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Quick Fixes For Hip & Back Pain: Q&A
- chelsie462
- 7 hours ago
- 12 min read
This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in October 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/vWOsfWvzp2I
Mike: Today, we are answering your questions on hip and back pain, plus we have a bonus.
Brad: That's right, we've got five different people asking some really good questions. We're going to be able to help them out, give them a little guidance, and see if things can go better for them.
Mike: The first question comes from @fav1478. "What exercise should you do if you have osteoarthritis on left hip? Do you recommend a hip surgery? Is there a less invasive hip surgery?"
Brad: Very good questions. We're going to have to work with this carefully because we don't know a lot of the details about your situation. But typically, avoiding hip surgery is always nice. Then we're going to show you some exercises that can help the hip out, loosen up the joint a little bit, and get some more synovial fluid in the joint so it's less painful. But one thing you can do is talk to your doctor. They're looking at the X-rays, and they know the severity of the problem. But there are injections that you can do into the hip. Make sure you ask that. And that really is on an individual basis. We cannot give any recommendations on that, but the doctor will know that information. Anything else, Mike?
Mike: Not from that point of view, but when it comes to trying therapy or exercises first, that's always a good option. It's not going to make anything any worse. Some good recommendations are to try to do non-weight-bearing activities. If you can get to a pool of sorts, that is typically more non-weight-bearing because obviously, you have buoyancy in the water, even things like possibly riding a bicycle are non-weight-bearing as well. And it gets some motion in there.
Brad: A pool of sorts.
Mike: A pool of sorts.
Brad: I'm thinking like a swimming pool.
Mike: Not your bathtub.
Brad: Yeah, so in the pool, if you do want to get to the pool, or you have that option, and you like water, you're going to have to go water about chest deep, and you simply work the hip. If my right is my sore hip, these are a couple of exercises, simple kicks forward and backwards, right to left, and then bring that knee up and down. And any motion that you can get, it's probably going to feel much better in the water. Almost always does.
Brad: Good option for a hip problem. Now Mike is going to show some decompression or some traction, and I call this the pendulum swing for the hip.
Mike: So you would do this opposite of me if your left hip is bothering, I'm just showing my right hip for camera sake here. So you stand on this step with your good leg, hold onto support as needed. I am sideways here. And what you're going to do is try to relax this hip. Right now I'm engaged. You can see I'm even. Now I'm relaxed. I'm dropping it down. This is pulling and stretching out on my hip in the joint, specifically. So it can give you some relief if you're having some sharp type pains in there. And then you can start swinging your leg, a little bit forward and back, and just see if that actually helps.
Mike: And that's something you can simply try at home. If your pain keeps getting worse and worse over months and months and years and nothing is better, obviously you want to go talk to your doctor 'cause surgery may be what you need.
Brad: I already said that.
Mike: Well, I'm just reiterating it.
Brad: So if you look at the hip joint, what Mike is doing there, if you look real close, relaxing the muscles that hold the hip in is a big key. Mike mentioned it, but watch what happens. If we can open that joint up just a little bit to allow synovial fluid to get in there while you're moving it, that can offer some relief and give your hip more life.
Mike: Now I have a weight on there to pull it down more. If you have some heavy snow boots at home, you can use them. Just having more weight on your foot part can add more distraction.
Brad: That's right. So, very good. We hope you got some helpful information. You can go to Bob and Brad and look at hip exercises with arthritic pain, and you'll get a couple of good videos that will go into more detail. Let's go to number two.
Mike: Our second question comes from @DahRealDeal. "Can exercise therapy quiet the crepitus in my hip and knee? So first, Brad, what's crepitus?"
Brad: Crepitus? Good question. I liked it. @DahRealDeal. Good name. Crepitus. It is the popping and the grinding noise you feel in a joint when you move it. A lot of people have it. As we age, we usually get more. The nice thing about crepitus is that if you experience no pain and you have a normal range of motion, you have popping and grinding, that's probably okay because that's just normal. Things are moving around in the joint. And like I said, as we age, we usually experience it more. However, if you experience pain while that crepitus is going on, then you need to pay attention to it and give it some attention.
Mike: Yes. If it gets very severe, which we've worked with some people, people next to you can actually hear your joints literally creaking. We've worked with patients like that before. Oftentimes, with them, it's kind of too far gone, and the only thing that can really help is surgery. So if you're early on, like Brad said, not painful for range of motion, you're fine. You can keep exercising. If it's far beyond it, just do what you can.
Brad: Right. Now, if you are having some painful crepitus, it's not really painful in the joint to the hip, you know, do some range of motion, non-weight-bearing. See if it gets better with repetition. If it does get better after 5 to 10 reps, you can do that. If it gets worse, you need to see someone.
Brad: And with the hip, you know, you might be lying down and just work the hip up, noodle it around like this, as such, and see if that crepitus will improve with a gentle range of motion. If it does, that's good. If it makes it worse or things continue to get worse, you're going to have to go in and get it checked out.
Mike: Our third question comes from @karandhere. I apologize if I mispronounce your username. Anyway, "how does one get to know that sciatica has cured? I got sciatica two years back, and now I'm back to doing all sports activities that I used to do pre-sciatica, albeit with 50% efficiency."
Brad: Excellent question. Now you'll know if your sciatica is cured. Let's say your symptoms, you had some back pain and pain running down your leg past the knee, you have maybe some numbness and tingling at its worst, and now all those symptoms are completely gone regardless of the activities you're doing. That's my assumption of what you're saying here. But you're saying you're not as mobile and strong perhaps on that side. So you're not back into your game like you were at one time. Now I'm assuming that, as a result of the sciatica, there was compensation; there were muscles on that side that did not get used, and they became weak. And so your gait, your running, your walking pattern may have changed a little bit. So it's just a matter of determining which muscles have gotten weak or maybe a walking pattern, a gait pattern, is throwing you off. Without seeing you or doing an assessment, it's kind of hard to give advice. But a trainer, a personal trainer, I don't know if you'd have to go to a PT, but that would be fine. Or a personal trainer could do some muscle testing and see which muscle groups are weak and focus on those to help get you back into your game. You have some more, Mike?
Mike: Sometimes, you may not just have a weakness in the area. They may have become tight to protect against that pain. So that can be coming from your lower back muscles or even your hip muscles. So sometimes just doing some different stretches, trying things out, seeing if anything's tight can help. And we should note that with sciatica, oftentimes, but not always, it can be from a herniated disc. If you had a herniated disc once, you can re-aggravate it. So if you start to have pain again, you probably just re-aggravated it. It's not like it didn't fully heal itself originally.
Brad: Yeah, so be careful. Have a good, cautious eye out for those symptoms to recur, and then back off.
Mike: Question number four comes from @Heybism. "Would an inversion table be okay to do?" You didn't elaborate, but we'll give our input, I guess.
Brad: Right, so some general information about inversion tables, oftentimes are often used for people with low back pain to offer traction or some decompression. They work quite well. I've used them for a couple of years. For some people, they will work very well immediately. For example, right now, if I invert mine, I've got it set up so this is where it stops.
Brad: A full inversion means you're vertical. I don't recommend doing that. I would say 60 degrees at the most, where I am right here, to be safe. And it's very important that you know the precautions of an inversion table. I don't have a list of all of them here, but one of them is that if you have any eye problems, when you do this, the pressure in your eyes increases, and that can cause some serious problems with your vision. I believe it's with glaucoma, but I might be wrong. The other thing is, people go too much too soon, they invert too far, or hang at an angle like this for too long the first time. I did that, I was like that for five minutes. I ended up with a headache for the rest of the day and into the evening. So you must be very careful. I personally used one at a brick and mortar store, and I did what I did right now, and it's like, "oh," even like right now this feels good on my stenosis, and if you have immediate relief, it's a good sign you're going to have good luck with it. But you may not. So, there's no guarantee. Mike?
Mike: They really vary person to person if they can help. It depends on what your back pain issue is and what's causing it. If people are curious, this is the Teeter brand one we have right here. With them, if you want to order one and try it out, you can send it back for free, but you're going to have to pay for shipping to ship it back.
Brad: That's right. Yeah. These Teeters are very well built mechanically, and they work well, so we can give good confidence in that.
Mike: Obviously, if you're doing it and you start to get lightheaded, dizzy, or nauseous, feeling like you're going to pass out, you're either doing too much too soon, or it's not really meant for you with the other health issues you have going on.
Brad: Exactly right. I always timed mine so I knew exactly how long I was going because if you're too relaxed or you know, you may wanna do it with someone there initially, so if you need help, you can get help.
Mike: We'd like to mention that this often will take away symptoms of pain you may be having, but long-term, it's probably not gonna fix the origin of your pain issue. So you're going to have to do other stretches or exercises, or possibly surgery. But it is a good option if you really have pain with no relief.
Brad: That's right. All right, very good. I hope that information is helpful. Let's go on to the next one. The next one, I'm going to actually read this one now. This is from Facebook, and her name is Linda Vincent. "Does the child pose in Pilates have the same effect?"
Mike: Now, child's pose, I think, in any surrounding setting, is the same. I don't think it varies. So yoga, therapy stretches, Pilates, I feel like they're all the same.
Brad: Well, I don't know if she's really asking that, though, Mike. You have to read between the lines here. Open the mind up. I think she's wondering if the child pose that she does in Pilates has the same effect as the child pose that we teach on our informative videos.
Mike: I believe they have the same effect, yes.
Brad: Well, let's go through it and let's just talk about it, then everything will be clear.
Mike: So if you don't know what the child's pose is, it's often done in yoga or Pilates, or we teach it here on our channel sometimes. So, to begin, you get on all fours like this. Typically, you bring your feet together, knees wide apart, and then you sit your butt towards your heels while keeping your hands in place. Once you're down like this, if you want more of a stretch, you can reach forward. And you typically hold this for a duration of time. In those other settings, it can be 30 seconds. Some people will do it for like one to three minutes. You can just breathe here for five breaths or 30 seconds, relax, and then come back up.
Mike: Do that numerous times. You can also add a variation of going to one side, reaching over more, or you can go to the other side.
Mike: Now this is a good stretch because it works your hips, your knees, your ankles a bit, and your lower back. It helps keep a nice neutral spine position as well. Stretches my lats here, and it also stretches my shoulders. So it's kind of like a whole body stretch with one simple activity.
Brad: Right, I do want to add, it really emphasizes you can't see it through a shirt, and we don't want to have him take his shirt off, of course, but when he does at the shoulder blade, the scapula is actually moving forward, stretching all the related muscles. And that is really important if someone has a depressed scapula, which oftentimes is a cause of shoulder pain and neck pain.
Brad: So we use this stretch specifically for shoulder and neck pain, oftentimes, as well as low back pain. So yeah, I think everything is the same as Pilates, but we're looking at it specifically on some joint and body part pains that it addresses, along with a couple of other exercises, which we show in other videos.
Mike: So that's all the questions we have for today.
Brad: You think they were happy with our answers?
Mike: I hope so.
Brad: Yeah, I think we gave some good answers, and get better and be careful.
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