is a PITA ... Like I've been working at my computer for a couple of hours and I literally couldn't walk across the room

Set a half hour timer whenever you sit down at your computer. When it goes off, get up and move around gently for a couple of minutes before sitting down again.
posted by flabdablet at 2:30 AM on November 1, 2018 [3 favorites]

Also worth experimenting with settings on your chair to find out what makes half an hour of sitting more painful and what makes it less painful.

Make a tiny adjustment to your seat height - no more than quarter of an inch.

If you hurt less at your next half hour break than you did before you adjusted the seat, leave the adjustment in place for the next day or two, then move onto the next adjustment (seat tilt, back angle, back height) and do the same kind of thing.

If you don't, put the seat back how it was to re-establish your baseline pain level; at the next break, adjust it by the same amount in the opposite direction.

If the adjustment makes no difference at all, put it back to where it was and move onto the next one.

Ergonomics is a funny thing. Sometimes the smallest of small changes can make a world of difference.
posted by flabdablet at 2:39 AM on November 1, 2018

what kind of stretches/exercises/other things should I be doing?

In general, the best first response to pain is to do less of whatever brings it on, or do it more slowly and gently.

Stretches and exercises are really useful and just about any kind of regular gentle stretching is good for the human body. You probably will indeed find that the strength and flexibility gains you can get from adopting regular stretching as a habit will make you able to tolerate stresses such as prolonged sitting with fewer consequences than you're currently seeing, especially if you start with stretches prescribed by a physio who is familiar with your present symptoms.

If you haven't yet had time to get to the physio, but you have a cat or a dog, observe them closely and watch what they do when they get up after napping. Pets can be terrific little coaches if we get down off our species-superiority high horse and admit that they might know something we don't about how to operate an animal body.

But the very first thing you need to be doing when the red lights start showing up on your own body's dashboard is pulling over to the side of your life for long enough to work out exactly what they're telling you that you don't have the strength or endurance to do right now, and then taking a break from that, even and possibly especially if you don't believe you have time for it just this instant.
posted by flabdablet at 2:58 AM on November 1, 2018

+1 to poffin boffin’s comment. I also had the same symptoms, and it turned out to be a labral tear. Physical therapy helped the ultimate diagnosis in that it didn’t help: My doc thought it was bursitis only, which PT sometimes helps. But a labral year is unlikely to be helped by PT. Unfortunately it took a couple years to get an MRI, and therefore the correct diagnosis.

I’m now one year post surgery to repair the tear. Still hurts when I sit too long. But I’m nearly 50, and my trainer says most office worker my age have similar hip pain. I mitigate it by doing pigeon stretches and with a weightlifting routine that includes a lot of glute work. Honestly, this has helped as much as the surgery.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 5:14 AM on November 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

I had hip pain from sitting and working long days. I eventually found that if I did about 10 minutes of core exercises every morning, I could address the pain. I came up with this after working with a trainer and going to ELDOA classes. I now do side plank, bridge, bird dog, squat each* morning. BUT you need to figure out what is wrong before you know whether this kind of thing is the answer. I only wanted to share my story because I also thought I wouldn't be able to find the time to do a full exercise program or get to a physio. I also have a busy work schedule. But I literally do my "body maintenance" routine (as I think of it) in my pajamas, during the time it takes for my partner to shower in the morning. I try to think of it as being more similar to brushing my teeth daily than going to the gym/exercising (which I hate, or so I've told myself for 30 years).

*uh, well most mornings lately. but there is definitely a difference when I don't do them.
posted by girlpublisher at 5:18 AM on November 1, 2018 [2 favorites]

Not the same pain as you, but mine was exacerbated by sitting. Switched to a standing desk and I feel much better.
posted by pyro979 at 6:27 AM on November 1, 2018 [2 favorites]

Also worth experimenting with settings on your chair to find out what makes half an hour of sitting more painful and what makes it less painful.

Total anecdote: many years ago, I had sitting-related hip pain develop really quickly from "huh, weird twinge" to "guess limping to the car after work is my life now", and because it happened soon after taking a new job, after several weeks of pain I eventually thought to wonder if it was specifically related to the new chair I was spending my workday in. I switched to sitting on benches or other flat surfaces whenever possible (including at home, which was maybe overkill, but no one else was using the piano bench anyway), and within a couple weeks the pain had gone entirely, and did not not come back when I went back to sitting wherever I wanted (though never that one work chair again...).
posted by solotoro at 7:42 AM on November 1, 2018

I had similar pain, which turned out to be torn tendons and tendinosis. Physical therapy helped strengthen muscles in the area (mine was a sports injury), but it's taken a very long time to get better. It's been about six months now, and I still have some pain.

But agree that an x-ray won't show something like that. I found out through an MRI.
posted by FencingGal at 7:45 AM on November 1, 2018

Yoga teacher and runner here. I've had hip issues from both IT band symdrome and piriformis syndrome. It's hard to tell from your question exactly where this pain is — the side of the body, the front or back of the hip? Without that info, it's going to be harder to give you advice, but I'm going to do my best, starting with a little tough love.

I know you say you don't want to spend a lot of time getting this either diagnosed or treated, but you were in so much pain that you literally had to CRAWL across the floor because you couldn't walk. Now I kinda think that "sitting is the new cancer" is a bit hyperbolic, but it is clear you are busy, too busy in fact to take care of your body. That's bad and dumb (sorry). AT A MINIMUM, you should be getting up and stretching every half hour or so. If you're too busy to do even that, then I don't know what to tell you.

There are free apps for this. I use Time Out, which is for Mac OS. Google for something like "workpace break" to find something that works for you. TAKE THE BREAKS. Get up and walk around. Go pee. Get some water. Play with the dog for five minutes.

Do you exercise? Of course, I'm going to suggest yoga, which will benefit you in two ways. It will teach you how to use your body in ways that can correct any kind of muscular imbalances you might have (for example, I have tight quads and lose hamstrings which leads to hyperlordosis, aka swayback, and yoga has helped me learn how to re-align my pelvis so my posture is better). A regular practice (say, 3 days a week) will also teach you some stretches you can do at home, in your own time, during those 5-minute workpace breaks. You don't have to join a gym for this, or even soend any money. Yoga with Adriene's Youtube videos are a great start for beginners, and are about 20 minutes each.

Re: physio, one benefit is that they can teach you exercises to provide you some relief. You don't have to go any more than a couple of times. I also really like Airrosti, with is a combination of manual therapy (massage) and PT. They set you up with an online portal that gives you lifetime access to videos and instructions for the exercises they teach you. My insurance covers this with copay.
posted by Brittanie at 9:09 AM on November 1, 2018 [2 favorites]

IANAL, but I have chronic pain, and this sounds to me like something that would qualify for an ADA accommodation if you're in the US and your employer has more than 15 employees. And it sounds like a standing desk would help you a lot. Depending on your employer's bureaucracy level this can be as simple as talking to HR informally, and as complex as filling out a form and providing a doctor's note. (I work for a high-growth tech company, and all I had to do was ask and they gave me a fancy, expensive chair that meets my needs.)
posted by radioamy at 11:19 AM on November 1, 2018

I just finished a six week course of physical therapy for exactly this (at a sports med focused place, as mentioned abo ve). We started with foam rolling, then she moved me on to strengthening exercises (one of which is a side walk like you mention, with a resistance band around my feet.)

The prevention she had me work on, in addition to foam rolling all the time (which seriously is doing wonders) is getting up every hour, varying how I am sitting, height of chair, etc., sitting on a pillow when driving, and then after working on strengthening my hip flexors, core strengthening.
posted by pixiecrinkle at 1:34 PM on November 1, 2018

Ever since I broke my hip in the summer of '99, it sometimes gets stiff and sore after sitting or standing still for too long. My favorite exercise when it gets this way is this:

Stand with the the foot on my "good side" on a step or some other elevated surface

Let the "bad leg" swing freely at the hip like a loose pendulum.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:02 PM on November 1, 2018

I'm not completely unwilling to do physio, but the thought of wasting part of my day on this every day is not thrilling. I'm busy these days.

And I feel like if it's muscular, and if the answer is physio (much of which is often stretching/simple exercises anyway), then it seems like I should be able to make some progress on this by learning some stretches etc. myself.

No one here can tell what specific muscles are the issue over the internet, so no one here can tell you what stretches or experiences will target those muscles.

Last time I saw a physical therapist, they examined me, determined which muscles were causing the issue, and taught me a few stretches (stretches I have never seen anywhere else) and gave me some information sheets summarizing the specific issue and stretches. You should see someone like that.

You can definitely make progress on learning some stretches, but they need to be the right ones. You can do your physical therapy at home on your own once you know what to do, but you will have to "waste part of your day" on taking care of your health in this way - there's not really a way around putting in the time. You'll have to choose between spending time on doing your exercises on your own, or not taking care of your health by doing the exercises. It's not as though you can skip taking the time to do them and still get the benefit, though if you are doing them at home you'll of course not have to take time to travel to an appointment.

Of course it will take some time to go to the appointment, and I understand you are busy and feel that you don't have time, but isn't it taking up a lot of time to get around by walking sideways or crawling?

I don't know what pysio is and if that's the same thing as physical therapy or not. In my country a physical therapist is who you would usually see for this sort of thing, perhaps a pysio does similar things or perhaps not.
posted by yohko at 6:07 PM on November 1, 2018 [4 favorites]

If you have enough time to look up the stretches random people on the internet tell you do, which may or may not address the issue, you have an hour to see a physio to do a proper assessment and give you appropriate advice. The advice you are getting here is pretty much a list of incidental hip and back issues that individual commenters have had at some point, it has nothing to do with your hip.
posted by chiquitita at 5:24 AM on November 2, 2018 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: So an update: I totally intended to take Maudlin's advice and make an appointment at that clinic, but I never got around to it and now my hip is better.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:14 PM on December 21, 2018 [1 favorite]