How to fix hip pain without changing your mattress
A way to solve hip pain without changing your mattress is to loosen the contracted and stiff muscles around the hip joint.
For example, if you experience pain when lying on your back, it is because the stiff muscles in the front of your hip joint are stretched when you lie on your back. Therefore, the pain can be resolved by loosening the muscles in the front of your hip joint.
If you are thinking about using a mattress to solve hip pain while sleeping, it is important to understand how hip pain occurs, because without knowing how the pain occurs, you will not be able to choose the right mattress.
On the other hand, if you investigate the causes of your hip pain, you may come to the conclusion that changing your mattress isn't necessarily the solution.
- Have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the hip
- Pain in the hip joint as well as the lower back
- Have received massage treatments
The key to solving this problem is to understand your body's habits.
People who suffer from hip pain have problems with the way they use their bodies and the movement of their joints. By knowing these, you can identify the cause and find the most efficient and quickest way to solve the problem. Let's take a look at the body habits that cause hip pain.
1. Poor external rotation of the hip joint
The first is the movement of twisting the hip joint outward.
The illustration tests the movement known as external rotation, which twists the hip joint outward. If you are not good at external rotation, it will be difficult to bring your knees closer to the floor. As you bring your knees closer to the floor, it is normal for them to go down so that you can fit one or two fists between your knees and the floor.
Many people who suffer from hip pain always have their toes pointing inward, which is because they have difficulty with external rotation.
Why is poor external rotation related to hip pain?
If you are not good at external rotation, you walk with your toes pointing inward, which causes tension in the muscles in front of your hip joints, and eventually they become stiff and cannot be stretched.
This will cause your body balance to be disrupted and put strain on your hip joints.
Why is external rotation difficult?
When the gluteus maximus muscle in the buttocks is weak, external rotation becomes difficult. In modern life, there are few situations where the gluteus maximus is used, and muscles that are left dormant only become weaker.
In addition, stiffness on the inside of the thighs can hinder external rotation.
If you sit for long periods of time, your inner thighs will become stiff.
2. Slouching
The second is a leaning forward posture.
The illustration shows which points are out of alignment with the ideal posture. When your hips, shoulders, and ears are all aligned in a straight line, it means you have good posture and put less strain on your hips.
People who suffer from hip pain tend to lean forward with their heads forward when standing and walking.
Why is slouching related to hip pain?
When you lean forward, you walk with your head forward, which shortens your stride and causes your feet to land on the ground first, whereas ideally you should land on your heels. You also end up using more of the muscles in the front of your thighs, which causes you to stand with your knees slightly bent.
The combined effects of a slouching posture put pressure on and contract the muscles at the front of the hip joint, causing pain if the hip joint is subjected to continued strain.
Why is the posture slouching?
It's the result of maintaining a forward-facing posture. It can be caused by a variety of factors, including driving a car or using a smartphone. It can also be caused by a fear of pain.
3. Excessive pelvic tilt
The third is pelvic tilt.
The pelvis is designed to tilt forward and backward, but if it tilts too far forward in either direction, pain will occur. Young, active people and those with severe hip pain often have their pelvis tilted too far forward. This is called arched back, and it is a posture in which the buttocks are pushed back.
In contrast, older people have a posteriorly tilted pelvis and a hunched posture.
Why is hip tilt related to hip pain?
Let's take the example of anterior pelvic tilt. If the pelvis is tilted too far forward, it puts pressure on the muscles at the front of the hip joint, leading to muscle contraction.
Why is my hip tilt too much?
Let's take the example of an anterior tilt of the pelvis. When the thigh muscles called the quadriceps are contracted, the lower back becomes arched. These are the most powerful muscles in the human body, and have enough influence to change the direction of the pelvis.
Other causes include tension in the psoas major muscle, or weakness in the gluteus maximus or abdominal muscles.
Treatment record
Let's take a look at the records to see what steps were taken to improve hip pain.
- Symptoms: Pain in hip joints and knees for the past year. Numbness in hands and feet.
- Age: 50s
- Work: Long periods of standing.
- What I've tried: I got checked at the hospital and took medicine.
If we were to put the events up to now in chronological order, it would look something like this:
- I have had numbness in my toes for the past 18 years, and it gets worse especially when I sleep.
- I started having hip and knee pain a year ago.
- I was examined at the hospital but there was no improvement.
Various tests will be performed to find the cause. Various parts of the body have a limited range of movement. If you are unable to move as you should, or if it is difficult to move up and down or to the left or right, that may be the cause of the pain.
Test results
Upon examination, it was discovered that there were parts of the lower body that were not functioning properly.
Check the hip joint movement.
When twisting the leg outward, the range of motion of the painful left hip joint is narrower than that of the right leg. Not only that, the patient feels tension around the hip joint, making it difficult to move.
One of the possible causes is tension in the muscles around the pelvis.
Next, we will check to see if there is any problem with your pelvis.
Although the patient complains of hip pain, I don't touch the hip joint from the beginning. There are two reasons for this.
① Inflammation worsens and the number of visits to the hospital increases
When you get a massage, your blood circulation definitely improves for a moment, which feels good. However, the muscles that are causing pain are inflamed, so pressing on them will only make the inflammation worse. This will result in constant pain, and during the treatment, it will be impossible to tell whether your symptoms are improving or not.
This makes it impossible to tell on the spot whether the symptoms have improved, so we end up saying, "That's all for today. Let's see how it goes for a while," which results in the patient having to come to the clinic more often. This is not desirable as it increases the burden on the customer.
② There is no cause in the area where the pain is occurring
When you have a problem with your hip joint, the cause is often far away, in the lower back or legs. Relaxing the muscles around the hip joint can temporarily relieve pain, but it does not fundamentally improve the condition.
Also, the muscles that are causing pain may not be relaxed, and the more treatment you receive, the worse the pain will become.
For these two reasons, even though the patient complains of hip pain, we do not touch the hip joint from the start.
Treatment details
We will introduce you to the holistic treatment method.
I encourage them to actively try movements that they are not good at. This person had difficulty assuming the position shown in the illustration due to stiff thigh muscles, but I adjusted them until they were able to do it.
Of course, when pain is present, some people stop moving their hip joint and keep quiet out of fear that the pain may get worse.
However, as long as there is a joint with a limited range of motion, the strain on the hip joint will not go away.
You can't move when you're in pain, so the first step is to perform a treatment to reduce the pain. For some people, the pain disappears at this point.
In the next step, once the pain has subsided, you will begin to challenge yourself with movements that you are not good at, within your limits. By the time you no longer have to do the movements that you are not good at, the initial problem will have been resolved.
I tried the movements that had caused pain during the examination before the treatment again, and the doctor confirmed that the numbness in my hip joints and limbs had disappeared.
Although there was still some stiffness behind the knee, I explained that it was not a problem as the discomfort had been reduced to about 20% of the initial level and suggested that she start doing stretches every day. After this, she received two more treatments and the treatment was completed.
When you have osteoarthritis of the hip, there are some things you should be careful of in your daily life to prevent the symptoms from progressing and to keep your hip joint in good condition for a long time.
①Walking around with your smartphone
If you look at the posture of people walking while using a smartphone, you will see that without exception they are leaning forward and walking with their heads pointing forward. This forward-headed posture causes them to walk with narrow strides and their toes touching the ground first. This way of walking puts strain not only on the hip joints but also on the knee joints, so the aim is to land on your heels and walk using the muscles on the inside of your thighs.
② Sports that use the supporting foot or jumping sports
People with osteoarthritis should avoid internal rotation and flexion of the hip joint. Sports that require a supporting leg, such as tennis and table tennis, should be avoided as much as possible. Repeated internal rotation of one hip joint puts a lot of strain on the hip joint. Sports that involve bouncing, such as dancing and volleyball, also put a lot of strain on the hip joint.
③Sit on a soft sofa
For those with severe symptoms, the muscles around the hip joint are very stiff, and if they sit with their hip joints deeply bent, the hip joints may become even stiffer.
Be careful not to sit in a chair with a high seat or avoid a soft seat, and avoid positions that cause deep flexion of the hip joints.
Even if your hip pain symptoms are mild, avoid soft sofas. This causes your pelvis to tilt backward, and the muscles in your buttocks to support your upper body, which tenses up your buttocks and puts strain on your hip joints.
If you sit with your pelvis upright and not leaning against the backrest, your upper body will be supported by your sitting bones, which will help prevent the muscles in your buttocks from becoming stiff.
However, if you continue to sit without using a backrest, your back muscles will become fatigued and your posture will deteriorate.
Ideally, you should stand up every 15 minutes, but if that's difficult, try taking occasional breaks by leaning back in your chair, while maintaining a sitting position with your pelvis upright.
Steps to solve the problem holistically
The way we use our bodies, learned from childhood through play, sports, accidents, childbirth and other events, has shaped the physical condition we have today.
If you are experiencing pain, it is simply your body's way of telling you that there is a problem with the way you have been using your body up until now.
The first step to solving the problem is to stop the pain. After identifying the cause through an examination and then performing treatment, the pain will be reduced. Only after the pain has been alleviated will you be ready to learn how to use your body correctly.
The second step is to learn how to use your body correctly. This will change your body and brain so that you don't go back to your old state.
Since physical pain is often caused by lifestyle habits, stretching and exercise are necessary. Just like brushing your teeth, consistent practice is important.
If you want to solve your pain, you need to stop the pain first, then stretching and exercise can come afterwards.