Hip strains are a particularly scary proposition, especially for people more than 65 years old. The condition is no less common in people of other age groups, nor does its severity and mobility lack for others. There are a wide variety of hip injuries or strains. These include:
Hip fracture: A broken hip refers to a break in the upper thigh bone’s upper quarter, very near the hip joint.
Snapping hip syndrome: Several names people and medicare professionals use to refer to this same condition. Patients suffering from this condition experience a snapping sensation each time they flex or extend the hips. The other terms used to refer to it are coxa saltans, dancers’ hip, and iliopsoas tendinitis.
Labral tear: The cartilage that runs along the hip socket’s rim is called the hip’s labrum. It is shaped like a crescent and serves to support the hip joint and make it more stable. A labral tear occurs due to sudden or specific injuries or, in some rare cases, by repeated motions over time.
Dislocation: This type of hip injury occurs when the hip gets displaced from its normal position.
Bursitis: This condition results in pain outside the hip and is a common type of hip pain. If you stand or walk for extended periods, this condition tends to aggravate.
How To Recover
It is impossible to consider all the types of hip injuries and how you can recover from them in one article. Instead, our focus will be on recovering from surgery as surgery is the typical outcome of many types of hip problems, especially when they become severe.
Once your hip surgery is complete, you want to return to exercising for the various benefits it offers. You will want to increase your strength, flexibility, and mobility so that you can resume the activity levels you had before the injury. Besides, exercise will also go a long way in enhancing your heart health, endurance, and balance. To get back on your foot and start walking, a rollator is your friend on 3 wheels. The following types of exercises will help you resume normal activities like walking:
Physical Therapy Or Rehabilitation
Your hip surgery might have been conducted using an arthroscope, or you might have undergone a total hip replacement. Irrespective, some form of rehabilitation is usually necessary before you can walk again. Such physical therapy sessions may take place both in the patient’s home or OPD sections of hospitals. The therapy aims to increase the mobility of your joints, flexibility, balance, and strength. Most patients will need to undergo four to twelve weeks of such physical therapy from skilled medical professionals. The specific exercises and activities you need to do will depend on your age and body agility levels. A large majority of exercises you will do will strengthen the hip area and increase its mobility.
Yoga
People choosing to do yoga to recover after hip surgery need to make a conservative healing plan extending to at least a year. Keep in mind the individual concerned will determine the specifics. However, you should necessarily consult your doctor before you start your yoga classes. Patients recovering from hip replacement procedures should keep certain things in mind for the three to six months that follow the surgery. Experts advise caution while doing internal rotation, adduction, and flexion above ninety degrees. Be sure to ask your yoga trainer for a list of poses you can safely do. Also, make it a point to clarify these poses and their safety with your physician or physical therapist. Yoga is one of the better options open to you if you want to make your body and muscles less stiff while at the same time strengthening them and making them more flexible.
Pilates
You can indeed perform pilates following surgery, but you would need to exercise a significant amount of discretion while doing the same. Again, the individual specifics affect the advice. Overall, Pilates is known for its effectiveness in enhancing body strength, motion, and flexibility. Even expert pilate instructors clarify that individual surgeries call for unique recovery movement specifics before you can eventually start walking.
Home Workouts
You need to find ways to ensure joint mobility following physical therapy or even in the time between successive sessions. Exercise is critical to keep muscle atrophy to a bare minimum and ensure proper circulation. You need to ensure that the tissue surrounding the affected region remains strong, healthy, and flexible. It needs to provide support to the injured area of the hip. Gentle exercises will let you stay active till you are fit and walking again.
Final Thoughts
Following hip surgery or severe hip strains, you need to start with simple movements to recover normal body functions like walking. Before you can begin to, however, walkers and rollators might be required. Then you need to choose a form of exercise that will help you resume your daily activities with renewed abilities and vigor. Here’s to your prompt and effective recovery.