Hip pain & cycling

"Doki" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Anyone had this? Lately I've had bad pains in my right hip, which isn't
great in your early 20s. Bad enough to make putting socks on difficult in
the morning, and make walking bloody painful on occasion. My GP reckons
lots of cyclists get it, but I put it down to having a naff chair at my
desk as I'd not been cycling at the time.

OTOH, I had a quick go on a stepping machine and my right leg does seem a
lot stronger than my left, so I could be working it harder. Current plan
is to go and see the sport physio at uni. My riding is about 70% MTB and
30% Road bike.

Wow an almost helpful doctor.

Sport physio is the answer.

Cyling can cause some leg muscles to become overly tight which causes
problems with hips and knees. You probably need to do some stretches.

"Doki" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Anyone had this? Lately I've had bad pains in my right hip, which isn't
great in your early 20s. Bad enough to make putting socks on difficult in
the morning, and make walking bloody painful on occasion. My GP reckons
lots of cyclists get it, but I put it down to having a naff chair at my
desk as I'd not been cycling at the time.

OTOH, I had a quick go on a stepping machine and my right leg does seem a
lot stronger than my left, so I could be working it harder. Current plan
is to go and see the sport physio at uni. My riding is about 70% MTB and
30% Road bike.

Need your saddle adjusted? If it's too high you can end up rocking your
hips. Get thee to a sports' physio and be seen to!

Cheers, helen s

Some 'hip pain' can originate from discs and vertebrae in the back.

Make sure your back gets checked properly.

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

in message <[email hidden]>, Doki

(') said:

Anyone had this? Lately I've had bad pains in my right hip, which isn't
great in your early 20s.

I first got into serious cycling because, at age twenty, I had quite bad
arthritis in hips and knees. Regular cycling improved it very quickly,
and after thirty years of regular cycling I still have no pain in
either. Apart from falls I've never had cycling /cause/ joint pain -
quite the opposite. Cycling is non-impact and polishes joints - it
shouldn't cause pain.

Quoted message said:

Bad enough to make putting socks on difficult
in the morning, and make walking bloody painful on occasion. My GP
reckons lots of cyclists get it, but I put it down to having a naff
chair at my desk as I'd not been cycling at the time.

Sounds quite likely.

Quoted message said:

OTOH, I had a quick go on a stepping machine and my right leg does seem
a lot stronger than my left, so I could be working it harder. Current
plan is to go and see the sport physio at uni. My riding is about 70%
MTB and 30% Road bike.

A friend of mine has a very posh Polar HRM device which includes a device
which measures tension in the upper run of the chain and, consequently,
instantaneous power. Consequently it can show left/right leg
discrepancies as you cycle.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; Diplomacy, American: see Intelligence, Military

Doki said:

Anyone had this? Lately I've had bad pains in my right hip, which
isn't great in your early 20s. Bad enough to make putting socks on
difficult in the morning, and make walking bloody painful on
occasion. My GP reckons lots of cyclists get it, but I put it down to
having a naff chair at my desk as I'd not been cycling at the time.

I don't know if they cause hip problems in the first place but *low*
chairs don't help when you do have a hip problem. You're better off when
knees are lower than hips, or at least level with.

Conversely, when it comes to bike saddles, as Helen Waffly mentioned, too
high is bad. Try lowering by a few mm if you suspect it might be too
high. Even 3mm makes a difference. Too low isn't good either but I think
it'd have to be gettiing on for BMX style before too low is worse than too
high as far as the hips go.

~PB, ex broken hip

I had trouble with my right hip, diagnosed by a hospital specialist as
arthritis. He said it would get worse and advised me to stop the high
impact sports I enjoyed.
I took a job that meant I would be on my feet most of the day and as it
was only about 4 miles from my home I decided to cycle there.
I wondered how my hip would hold up to this?

After about 1 month of regular cycling the hip pain disappeared and
hasn't come back as yet.
About 14 months have gone by since then.

I also went to an osteopath who thought the hip pain might be related
to lower back pain rather than a worn out hip joint.
I have also found stretching exercise helps both with the hips and
back. The ones I used I learnt at a yoga class.

Dave Shaw

in message <[email hidden]>, Dave

S (') said:

I had trouble with my right hip, diagnosed by a hospital specialist as
arthritis. He said it would get worse and advised me to stop the high
impact sports I enjoyed.
I took a job that meant I would be on my feet most of the day and as it
was only about 4 miles from my home I decided to cycle there.
I wondered how my hip would hold up to this?

After about 1 month of regular cycling the hip pain disappeared and
hasn't come back as yet.
About 14 months have gone by since then.

I started serious cycling thirty years ago for exactly this reason (I
cycled before, but it was the arthritis which made me decide to cycle
much more). I haven't had _any_ trouble with arthritis in the last
twenty-five years. I've presumably still got the medical condition,
since it doesn't go away, but it doesn't trouble me any more. Cycling
does an enormously good job of smooth polishing movements of your knee
and hip joints (especially if you pedal at a higher RPM or 'cadence'😉.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; making jokes about dyslexia isn't big, it isn't clever and
;; it isn't furry.

Doki said:

Anyone had this? Lately I've had bad pains in my right hip, which isn't
great in your early 20s. Bad enough to make putting socks on difficult in
the morning, and make walking bloody painful on occasion. My GP reckons lots
of cyclists get it, but I put it down to having a naff chair at my desk as
I'd not been cycling at the time.

OTOH, I had a quick go on a stepping machine and my right leg does seem a
lot stronger than my left, so I could be working it harder. Current plan is
to go and see the sport physio at uni. My riding is about 70% MTB and 30%
Road bike.

Over the last year I have increased my cycling miles significantly (now
greater than 200 miles per week) and found that I started to get some
hip pain and something like the symptoms you describe. Like you I
became concerned about my hip joint etc etc.

However, following some web searching I found the following:

The most common cause of knee and hip pain in cyclists is iliotibial
band (IT band) syndrome. The IT band is a thick fibrous band of tissue,
which runs on the outside of the leg from the hip to the knee. Pain is
caused when the band becomes tight and rubs over the bony prominences of
the hip (greater trochanter) and/or the knee (lateral epicondyle).
(http://www.roadcycling.com/training/kneepain.shtml)

From this I identified some exercises to stretch the IT band. Easiest
one is to lie on your back with one leg bent and the over flat on the
floor. Put the foot of the bent leg onto the floor the other side of
the flat leg then use your hand (the one corresponding to the flat leg)
to pull your knee across your body and therefore stretching the IT band.

I found that a couple of days of undertaking this exercise a few times
and all the pain went away! Its a miracle! I understand that cycling
weekly suggested a similar exercise a couple of weeks ago.

Hope that makes some sense and helps!

Gordon