The hip joint is a synovial, diarthrotic, ball-and-socket joint. This means a person has a slippery membrane and joint fluid lubricating and nourishing his hip joint, permitting movement about all axes. The ball-and-socket characteristic of a person's hip joint enhances the stability of his hips because the head of the femur fits snuggly into the deep acetabulum of the pelvic bones.
Function
A person's hip is designed to stabilize and propel her body and move her legs. It permits flexion and extension or moving her thigh forward and backward. She may also perform hip abduction and adduction or draw her thigh toward and away from the midline of her body. A person can rotate her thigh inward, outward and circumduct her thigh in a complete circle.
Features
The socket or acetabulum of a person's hip joint is made of three different bones which fuse together during the adult years. Cartilage lines his acetabulum and femoral head, reducing friction and absorbing shock during hip movement, according to Benedictine.org.
Muscles
The muscles acting on the hip joints enable the person to absorb shock and move her entire body forward, backward, sideways, upward and downward. Her gluteal and tensor fascia lata muscles contract to abduct and extend her hips. The iliopsoas, pectineus and quadriceps flex her hips. Her three adductor or inner thigh muscles work to adduct her hips. There are small muscles deep under her gluteal muscles, including her piriformis, that rotate her thigh in conjunction with her gluteals.
Injuries
A person suffering from hip pain may be suffering from inflammation to the muscle tendons or bursas of his hip joint. He may have sprained the ligaments holding his hip bones together. These injuries may be relieved with pain medication, rest, and ice and heat treatments, according to Sandra Shultz, Ph.D., and her colleagues, in their book "Examination of Musculoskeletal Injuries." If a person dislocated his hip, the femur would have to be put back in place with or without surgery, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. In addition to pain meds, rest, ice and heat treatments, he may have to use crutches or a cane. A fracture of a person's hip bones almost always requires surgery.
Considerations
Progressive weight-bearing exercises such as using dumbbells and barbells to do squats and lunges will help a person strengthen the muscles, tendons, bones and ligaments of her hip joints. This reduces her risk of injury, improving her ability to continue to do her activities of daily living and continue to participate in her exercise program.
References
- "Anatomy & Physiology"; Gary Thibodeau, Ph.D., and Kevin Patton, Ph.D.; 2007
- Benedictine Hospital: Hip Replacement Surgery
- American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons: Hip Dislocation
- "Examination of Musculoskeletal Injuries"; Sandra Shultz, Ph.D., Peggy Houglum, Ph.D., and David Perrin, Ph.D.; 2005
