This blog was originally written on January 27, 2020, and has been updated since.
Anyone can suffer from a hip flexor injury, but athletes, martial artists, and dancers know this kind of injury all too well. The hip flexors are a group of muscles along the bottom of your abdomen and the top of your hips. Even if you’re not performing a three-hour stage show like a certain superstar, activities such as kicking, running, jumping, and dancing all engage those muscles.1
When you’re hitting all your marks and overusing or overstretching those muscles, they can become injured, resulting in pain and sometimes even limited mobility. But you don’t have to just tolerate it. Here’s what your recovery timeline may look like, how to kick that recovery into high gear, and what causes this type of injury in the first place.
Lights, camera, kick, smile—lifting your knee toward your body requires many muscles working together, including the psoas major and the iliacus, which are also known as the iliopsoas.2 While that may sound like a piece of classic literature, the iliopsoas muscles are actually part of the hip flexor group and the two muscles that are most often affected in a hip flexor injury.
If a small number of these muscle fibers are torn, the injury is generally relatively minor and may not limit your function but will likely still be painful. However, if the muscle is completely torn, it can be quite severe and impact mobility.
You already know that hip flexor injuries happen when you tear the fibers of the muscles, but why does this happen? Let’s take a look:1
Aside from feeling quite a bit of pain, you may also experience:4
Being out of your normal routine for a while can leave you feeling frustrated and looking forward to doing what you love most again. While your exact recovery timeline depends on the severity of your injury, your recovery methods, and advice from your doctor, here’s a general idea of what you can expect:2
First, as with any injury, it’s important to see your doctor for a diagnosis. They also may give you personalized recovery tips. Here are some general recovery methods you can use to supplement your doctor’s advice:
This is important, and it’s difficult for many, but you need to stop doing the activity that caused the injury for a while to avoid damaging the muscle further. This is a good time to catch up on some streaming shows or your to-be-read list.
Applying a cold compress or ice pack every hour for 10-15 minutes for the first day may help reduce inflammation deep in the damaged muscles and help relieve pain. Just don’t apply an ice pack directly to your skin—wrap it in a towel first.
Compression can help reduce swelling, reduce pain, and potentially increase your mobility. Active compression can even further reduce swelling. Bonus: With a cold and compression therapy system, you’ll get the best of both worlds.
Pain-relieving medications can temporarily relieve pain, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, may also help with swelling. However, before taking any medications, it’s important to talk with your doctor. They can also tell you if an NSAID will interfere with any other medications you’re currently taking.
Cold and compression therapy may be able to help reduce pain from a hip flexor injury as you recover. GAME READY is intended to treat post-surgical and acute injuries to reduce pain, edema, and swelling where cold and compression are indicated.5 Talk with your doctor today about the GAME READY cold and compression therapy system so you can get back to what you love—hopefully minus the pain.
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