Aerobic exercises have a positive impact on heart and lung function and physical work capacity. However, they can take a toll on your body, especially weight-bearing structures like the hip. Depending on the type and severity of the injury a hip muscle suffers, you may require rest, stretching, pain medications, surgical intervention, flexibility or strength training for full rehabilitation.
Anatomy
Several muscles attach to your hip and pelvic bones. For instance, the iliopsoas and gluteus maximus act as the primary hip flexor and extensor, respectively. The adductor group of muscles moves your hip and thigh towards your mid-line, while abductors produce the opposite movement. Muscles that cross both the hip and knee joint are more prone to injury. These include your hamstrings, iliotibial band and rectus femoris. Bursae, the fluid-filled sacs that help reduce friction between tendons and their surrounding structures, are also common sites of injury.
Contusions
Contusions are injuries in which the skin is not broken. They result from direct contact with a playing surface or another individual. Even though they most commonly affect bony prominences, soft tissues, such as muscles, can be involved. You may recognize bone contusions as "hip pointers" while injuries to the soft tissues are known as "charley horses." The characteristic symptom is pain over the site of injury, especially when touched. Swelling and a purple discoloration of the skin may also be evident.
Strains
A strain describes a muscle stretch, tear or rupture. St. Louis Missouri based orthopedist Glen Johnson cites weakness and muscle imbalance as major risk factors for hip strains. A common mechanism of injury is the sudden contraction of your adductors, hamstrings or quadriceps. Hamstring strains are more likely to occur with vigorous sprinting, jumping and kicking. Also known as "groin strains", adductor strains can occur with fencing or high jumping, while a sudden sprint or change in direction can result in a quadriceps strain. Signs and symptoms of strains include pain, swelling, purple skin discoloration and muscle spasms.
Avulsions
An avulsion is, by definition, the forcible tearing away of a body part. In the hip, it usually involves tendons and their bony attachments. Avulsions may result from repetitive knee extension and hip flexion. They may also result from eccentric hip extension or resistance against hip flexion. Although the specific mechanism of injury may vary with the affected site, most avulsions occur from eccentric muscle contractions.
Inflammation
Repetitive activities involving hip muscles can contribute tendinitis, or inflammation of their corresponding tendons. An example is iliopsoas tendinitis, or "internal snapping hip syndrome", in which repetitive high hip flexion elicits groin pain or hip flexor dysfunction. Because the iliopsoas bursa is located next to the tendon, the tendinitis can also lead to a bursitis, and vice versa. Iliopsoas bursitis, the inflammation of the iliopsoas bursa, may result from overuse, trauma or rheumatoid arthritis.
Stress Fractures
Stress fractures are small cracks that form in a bone as a result of overuse, continual pounding, or the repetitive application of force. Although the trauma does not affect muscles, a stress fracture at the hip will typically produce tenderness over the site of injury. You may therefore experience pain with palpation of the overlying muscles, as well as loss of range of motion. Factors that may contribute to hip stress fractures include inadequate footwear, inadequate running surface, excessive exercise frequency and intensity, low bone mass and such hip alignment deformities as coxa vara.
References
- "Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Sports Medicine;" Patrick McMahon, M.D.; 2007
- "Athletic Training & Sports Medicine;" Chad Starkey, Ph.D. and Glen Johnson, M.D.; 2006
