As a physiotherapist with over 20 years of experience in helping women with their health I am well accustomed to the common conditions that I can affect women’s lives. One of them is hip and buttock pain.
- Are you experiencing hip or buttock pain?
- Does buttock pain limit your ability to sit comfortably, drive, travel go to the movies or socialise?
- Does a hard seat strike fear into your heart?
As a physiotherapist with over 20 years of experience in helping women with their health I am well accustomed to the common conditions that I can affect women’s lives. One of them is hip and buttock pain.
So let’s explore a few of the common reasons and a couple of practical solutions and tips that might help you move forward.
Common causes and tips for hip and buttock pain
- Referred pain from the lumbar spine. Your MRI might show a disc bulge or degenerative changes in your lower back that might be referring into your hip or buttock when you are sitting. Try watching your sitting posture, elevating your hips higher than your knees, getting a sit stand desk to minimise your sitting load and ensuring that your activity levels include upright activities to minimise compressive load onto the discs, this includes walking and swimming.
- SIJ or pelvic pain can occur when rising from a chair after a period of sitting. This can be a result of muscle team imbalance around the hips and pelvis with some muscles being too tight and others being too weak. Commonly the gluteal muscles that support this pelvis are weaker. Try these strengthening exercises here.
- Hamstring tendinopathy. This is a fancy name for a weak tendon. Your hamstring tendon attaches up onto your sitting bone and if this is weak will feel significantly worse sitting on hard surfaces on your sitting bone. Tips are to avoid stretching your hamstring, elevate the hips on a wedge cushion for periods of sitting, and start a hamstring strengthening program to improve the health and strength of your tendon. You might like this exercise here.
- Gluteal tendinopathy and hip bursitis will give you outer hip pain after a period of sitting, when you go to rise out of a chair and is also aggravated by lying on your side at night time. Key tips are to avoid any gluteal stretches and start a gluteal strengthening exercise program. You might like our program here.
- Coccyx pain can be a result of injury or trauma and subsequent tightness through the muscles that attach onto the coccyx. This includes the back part of your pelvic floor. Key tips are to see a women’s health physiotherapist to assess your pelvic floor, and to avoid sitting with your tail tucked under as this will only exacerbate the problem.
They can be multiple issues and causes that contribute to women’s hip and pelvic pain and it is always essential that you seek individual advice and assessment.
Three simple strategies that can help include
- Improve your sitting posture by elevating your hips higher than your knees and ensure your hips and pelvis are positioned evenly symmetrically and wide Optimise your sitting posture with this video here.
- Limit sitting in your life. Include upright exercise such as walking, running or swimming, reduce your couch time watching Netflix, choose a sit-stand desk to minimise you’re sitting at work.
- Seek physiotherapy assessment and advice!
Like to learn more about women’s health and wellness? Explore Niky’s Physiotherapy practice Synergy Physio here
Find out more about her women’s Rise UP resilience retreats here
Listen in to the Synergy Women podcast here
