Hi there,

I hope you guys can help me. I've been jogging for 40 min once or twice a week now, just trying to get a bit fitter so nothing remotely tough, but recently I've been getting this nagging soreness/ache in my right hip.

It's rather difficult to describe but feels like a tendon/ligament is a stiff or sore or pulled deep inside the hip. I've been trying to isolate the pain and have been prodding about with my fingers but can't duplicate the pain this way.

If I stand up and raise my right leg up off the ground, I can feel the strain/pain inside the right hip. The higher I lift the leg the more it hurts. It's only mild and wouldn't really bother me except I've had it before (the last time I made a resolution to get fitter and started running again), and it is slowly getting worse. If I lift my left leg up there is no strain or pain whatsoever in my left hip.

It seems to have come on gradually from running, so I thought I'd post here just to see if it was some standard repetitive running injury that could easily be solved with a cunning stretch or two...

I suffered from shin splints before (the muscular one) and solved that very easily by changing my running style (making sure I ran quietly without slapping my foot down) so could it be a running technique issue in this case too?

Anyway I hope someone knows what I'm talking about!

Thanks a lot,

K

Hi K

welcome to RF.

Have you got proper running shoes, if not get yourself to a specialist running shop and have your gait checked out, this could be partly to do with your current problem and the shinsplints you have mentioned.

The ache you are getting could also be that your body is adjusting to the exercise, running is a high impact sport, another very good reason to have good running shoes.

40 mins is by no means a short amount of time, sounds like you are doing great.

Hope this helps

TT

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A loser is not the one who runs last in the race. It's the one who sits and watches and who has never tried to run. Bird in Boots

Hey Kimangroo! (hope I spelt that right) Welcome to the forum

Can you find a pic and work out which muscle it is that's causing you grief? (check out google image search or something) It's quite easy to have the pain in one side but not the other, as our muscle will virtually never be perfectly balanced, and ultimately one side is going to give up before the other! If you can pinpoint from pictures etc where the pain is coming from, we can then look into finding you some stretching and strengthening exercises to build up strength in the area


I seem to be experiencing muscle fatigue/tightness in the Tensor fasciae latae at the moment... and this thread has made me look at a pic for the first time! So thanks for making me look into it - it's really helped me! heheh.

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'The minimum requirement to achieve something is to believe that it's possible'

Thanks a lot for the welcome and the advice!

I have got *ahem* "proper" running shoes... that I found lying about the house somewhere and they seemed to fit pretty good
I admit I tend to skimp on things like equipment, but although I think running shoes would surely help overall, I'm not sure that my current pain is due to that since I've had this problem for a long, long time and I used to have decent shoes.

If I manage to keep going at the running thing, I will buy myself some nice shoes though.

Richard, thanks for the pic, sorry to hear about your Tensor fasciae latae, I wish I could be so exact in my diagnosis! I'd put the pain (well soreness really) somewhere around the nice green circle I've drawn. It feels quite deep cos no matter how much I push and prod from the outside, nothing hurts, only when I lift that right leg up.

EDITorry I can't include images in my post for now because I'm new, so I added it as an attachment.

I don't know if it's related at all, but while I was messing about trying to diagnose myself, I remembered that I get a kind of clumping sound when I kick my front leg out. It feels like the femur is popping slightly/significantly in and out of place when I do this motion. Doesn't hurt at first, but it's a very audible clump and jolt and feels like it would start doing some proper damage if I did it regularly. Looking about on the internet I found some stuff about IT Bands and hip band snapping and stuff which sounds similar but not quite the same... I've actually had this for ages as well, but it only happens when I kick my leg at a certain angle (it stopped me from doing a front kick when I did a bit of kickboxing). I just wondered if it might be related some how.

Well none of this is particularly serious right now but I've learnt both from experience and from reading sob stories on forums that it's probably better to nip any niggling kind of pain in the bud.

Any good ideas as to a diagnosis?!

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I would image it's the psoas major as the adductors will be very much on the inside of the legs... I think the clunking of your leg when you kick out is quite normal... I get it too

I just pulled this off a website...

Psoas Major muscle stretching exercise
The Psoas Major muscle attaches to the front portion of the lower spine (from thoracic segment 12 through lumbar segment 5) and can greatly limit low back mobility when tight. It often is one of the sources of low back pain in patients who have difficulty standing for extended periods or kneeling on both knees. This muscle can be stretched in a half kneeling position (kneeling on one knee). Rotate the leg outward and tighten the gluteal muscles on the side you’re stretching. Next, lean forward through the hip joint rather then bending through the lumbar spine. A stretch should be felt in the front of the hip that the patient is kneeling on. See Figure 2.

Hold 30 seconds
Repeat
1-2 times per day

Fig.2.


Try doing that stretch and see if it reaches the affected area... if so then it's obviously hitting teh spot so may well be worth remembering to do that stretch regularly. If not then have a look into more stretches... you'll find one eventually that hits the spot, and then you'll know where the pains coming from

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www.richardsimkiss.co.uk
'The minimum requirement to achieve something is to believe that it's possible'

Thanks a lot Richard, I've already increased my stretching routine and I'll add that exercise and see if it helps.

I hope the clunking isn't normal, it's pretty violent in my case! It doesn't seem to affect running though, so I'll worry about it next time I take up kick boxing again.

Thanks again for your help!

no problem... be sure to let us know if it helps or not

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www.richardsimkiss.co.uk
'The minimum requirement to achieve something is to believe that it's possible'