How can I realign my hips to alleviate hip and back pain?!
Question: A while back when I was into heavy lifting I did dead lifts off the floor and somewhat twisted my hips. The pain went away after a while but recently I reaggrivated the hips when I did single leg quad extensions. It feels like I torqued my right hip, as if someone grabbed my hips from both sides and twisted them like they were trying to open a bottle cap. Now I feel pain stemming from where the hip is in the back slightly under my waist and it causes the right side of my back to be tight as well. I've tried going to my chiropractor as well as my massage therapist to no avail. Are there any ways to get my hips to realign so that I don't wake up feeling this pain every day any more? It doesn't stop me from exercising and doing cardio but it is a nagging pain that I wish would just go away already.
Answers: A while back when I was into heavy lifting I did dead lifts off the floor and somewhat twisted my hips. The pain went away after a while but recently I reaggrivated the hips when I did single leg quad extensions. It feels like I torqued my right hip, as if someone grabbed my hips from both sides and twisted them like they were trying to open a bottle cap. Now I feel pain stemming from where the hip is in the back slightly under my waist and it causes the right side of my back to be tight as well. I've tried going to my chiropractor as well as my massage therapist to no avail. Are there any ways to get my hips to realign so that I don't wake up feeling this pain every day any more? It doesn't stop me from exercising and doing cardio but it is a nagging pain that I wish would just go away already.
When ever someone comes to me with a diagnosis of a pelvic or sacroiliac dysfunction (or hips out of alignment as you describe), I always go back to rule out the lumbar spine as a souce of the problem...espeically if you are having pain referred to the leg.
First, the literature about diagnosing a sacroiliac problem is sketchy at best. Furthermore, anatomical variations and small misalignments occur just as frequently in the pain-free population as they do the painful population. Finally, the ability to "realign" the pelvis/hips has been disproven. Unless you are someone who has been secreting relaxin (a hormone released during pregnancy), "manipulations" to this area do not result in a "relaignment" as demonstrated under CT scan studies. As a side note, true SI problems are almost non-existant in men.
If you've had MT and chiropractic care, I would recommend you seek out physical therapy from someone who has been credentialed in mechanical diangosis and therapy. They will carefully rule out the spine first (although I think a good chiropractor would have done so as well), and if that turns up without an issue, then the SI joint should be screened by a battery of physical tests that stress the SI joint. If you would like to find such a PT, go to: http://www.mckenziemdt.org