I was riding my bicycle to work last week as usual. This ride in particular entails leaving a few minutes later than I should have, oh the commutes. This leads to riding faster and hustling to try and make lights in order to avoid stopping. Same routine as any other morning, but then as I am working I notice this stiffness and slight soreness on the front of my left hip. This is not usual or routine for me. These symptoms continue throughout the day despite some stretching of the area during rehab training sessions with patients. This is odd because I did not feel anything happen on the ride in itself, but here these symptoms were. At the end of my day, I get on my bike to ride home and it is confirmed, pain with the upstroke of my pedal revolution, an apparent strain of one of my left hip flexor muscles.
Luckily, I am chiropractic physician who specializes in sports and injury rehabilitation. The rest of the ride home involves intermittent myofascial releases performed on the hip while riding, and it actually was a pretty effective method of treatment. Although I don’t recommend doing it yourself. Then I made sure to stretch the area well when I got home. The pain lasted that evening while I walked the dogs. Continually feeling it all night, and then it was there when I woke up in the morning. I foam rolled and stretched out the area before walking the dogs, it was sore on the roller and when walking.
This led to me debating all morning about whether or not I should attend my high-intensity interval training session I usually go to at the Warrior Room. The pros and cons were going back and forth in my mind. I decided to go and see how it felt. The workout was sore, but I was able to do it with only a mild increase in symptoms by the end. Again, I stretched and foam rolled after class and at work later that day. Luckily that did the trick and I felt 95 percent better the following day.
It is no fun to get hurt. It can be a “pulled” or strained hamstring, hip flexor, sprained ankle, or car accident that leads to pain and stiffness. The worst part is when these symptoms make it harder to do what we love to do or prevent us from those activities altogether. If you have any injuries, please make sure to take care of them the best that you know how to. If the symptoms persist for more than a couple days, if they make a body part not move the way it is supposed to, or if they make it hard to do what you love to do; please get help from people who specialize in returning bodies to full strength and function following injuries.
The treatments we specialize in here at Milwaukie Spine and Sport include: foam rolling, restorative movements, stretching, rehabilitative strength training, myofascial cupping, corrective taping, instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization, myofascial release, joint mobilizations/manipulations (adjustments). These techniques can be applied at the right time and in the right way to get you back to loving the way you move!
Written by Jordan Wilde
Milwaukie Spine and Sport
