Hip and Knee Pain

Address: 13233 Executive Park Terrace Germantown, MD, 20874 | Phone Number: 301-327-3400

Hip and Knee Pain

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Move with Ease Again – Find Relief for Your Hip and Knee Pains in Germantown, MD

Physical Therapy Can Help You Move Comfortably!

Do you ever worry that your knees will “give out” from beneath you while standing? Do you have trouble sleeping on your side or getting out of bed in the morning because of hip pain? If so, you are not alone; hip and knee pain are very common!

Hip and knee pain can seriously disrupt your life, especially if you have both at the same time. You may believe that the only way to relieve your pain is to take over-the-counter medications or just “suck it up” until, one day, you have surgery… However, physical therapy is a more effective option!

Whether you have hip pain, knee pain or both, physical therapy can help you get to the bottom of your problem safely and comfortably, without the use of harmful drugs or surgery. To get back to a healthy, active lifestyle, schedule an appointment with OMT Specialists today!

The connection between hip and knee pain

All of our body is connected to all the other parts of our body, and all those connections count. Often, if your knee hurts, your hip will as well, and vice versa!

Pain in the hips and/or knees may be caused by the joints themselves, or it may be the result of an underlying condition in another part of the body.

Your hip is a ball-and-socket joint that has a lot of different ways to move and is designed to have a lot of mobility; your knee, on the other hand, is more of a simple joint that primarily moves forward and backward, meaning it should be relatively more stable.

When you start to lose motion in joints that should be mobile, like the hip, other areas that should be more stable, like the knee, move more to make up for the lack of mobility in the hip. And guess which area starts to hurt first? Often times it is the knee! This is because it is doing too much and getting beat up.

Common causes of hip and knee pain

Hip and knee pain can occur for a variety of reasons.

Often, we have hip and/or knee pain when we are standing, squatting, walking, running… So much of the time when these joints bother us, we are weight bearing through them while interacting with the ground. Since the only part of us that is normally touching the ground during all those things is our feet, our feet better be working well! Otherwise, the force coming up from the ground does not get absorbed in our feet and goes up the chain to the knee and/or hip!

Another thing to consider is the type of pain you are having. Electrical pain or numbness/tingling to your hip or knee can occur as a result of a pinched nerve – either in your back or somewhere along the nerve path. Don’t worry, your physical therapist will be able to determine which and we can help!

Because both hips and knees are constantly used, overuse injuries such as tendinitis and chronic muscle strain are also common. Acute injuries, such as sprains, strains, and dislocations, can also have an impact on these joints.

Some painful conditions may be limited to one or both joints: labral tears, a tearing in the lip around the “socket” part of the hip, are specific to hip pain, meniscus tears, tearing in one or both of the C-shaped wedges in the knee, are specific to knee pain and bursitis, inflammation of a fluid sack in a specific area, can be in both the hip and the knee joints.

Although all of these reasons are plausible, seeing a licensed physical therapist for a thorough assessment of your condition is the best way to determine the true cause of your hip or knee pain.

What can physical therapy do for hip and knee pain relief?

You don’t have to let hip and knee pain hold you back – you can benefit from physical therapy. Our physical therapy treatments at OMT Specialists can help to alleviate (and even eliminate) hip and knee pain. This may prevent you from having to undergo costly and painful surgery.

One of our Germantown, MD physical therapists will examine your hip and/or knee for signs of misalignment or structural damage, as well as your stance, posture, gait, and range of motion at your first appointment.

Following your physical exam, your physical therapists will recommend a physical therapy plan for you to relieve unnatural stress and strains. They will also work to improve your overall joint function so that you can resume your normal life.

You will be given specific exercises to help relieve joint pain and stabilize your weak hip and/or knee. Exercises will vary depending on your condition; for example, those experiencing kneecap pain typically respond better to exercises that focus on strengthening both the hips and the knees, rather than just the knees.

You may also be given core strengthening exercises to help strengthen your back muscles, lower abdominal muscles, and pelvic muscles. Core exercises are intended to improve your posture, in addition to balancing the weight on both sides of your body.

Additional specialized treatments (such as mobilizations to improve joint movement or other soft tissue treatments that relieve pain and promote healing of damaged hip and/or knee tissue) may also be added to your recovery plan as your physical therapist sees fit.