Hip arthritis treatments for pain down the leg in Creve Coeur, MO

Hip Arthritis Pain Down the Leg

Osteoarthritis commonly develops in the joints as we age, and this is because our joint cartilage naturally wears out over time. The hip is one joint that can be affected by arthritis in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Hip arthritis can also cause many other issues, including pain in the muscles that run down your leg. Here are two treatment options a physical therapist in your area can use to treat muscle pain down your leg from hip arthritis: 

  1. Soft tissue mobilization

Muscle pain down the leg caused by hip arthritis can be treated with a type of manual therapy called soft tissue mobilization. This therapeutic treatment involves the therapist performing various movements with their hands. Some of these movements are designed to break down scar tissue that has formed in your leg muscles, tendons and fascia as a result of hip arthritis. These areas of scar tissue are called adhesions, and they can restrict the movement in your upper leg muscles. In turn, this can pull the hip out of alignment and lead to more arthritis pain. 

Other movements are intended to help stretch these structures to prevent painful muscle spasms and help realign the hip joint. These stretching movements can also help to decrease the stiffness in the hip joint, and less stiffness may lead to a greater ability to do routine tasks like walking. 

  1. Astym® therapy

Another physical therapy technique that can help reduce muscle pain down the leg from hip arthritis is Astym® therapy. Like soft tissue mobilization, this technique is focused on reducing scar tissue and tension in the leg muscles. However, Astym® therapy uses specially designed tools to search for adhesions and tense areas in the muscles. Once these areas are located, the therapist will apply more pressure to the tool and move it with the grain of the muscle in the affected area. This helps break up the scar tissue and relieve the tension, but there’s another step the therapist will take when using this therapy method. 

The second step used in Astym® therapy is stretching exercises. A therapist will put together a combination of exercises to stretch the muscles of the upper leg after working on them with the special tools. Doing these stretches helps decrease the tension in your muscles even more, and it provides you with a tool you can use to keep this tension at bay in the future. In turn, this can help decrease the pain you feel in your leg from hip arthritis, and it can even help reduce the pain in the joint itself. 

Excel Sports & Physical Therapy in Creve Coeur, MO, offers treatment for hip arthritis

Are you dealing with pain down your leg and other symptoms caused by hip arthritis? Excel Sports & Physical Therapy has a clinic in Creve Coeur that can help you. We offer free screenings at this clinic, and this tool allows us to determine exactly how hip arthritis is affecting you. With this information in hand, our team can create a personalized treatment plan to fit your needs, and some therapy methods we may use in your plan are: 

Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment to start treating your hip arthritis.