“It feels tight” this is a common complaint that our patients present to us in clinical practice.
But is it really a myofascial tightness or does the pain provide the perception of tightness?
Take the “my hip flexors are always tight” example. The patient might stretch them and have them treated but it never really takes away the problem, it might offer short term relief but is the stretching making it worse in the long term?
If an area of the body is sore / tight it is very important to conduct a thought physical assessment and history prior to telling someone to stretch as it may actually be contributing to the problem.
Anterior hip pain could be a range of different pathologies such as Iliopsoas tendinopathy, Iliopsoas bursitis, iliopsoas tears, proximal rectus femoris tear, Adductor tear / tendinopathy, Femoroacetabular impingement, anterior insufficiency / acetabular dysplasia, Acetabular labral tear, synovitis, osteoarthritis etc
All of these mentioned can be exacerbated by stretching hip flexors. This places more shear force on the anterosuperior labrum, more compressive load on iliopsoas tendons / bursa, increase tensile load placed through proximal rectus femoris, increased stress on anterior capsule and capsular ligaments etc
So before offing hip flexor stretches to everyone with hip pain, do they need stretching or perhaps strengthening as an alternative.
It’s is always important to identify what is the reason behind the perception of “tightness”.
#hippain #hipflexor #runner #groinpain #myofascialpain #muscletightness
