Tips for Caring for Your Hips

While there’s an argument to be made for the importance of each joint in your body, your hips are crucial for both your mobility and the support of your upper body. In other words, your hips work hard, and when problems develop, not only can you be left with hip pain, but your life can be altered quite considerably.

To prevent hip problems from occurring in the first place and to nurture an existing issue, the team here at Advanced Spine Care and Pain Management wants to review a few best practices when it comes to safeguarding your hips.

Common hip problems

Your hips are large ball-and-socket joints that connect your legs to your pelvis to provide mobility and support. Due to this large workload, hip problems are not uncommon and can include:

• Hip osteoarthritis
• Labrum tears
• Muscle strains
• Bursitis
• Hip fractures
• Bone spurs that can lead to impingement

Whether you’ve already developed one of these issues (or another issue that we haven't listed) or you simply want to protect your hips, it’s important that you take good care of these large joints.

Best practices for hips

There are many ways you can care for your hips, including:

Stretching and strengthening

Ensuring that the soft tissues in your hips are both strong and flexible is one of the best steps toward healthier hips. For example, when you strengthen the muscle groups that surround your hips, you can take the pressure off of the bones and the cartilage to prevent damage.

To get you started, The Arthritis Foundation has pulled together a great list of hip-strengthening and stretching exercises here. As well, a good yoga practice can do wonders for both strengthening your hips and keeping them flexible.

Take some pressure off

If your hips feel sore after being active, it’s important to listen to these joints and not push them too hard. Take some time away from concussive activities, such as running or playing basketball, and find new ways to exercise that don’t put so much pressure on your hips. Great examples of hip-friendly activities include swimming and biking.

Prevent hip fractures

We want to highlight a major problem among the older set — hip fractures. Each year in the United States, there are 350,000 hip fractures, and the lion’s share occur among the elderly. This type of injury can be devastating for older people, so you want to do everything you can to prevent a hip fracture.

To help, the US government has created a special resource center for preventing falls, which can be found here. 

Work with us

If you’re struggling with hip pain, don’t delay in getting the right diagnosis and treatment. At our practice, our goal is to help you avoid surgery and rely on other methods for regaining pain-free movement in your hips, such as regenerative medicine and physical therapy.

If you have any further questions about the best ways to take care of your hips or you’re dealing with hip pain, please contact us. Click the “request appointment” button or call one of our offices in Staten Island or Hartsdale, New York, to set up a consultation.