There are over 650 named skeletal muscles in the human body and all of them serve a unique function. What’s even more significant, is that each muscle was designed to balance each other as they work in synergy to contract and control their counterparts. This process requires a balance between muscle tone, strength, and length. Muscles must be able to ‘work’ in order to keep you independent in mobility and meaningful activities (ADLs and IADLs), but they must also be able to ‘rest’ if they are not being called upon for a task. Your muscles must have the right amount of strength, tone, and length (flexibility) to carry your body and keep it in an upright position while sitting or standing. Because of the intricate relationship, your muscles have to one another, if you have even the slightest muscle imbalance, this could cause you pain.

You have two sciatic nerves beginning in your lower back and continuing down either leg. When your sciatic nerve is compressed, irritated, or injured by a muscle imbalance or trauma, it sends radiating pain (pain that travels) from your lower back, buttock, hip, thigh, and leg. Sciatica can cause mild to severe hip pain if left untreated. Outpatient rehabilitation can help correct muscle imbalance, release trigger points through neuromuscular massage, and provide rehabilitation for upper body and lower body ailments causing hip pain through sciatica. 

Muscle knots are bumps under the skin formed when muscle fibers or fascia tighten or tense causing pressure on surrounding structures in your body. Muscle knots can also be known as myofascial trigger points and can be treated through neuromuscular massage. Interestingly, hip pain can be caused by muscle knots in other areas of your body but present as if they are originating in your hip. This is called referred pain. Your body is filled with billions of sensory neurons that all communicate with one another. At times, these signals become confused and tell your body your hip hurts when the muscle knot is in your lower back. 

When there is an imbalance of muscle power (not enough ‘control’ during a movement, your body calls on the action of close-by muscles to help control your movements which creates compensatory movements or compensation strategies. This means your body is recruiting muscles to perform an action they were never meant to perform, and eventually, your body will tell you by creating painful signals. If you allow your body to move and function using compensation strategies for too long, your body becomes misaligned and you will see the signs and symptoms of muscle imbalance.

Among many other places, gout can be present in big joints like your hip causing substantial hip pain. Gout typically presents as redness and inflammation around the impacted area due to your body’s response to increased uric acid in the bloodstream. When there is an unbalance amount of uric acid, your body perceives it as an infection and produces increased edema and white blood cells to attack it. Gout can be managed, but if it is untreated, you can experience chronic pain and reoccurring episodes producing pain as high as 10/10. This hip pain can affect mobility, sleep, self-care tasks, and desire to engage in social participation.

For more information regarding Gout, check out the information found through the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.