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Only 1 In 5000 Know This About Treating Hip Bursitis
- chelsie462
- Jul 3
- 9 min read
This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in July 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/ElhfFWVYC9g
Mike: Do you suffer from hip bursitis and are not sure where to begin?
Brad: Well, today we're going to cover four little-known secrets to help you recover from this as well as get back to moving better, walking straight again.
Mike: So, to understand hip bursitis, we're going to go into a little bit of an anatomy lesson here. So here we have the femur bone. And this landmark, this bony area here, is known as the greater trochanter.
Mike: Typically, throughout the body, on bony landmarks, we have things called a bursa. They're like a fluid-filled sac. And what they help do is reduce friction from muscles or tendons that go over these bony prominences.
Brad: Right, and I'll demonstrate that with this piece of tape. It may be like the IT band ligaments that actually go over this bony prominence. And again, if while you're walking, moving, it tendencies to to glide over that. And if you don't have the bursa in there, that will definitely get inflamed, irritated, and wear out. So what the key is, is that the bursa sac actually has a lot of nerve endings, and when it gets inflamed, it becomes very tender. And as this moves over that bursa sac pain, pain, pain, we need to eliminate, get rid of the stress on this area, so the bursa is back to functioning without pain.
Mike: So some of the causes of this increased friction on the area are maybe you increased how much activity you're doing, walking, running, exercising, etc. Sometimes it's just that. Other times, you are compensating with your muscles; certain muscles are engaging, and others are weak. So what we're going to do is go through some stretches and some strengthening exercises to help alleviate these issues you may be having.
Brad: Now we would like to say we figured out which muscles you need to strengthen and stretch, but it's not true. It actually comes from a physical therapist named Rick Olderman. He has a whole book. He explains this and the muscle, the stretches, and the strengthening exercises, which are the four we mentioned. We'll go through them clearly and very shortly. Go ahead, Mike.
Mike: So, oftentimes when it comes to hip bursitis, on most people, their hip flexor muscles often become tight and overused. These muscles help flex your hip, help with walking, running forward, and oftentimes, your glutes become weak. So first, what we want to do is stretch these hip flexors out with the stretch we're going to show you now.
Brad: Yes, and then we'll go to the glute and how to counteract that. So the two exercises complement each other.
Mike: So there are many ways to stretch your hip flexor muscles; however, this way works for most people. So you need to lie down on a firm surface of sorts. If your bed is firm, you can use a countertop, kitchen table, or whatever you have. And you're going to begin by bringing both your knees to your chest. The closer my buttocks are to the edge of the table, the more stretch I will feel in my hip flexors. I'm going to lower my left one down first. And once I get down here, I'm going to try to bend it to 90 degrees. If you're tight like me, you probably can't get a 90-degree bend. And then make sure to pull the opposite knee towards your chest. You can see once I do that, my hip flexor tightness will pull up a bit. Try to push it down. Hold this roughly for 30 seconds. Also, make sure your leg doesn't drift out to the side. If you're tight, try to keep it in a direct straight line. Breathe throughout it. Once you do one side, reset the back, both knees to chest, and then drop the other side. You may notice one side is much tighter than the other. Maybe spend a little bit extra time on that side.
Brad: Can you go back to the first stretch? Yeah, if we're looking at this side, I just wanted to clarify if it wasn't clear. The lower the knee goes, the better the flexibility in the hip flexors. However, when the foot pulls underneath here, it actually addresses one muscle that usually doesn't get addressed, and that's the rectus femoris, which goes from the patella of the knee all the way up to the pelvis.
Brad: That's important. Now, you might have the knee go down this far on one side, and when the other one goes down, we'll just look at this, and let's say it only drops to here. Obviously, this is the tighter hip flexor. Spend more time on the tight side, but still address the other side, so you get some maintenance.
Mike: Try to do two to three sets on each leg for roughly 30 seconds. You could do it numerous times a day as long as it feels good.
Brad: Alright, the second stretch is very nice. It actually complements the first stretch, where we stretched out the hip flexors. Now, we're going to do the posterior or the back side of the hip, as well as the SI joint and low back in the hip extensors. So nice stretch. It also helps with low back pain, SI joint sacral iliac, as well as sciatica. Go ahead, Mike. We call it the all four stretch.
Mike: So this is kindly known as a child's pose in yoga as well. So what we're going to do is be on all fours, hands and knees. I'm going to keep my hands in place and I'm going to slowly sit my butt towards my heels. Now, if you're tight and you have to stop here, it's perfectly fine. Just sit here for 30 seconds or so and then come back up. Over time, try to get your buttocks to touch your heels.
Mike: Notice I have my knees wider apart. This makes it easier for me to sit on my heels. Once I'm down here, I'm going to breathe and relax. Try to hold for 30 seconds. If you don't feel much of a stretch in your back and you want to go more, simply reach forward a little more. Again, breathe throughout and then come back up. You're going to do that five to 10 times, hold for 15 to 30 seconds when you're sitting down in the low position.
Brad: And another benefit of the stretch, it actually helps the shoulder blade as well as the shoulder posture. So you'll feel that stretch as well. This next exercise specifically addresses the glute maximus muscle. Mike did talk about it becoming weak, which is common. This will help strengthen it and also position the hip in the right position. It complements the stretch of the hip flexor exercise we did initially. Go ahead, Mike.
Mike: So to do this, you need to be on all fours on your elbows, preferably. We will show a standing version here in a minute if you can't get into this position. So if I'm strengthening my left one, I'm going to bring it up. I'm not going to go all the way up or all the way down. You are going to pick a range kind of in the middle. This will keep the glutes activated the entire time. And you're just going to do little oscillating movements. Shoot for 15 to 30 repetitions. If you're not feeling much activation of your glutes, say you're feeling it in your hamstrings more, simply turn your foot in like this, and this'll help engage the glute a little more. Again, do 15, 30 repetitions on one side. Make sure to switch it and do it on the other side.
Brad: All right. And obviously, this is a good exercise to do right after the all fours stretch because you're already in that position. Makes it more efficient. Alright, if that is not very comfortable as far as getting on all fours in your hands and knees, you can do this standing. Go to a countertop, a firm surface about waist level, hands on the countertop or whichever you're using, we're going to work the right side, bend the knee at 90 degrees. It's not way up like this or down, at 90 degrees. Keep it there. And then we're going to simply do the exact same motion. We're not doing large motions. Again, it's going to be short motions, about six to 12 inches, repeatedly doing them 15 to 30 seconds or 15 to 30 repetitions. And you can do the same thing if you rotate the foot down like this and work it like this, you get a little better emphasis on that glute maximus, and you will feel it. Same repetitions over time.
Mike: If that becomes easy and you want to advance it, you can use a cuff weight, but you're going to place it on your thigh since that'll be the best angle for resistance when you're performing the exercise.
Brad: There you go. The fourth and final exercise is gluteal walking. This one, you're going to find a little strange, but it does work. And the whole idea of it is to get your glute maximus to actually work properly in time with your hip. So the cadence of how you walk takes stress away from that greater trochanter and the bursitis. Again, it's a little strange, but it works, and it's not hard to do.
Mike: So with most walking people, if they heel strike, this will put more impact forces through your joints, from your ankle, knee, hip, and even into your lower back. So what we want to do is walk more on our forefoot, land this way, versus with the foot way out in front of us in a heel strike.
Mike: For beginners, we commonly recommend just going into your house, either in slippers or barefoot. If you happen to have zero-drop minimalist-type shoes, certainly wear those. But in your house, what you're going to do to begin is actually kind of go up on your toes if you're able to, and then just take little walks around the house, maybe 10 to 20 feet in distance. This will help engage your gluten muscles. Now, to begin, walk normally, how you normally walk. Place your hands on your butts. This is why we say do it in your house, and feel how your glutes are engaging, how much they're contracting. Now try to go up on your toes, tippy-toe walking. You should notice a significant difference in how much contraction you're getting in your glute muscles. This is a good sign, meaning your glutes are kicking in and firing, taking pressure off of your hip joint.
Mike: So when you start walking outside, eventually over time, start slow, maybe walk a few blocks, and then progress over time. You're going to have to shorten your step length, meaning how far you step out. It'll feel a little awkward at first because you've been walking the same way most of your life. So just take it slow, and over time it should start to feel better.
Brad: Yeah, and you don't exaggerate it and walk around the block on your tiptoes. That was to start out to get that feeling.
Mike: Yes.
Brad: When you have that slight flexion in your knee, four-foot contact, that really helps minimize stress throughout all the joints and takes that stress through the muscles, not the joints. Alright, if you want to get a better explanation right from Rick Olderman, go to rickolderman.com, is that correct?
Mike: Yes. And you can check out his online programs there or his books, and you'll get a much more in-depth explanation of all this. If you want to check out another video on how to stop hip bursitis pain, watch "STOP Hip Bursitis Pain Without Seeing A Dr or Having Injection." This video has Bob in it, so you'll probably like it more.
Brad: There you go. Have a good day. Be careful, and walk well.
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