BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Exercise Monica's Injury Rehab Journal

I was away hiking in Big Bear this past weekend. We walked a couple of miles around the lake the first day we were there. We hiked 6 miles with 850 ft. elevation change the 2nd day (pretty easy for us) then walked around most of the afternoon. Our last day there we hiked 7 miles with 1071 ft. elevation change then walked around a few hours in the afternoon.

Both hikes and all the walking we did doesn't even come close to what we normally do when we go away on week long hiking trips but by the time we got home the last day my left hip was killing me. This is a problem I've been ignoring for a few months now and what I need to do at this point is corrective exercise (kind of like physical therapy).

Continuing to hike and train with this muscular imbalance is just plain dumb. So I'm taking an entire month to rehab my hip and will be logging my rehab work here so anybody with an injury can see how effective this type of work can be.

Step #1: Find the cause of your pain

Finding the cause of your pain is probably the hardest part and you may need help from a doctor, physical therapist or corrective exercise specialist. My doctor provided ZERO help when I visited him last month but my co-worker Matt who's got a killer physical therapy background did a 30 minute evaluation and found that my hip flexors are too tight and my hip stabilizer on the left side is very weak.

Like most stubborn clients, I have not been doing the exercises he showed me consistently so today I start with a daily regimen of butt isolation exercises (those are the major stablizers of the hip), hip flexor mobility exercises, and oblique and lat exercises (tightness in the upper back and obliques contributes to this problem in a big way).

Ms. M. I'm so sorry to hear about what happened!!! I feel your pain "probably literally". I will definitely be following this trend with a LOT of interest, as you know all of my issues this year.

Please let me know if you find the cause of the hip injury. It's my right. I think I pulled something doing weights and it hasn't been right since, but since the only time it hurts like
heck is when I'm lying down at night I've totally ignored it.
Why do women ignore when they experience pain?

I'm pretty good at getting myself out of pain fast and restoring function in less than 24 hours so I was back to normal in a day but it's annoying to have to put off my other goals to fix this little issue.

I guess 4 weeks of rehab is better than enduring a lifetime of pain syndromes.

Any way you could explain those exercises? I have problems with my left hip when I walk..I just try to ignore it and take Aleve.

Wow...restore within 24 hours? That's pretty amazing. I'm like Granny, I pop some Aleve and go to bed.

I will try to film one of my workouts this week. I did one this evening and could definitely feel how weak my left glute is compared to my right. Went for a walk afterwards and could feel more range of motion already.

I'll post my workout video as soon as I can.

I totally forgot that I already have a ton of videos with all the stuff I do to rehab hips and low backs.

Here are the easy Hip Mobility Exercises that I do to release tightness in the hips. These easy exercises lubricate the joints and start the healing process. It's also what you should be doing before your cardio workouts to prevent injuries. I clearly have not been doing enough of this.

Here are the Flexibility Exercises I do to restore function when the hips and glutes are in pain. All exercises can be modified for anybody. I have arthritic 70 year old clients who can do this routine so age and joint problems are not an issue.

This page features a couple of videos of the Butt Exercises and Workouts I'll be doing for the next few weeks. There are tons of butt workouts on that page too. I won't be doing lunges of any kind and yes all those exercises can be modified to your level. Just be creative.

Can't believe this!!! At work today my trainer friend Matt asked me how my hip was doing so I told him about my weekend away hiking and walking.

He told me that was a real bonehead move on my part. I kind of figured that hiking 6 miles a day and walking around town a bit wouldn't really be such a big deal but apparently it's like taking 10 steps back.

He told me that depending on how long I've been dealing with this problem it would take me nearly a year to fix. A year! In the mean time I should forget about hiking, jumping, sprinting, or any type of lower body rotational movement. That's pretty much the core of what I do to stay lean.

I guess I'll be taking up swimming and climbing and maybe sword fighting (the only sports I can think of that mainly use the upper body). Thankfully I can still do trapeze.

I did find out last weekend that a UC Davis research study found that swimmers lost slightly more weight and considerably more fat than runners so maybe this is a sign to hit the pool and get my Amanda Beard workout on.

Sorry to hear you did a backward trend, but woo hoo on the swimming. I might have to join pool.

I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised. A few years back when I ended up with levator scapulae injury from racking weights the wrong way it took over a year to rehab my upper back and to be honest it's still not 100%.

Injuries are literally a pain but I think they can be used as a learning experience.

BTW, I've been doing glute work all weak and am feeling tons better. Today I'll be going to the pool to swim and do my mobility routine in the water. Matt says this is a great way to build strength without putting strain on the lower body because the water offers good resistance but eliminates impact.

I'll be doing leg swings, high knees, and some jogging in the pool.