Three tips for preventing hip bursitis

You’re doing your daily jog and as you’re moving along, a sharp pain starts at the point of your hip and spreads down the outside of your thigh. If this sounds familiar, you have likely fallen victim to hip bursitis. This condition happens when the cushioning sac, or bursa, on the point of your hip becomes inflamed. Typically, the cause of this is repetitive hip movement. Here are three tips that can help you prevent hip bursitis. 

1.   Avoid too much repetitive movement

Jogging is a great form of exercise, but it is repetitive. The repetitiveness of this activity can cause hip bursitis. That doesn’t mean you have to give up your favorite activity to prevent hip bursitis, but you should avoid overdoing repetitive activities such as jogging. For example, you could alternate doing core or upper body workouts with jogging days. This will give your hips more time to recover, allowing you to more easily avoid  hip bursitis. 

2.   Increase hip strength

The muscles of your hips are important for walking, running and other leg movements. Weak hip muscles can also put you at higher risk of developing hip bursitis. This is because weak muscles tend to get out of alignment, and this can cause them to rub against the hip bursa. This irritation can lead to the inflammation and other symptoms of bursitis. To build your strength, try  doing some simple strength-training exercises, which will help prevent the onset of hip bursitis. . 

3.   Work on your gait

Your gait is the way your body moves when you walk or run. Making sure you have a good gait can help with preventing hip bursitis. So, what makes a gait poor? Muscle imbalances can cause issues with your gait, and sports injuries or car accident injuries can also negatively alter your gait. For example, these issues can cause you to walk with your head and neck pushed forward, which is called a propulsive gait. If you have an abnormal gait, physical therapists can help you address it before it leads to hip bursitis. 

Find out how Advent Physical therapy helps with preventing and treating hip bursitis

Our Advent Physical Therapy team can help treat hip bursitis, but we can also work with you to prevent this condition. The main tool we use for these tasks is our personalized therapy plans. First, we’ll have you come into one of our 14 Michigan-based clinics for an initial screening. This screening is intended to help us figure out what issue you’re dealing with and how it’s affecting your body. Then, we’ll use the information gathered in the screening to build you a personalized therapy plan, which may include therapy techniques like: 

• Manual therapy
• Instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM)
• Therapeutic exercises
• Kinesiology taping

Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.