Are you living with chronic hip or knee pain, or maybe both? It may feel like the pain is here to stay if you have been dealing with hip and knee pain for a long time.
The good news is, you don’t have to deal with this for the rest of your life. It is possible to get some permanent relief from extreme joint pain, after all!
Physical therapy is one of the best ways you can do it. You will reduce the discomfort you feel in your hips and knees with the proper physical therapy therapies, and maybe even remove it entirely.
We’ve put together four ways that physical therapy can help relieve hip and knee pain, and allow you to get back to doing the things you love and enjoy. To learn more about the benefits of physical therapy, call our clinic today to set up an appointment.
Causes of hip and knee pain
Hip and knee pain can be caused by a great number of problems.
Some of these are related to musculoskeletal misalignment, poor posture, and/or excess weight; others occur as the result of natural aging or unhealthy sports/work habits.
Your hip or knee pain may stem from:
- Infections
- Bursitis, an inflammation of the friction-reducing sacs surround the joints
- Tendinitis, or stretched ligaments
- Osteoarthritis, a painful inflammatory condition involving deteriorated joint cartilage
- Runner’s knee, and instability of the kneecap
- Postural/alignment issues that throw your body off balance, straining the knees or hips
- Traumatic injuries, such as dislocation of the joint
Our physical therapist can often tell the cause of your hip or knee pain from its location.
For example, pain along the inside of the hip is more likely to be caused by a problem with the bones or cartilage.
Pain along the outer side is typically caused by a problem in the muscles, tendons, or ligaments.
How can physical therapy help hip and knee pain?
Hip and knee pain can be so debilitating that you’ll feel pain no matter what you have to do if you move. But in the long run, there are ways to reduce the discomfort. It can take some time and commitment on your part, but for patients of all ages and backgrounds, physical therapy has been proven time and again to help alleviate hip and knee pain.
You might be wondering why physical therapy works so well, and why the benefits of a session can last so long. There are a few reasons, including:
- Regular physical therapy makes it easier to lead an active lifestyle. Through physical therapy, you can regain strength and mobility so that you can lead the kind of life you want. Chronic hip and knee pain can be improved significantly through regular exercise and a healthy lifestyle. Of course, you have to be able to move without significant pain to exercise – something that is made much easier by physical therapy. Your physical therapist can help you improve your hip pain and knee pain significantly and teach you ways to exercise so that you avoid injuring your joints.
- Physical therapy improves your strength so you avoid future injuries. One of the major frustrations with joint pain is that it appears to never go away entirely. Even if you rest for a while and feel better, the injury will flare up all over again when you go out and begin to move. You will get much stronger than you were before with physical therapy exercises. The added strength makes it easier for your muscles to help your joints better, so you are less likely to feel additional joint pain.
- PT’s can determine the root cause of your pain. If you just treat the symptoms of a hip and/or knee issue, you are almost guaranteed to see the problem pop up again later on. But if you can identify the source of the problem, you can treat what is causing the pain. Physical therapists have a process to identify the causes of hip and knee pain so that they can give you targeted treatments designed to get to the bottom of what is causing your pain.
- It will improve the ways you move your body. The pain you feel in your hip and knee many times is due to unhealthy patterns of movement. They may have been learned or in reaction to an initial injury over time. Such unhealthy movements inflict unnecessary pressure on your joints and contribute to additional pain and injury. Your physical therapist will help recognize abnormal patterns of movement and will advise you to substitute those patterns with those that protect your joints from further injury.
Let Us Show You the Benefits of Physical Therapy for Hip and Knee Pain
We want you to know that we are here to help if you are currently dealing with hip and knee pain. For the short term and long term, our physical therapy team will help you reduce the discomfort. To schedule an appointment with your physical therapy team and get the relief you deserve, please contact us today!
