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How Your Hip & Pelvic Floor Connect
What is your hip bone? Your hip bone (or os coxae) actually consists of 3 bones - the ischium, the ilium, and the pubis (the pelvis). Your pelvic floor is a series of muscles that lay across the bottom of your pelvis like a hammock.
When we think of pelvic floor muscle action, most people think of “the kegel,” which looks like a drawing up and in of the pelvic floor musculature. But did you know there is one pelvic floor muscle, the obturator internus, that helps rotate your femur out (think butterfly pose in yoga)? It attaches at the bottom of our pelvis, and slings around the lateral part of the pelvic floor to attach to the femur. It also helps suspend all your other pelvic floor muscles.
When we don’t have adequate strength or flexibility in some muscles, it’s common that other muscles will become tightened or strained to help compensate. The obturator internus can often become strained and tight, leading to discomfort or muscle pain.
Pelvic Floor Therapy to Treat Hip Pain
There are many reasons why pelvic floor therapy might be beneficial for pain in your hip. If your “pain in the hip” is obturator internus pain, you may experience:
feeling of tightness near hip socket
urinary frequency or urgency
pain deep in your abdomen
pain with sex
Your pelvic floor therapist can help address the pain in your hip, and help guide you through their treatment options to healing.
We can help your muscles promote relaxation and mobilization through internal or external manual treatment.
We provide detailed postural analysis to help facilitate both ease and stability.
We work on finding both hip strength and mobility in order to access a more integrated muscular system
We coach breathing techniques that help you release tension in your pelvic floor.
We’ll collaborate with you to create an individualized plan that allows you to continue your treatment in the comfort of your home.
If you have pelvic health concerns and would like to see how our therapists at Embrace can help, follow the link to schedule your free discovery call.
This article was written by Mirah Sand OTR/L. They are a pelvic floor occupational therapist who is certified Pregnancy and Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist, and has received advanced pelvic health training through Herman and Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation Institute.
