I have been following this post for a while as I have experienced similar problems to all of you. I recently had an MRI and the results showed lots of adhesions all along the lateral side of my hip around my glute medius and TFL area. This is the area that has been giving me problems. I was told it is almost as if those muscles, all bound together, are in a constant state of spasm, which is what it feels like when I run. I was recommended Rolfing, so I\'m going to look into it. I found the following below that seems to accurately describe the problem, I thought you all might be interested.Hip pain, while often assumed to be the result of arthritis, is often simply due to injury or irritation to the soft tissue surrounding the hip. When not arthritic in nature, hip pain is most commonly ‘hip bursitis’ or ‘IT Band tendonitis’. These types of hip pain can be the result of either trauma (like sprains or muscle strains) or chronic, repetitive strain (like swinging a golf club, lifting, bending or running). (While significant muscle tears, bone fractures or arthritis can cause hip pain, it is far more common to be the result of tendonitis and/or bursitis.) There are several different factors that can contribute to the problem. Inflammation, muscle spasm, soft tissue adhesion and fibrosis, mechanical joint irritation, poor posture, altered foot bio-mechanics, nerve irritation and muscle weakness are some of the more crucial factors involved with hip pain. Often when prior treatment has proven unsuccessful, it may be due to not having one or more of these factors properly addressed. Chronic hip pain is often the end result of a vicious circle that starts with irritated or injured tissue. This leads to inflammation and muscle spasm, which in turn causes not only nerve irritation and pain but more importantly results in the formation of soft tissue adhesions. These adhesions scar-up the tissue and lead to dysfunctional soft tissues, which are more easily irritated or injured… and the whole cycle continues indefinitely.In the case of hip bursitis or tendonitis, the muscle / tendon / bursa overlying the hip bone may be affected by inflammation, spasm or scarring (adhesions). This inflammation and soft tissue adhesions prevent the smooth movement of the ilio-tibial band (IT band) tendons causing friction and further irritation, inflammation and pain in the tissues. Often with hip pain, the root cause may lie in altered or poor foot mechanics – the result of pronation or ‘flat feet’. These changes at the foot and ankle lead to functional changes up at the level of the hip, causing more strain on the soft tissues surrounding the hip.At Maloney Chiropractic, we offer a wide variety of treatment options tailored to treat your specific problems, by tackling the hip pain at its root cause(s). In fact, our well-rounded approach allows us to successfully treat many cases of hip pain where other treatments have failed. Active Release Techniques (ART) soft tissue therapy, joint manipulation, custom fit foot orthotics, Trigger Point therapy and other soft tissue therapies, lower extremity strengthening exercises and stretches are some of the most common approaches that we use in alleviating hip pain, though if it’s ever apparent that you need treatment
Miss Osage County wrote:
Mlbfan24, Sorry to hear about your tough decision... :-(
But hey, since you\'ve decided to try the 2-mile alumni race anyway, I have an idea for you to try. My latest discovery is that if I scrunch up/curl under my toes on my bad leg, it instantly cures my supination and knee splay. No kidding. I can look down and see my left foot striking straight on like my good leg/foot on the right, and rather than splaying, my kneecap is in direct alignment with my ankle and hip. I have been running 80mpw like this. Crazy, maybe... but I\'ve tried so many things and the pseudo-arch I\'m able to create doing this somehow acts as a fair spring to absorb shock and allow my upper leg muscles like hams and gluts to fire properly. If I scrunch the toes it forces the muscles in my foot to activate and I can control my foot strike and plant much more effectively. Somebody might say that\'s bad for your toes, but I could care less about my toes if it helps the loss of muscle coordination problem!
Good luck and let me know if you try it. Warning though that it might feel odd at first and it can be challenging to do it downhill...