Does your hip pinch or catch during your yoga practise? Have you found yourself wondering if there's and underlying injury in our hip joint that's causing this annoying sensation.
In todays video I'm going to talk you through 2 hip injuries that can show up o the mat Hip Impingement and Labrum tears. So What's the difference between these 2 hip conditions and how will this affect your practise on the mat?
These 2 hip conditions have one key similarity and that is that they are both directly related to the hip joint (the articulation of the socket of the pelvis and the head of the femur bone) as opposed to the pelvic joints or other external tissues like the surrounding tendons or muscles. For this reason they are both affected by similar types of loads on & off the mat.
So let's firstly look at Hip Impingement in yoga. In Hip impingement or femora-acetabular impingement (FAI), extra bone grows along one or both of the bones that form the hip joint, the ball (head of the femur) or the socket (acetabulum of the pelvis) - giving the bones an irregular shape. Because they do not fit together perfectly, the bones rub against each other during movement. Over time this friction can damage the joint, causing pain and a catching or pinching sensation in certain positions or poses.
There are 2 types of hip impingement that affect yogis on the mat - CAM and PINCER.
➡️ In CAM Impingement a bump forms on the edge of the ball (head of femur), making it not perfectly smooth and round and so it grinds the cartilage inside the socket.
➡️ In PINCER Impingement extra bone extends out over the normal rim of the socket (acetabulum) and overly compresses the connective tissue that lines the rim. This cartilagenous connective tissue is called the labrum. So Labrum injuries often occur together with a PINCER Impingement.
What Causes The Impingement?
The impingement can develop without any obvious cause and there are often genetic factors at play.
The extra bone growth often develops during childhood growth, but the symptoms usually only develop when damage starts to form in the cartilage or labrum. While some people will develop symptoms when they start practising yoga or increase their physical activity levels in general, others will lead long active lives and never have symptoms.
The factors at play that increase the likelihood of developing symptoms are similar to those for OA in the hips:
➡️ REDUCED PASSIVE STABILITY - when the ligaments are loose and the joint isn't as stable, the bony surfaces tend to move or translate on each other more, creating more friction and catching.
➡️ REDUCED DYNAMIC STABILITY - similarly here a weak core and under engaged glutes will result in more load being absorbed by the joint structures (labrum and cartilage).
So what about L A B R U M I N J U R I E S I N Y O G A then...
Labrum injury involves a tear of the cartilagenous ring of connective tissue that lines the rim of the hip socket. Labral injuries can occur independant of impingement, but will usually still involve a pinching or catching sensation in the joint.
Labral tears occur when there is repeated or forceful impacting of the ball (head of femur) against the rim of the socket (acetabulum), like can occur in:
➡️ Yoga, gymnastics and dance
➡️ Impact loading activities like running especially in sport involving agility change of direction like hockey, soccer and netball
➡️ Postural habits like standing with your weight on one leg and hip cocked out to one side, especially when carrying babies & toddlers
An important skill to cultivate on the mat is the discernment to differentiate between sensations of BONY COMPRESSION and SOFT-TISSUE TENSION.
I go into some of the key hip poses to watch out for and how to modify them in my full blog article here:
cathyaganoff.com.au/does-your...
In this article I also outline the poses and variations that help to improve the active stability in the hip joint.
Be sure to check it out and if you haven't already download my FREE Yoga For Happy Hips pose modification guidebook which includes these poses and many more.
cathyaganoffyoga.lpages.co/po...
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