Snapping/Clicking/Clunking Hips? It could be SNAPPING HIP Syndrome

– If you are finding that you're getting some clicking, popping,
snapping in your hips then there could be something
called snapping hip syndrome. Now snapping hip syndrome
is a very common thing. It tends to happen when you are lying down and you're lifting your legs up and down. And every time you bring your legs down, such as in an exercise like a leg raises, every time you bring your leg down you get a kind of a clunk.

Now, generally speaking, it doesn't hurt but some people do worry about it. They think it could be arthritis. Some people are wondering whether there's something
wrong with their hips. So in today's video, I'm gonna explain everything about snapping hip syndrome and what you can do about it. The first thing we need to
really understand is what is it? And to do that, we're gonna
look at a model of a hip. We're looking at the
pelvis from the front. So this is your pelvic bone. This is the right bone. This is the right femur. So you're looking at it
from the front right now. This muscle that you see here is commonly known as the hip flexor.

It's called the iliopsoas and
actually there's two muscles. One of the muscles has been cut away. This would attach up onto the
lower back onto the spine. Now, every time you are
moving your leg up and down what will tend to happen
is you get a clunk as that leg comes down and goes, clunk, and then you get it again, it goes clunk, and it will keep doing it. And as you're doing it, generally speaking it won't cause you any pain. Now there's three types
of snapping hip syndrome. There's intra articular, which refers to clicking
within the actual hip joint. So this could be something
like a labral tear.

Now, for the purposes of this video we're not gonna cover that. Then you have internal,
which is related mainly to the muscles of the hip flexors. So the iliopsoas muscle. Now what would happen here
is, as the muscle was crossing over this joint line and
attaching onto the bone, onto this part of the bone of the femur as it's contracting and relaxing or lengthening and shortening as it flicks over this
part here, what happened the tension will flick it and
that's every time you move it you will feel that clunk and that clunk is the muscle just
re positioning yourself based on the tension. And then the third type of snapping hip syndrome
is called external. And that would usually be around the IT band, the iliotibial band.

And it usually happens around
this part of your femur. So this is the greater trochanter. Underneath here or above this, this is a bursa that helps
with the friction-free movement between the IT band and the bone. Sometimes that can cause clicking as well. We'll briefly touch on that. So we're gonna do some
exercises and stretches for the internal and some
for the external as well. Now, one thing I do want to add is that you can also get clicking elsewhere. So clicking may not specifically just be this snapping hip syndrome. So when you're moving your legs you might be experiencing clicking and it could probably be coming from one of those three causes that I
mentioned just a minute ago but it's also worth mentioning that it could also be
your sacroiliac joint.

So every time you are
say, moving your legs and the tension through the muscles is pulling on your pelvic bone that could be causing some shifts between the ilium and the sacrum. So that could be causing
some kind of clicking. Now the movement that you're seeing here is highly exaggerated. You wouldn't normally
get that much movement but you get the idea. Now, the second place
that could be causing some clicking is also within your lumbar spine. So as you are again, doing
those movements with your thighs as you're doing these movements with your abs, with your, your hips it could be that the psoas
major muscle that's attached to the lumbar spine is actually pulling on the lumbar spine or the lumbar vertebra and that could be causing some instability and some clicking within the vertebra.

Now, generally speaking with both internal and external
snapping hip syndrome in my opinion, they are
predisposed, by either tightness within the area or within
certain muscles or weakness. And what happens is that tightness as you're going through a certain range that tightness is causing additional pull or more pull than the body can handle. And that is pulling things into different positions and
that's what's causing the snap. It could be also weakness
and that weakness is reducing the body's
ability to create stability. So by both focusing on
flexibility and strength we can usually overcome
this snapping sensation. Now, when it comes to stretches one of the first places
I would start is what I call the 90 90 stretch. What you need to do is get
yourself down onto the floor drop one leg in front of you.

Now you want to make sure that
your knee is at 90 degrees. So I'm going to bring my foot further out. So my shinbone and my
thighbone at 90 degrees, then, with the other leg,
tick that behind you. So now what you're
looking at is your thighs, are your thighs 90 degrees to each other? Once you've got that, then
put your knee at 90 degrees. So this is 90 90, what you
want to try and do is then bring your buttock, so the
one that's at the back, I'm gonna try and push
this down to the floor. Now, as you can see, I don't go that far. So I'm quite tight in my hips. You may go further if you're
quite flexible, if you're not then you might find that
this is quite challenging.

So what you're trying to
do is push your hip down to the floor, keeping your
knee, your front knee down. Now you can hold this for
about 30 seconds or a minute. Once you've done that if
you want to, and you want to increase the intensity of this stretch, what you
can then do is try and lift your back knee up and out, as far as it will go and then drop that down. And as you're doing this, you
want to try and feel where it's tight through the hip,
and you want to try and work into that tightness. So you don't want to try to
avoid it by moving yourself out of the way so it makes it easy. You want to actively try and get into that and push through that
and then up and down. I would do this about
10 times and then shift to the other side. So again, you've got 90 degrees
at the front and 90 degrees at the back. If you find that this
causes pressure in your knee most likely gonna be the
back knee, you could try and bend that back knee a bit more so it takes that pressure or
that strain away from the knee.

But otherwise, if it's fine and your knee is okay, then stick
to that again, push the bum cheek down, hold 30 to 60 seconds. Once you've done that, if you want you can then open up that
hip by lifting the knee up and down. And again, 10 times on this side as well. So this is trying to unlock the hip joint. This is working on the
ligaments around the hip joint and some of the rotators
through the hips as well. The next stretch I'd go into
would be for specifically for the soleus or for
the hip flexor we want to do is get yourself into
a kneeling position, make sure there's padded floor. Or if there isn't padding,
then put a rolled up towel or something under your knee, just so it's it saves hurting your knee. From here, lunge nice and far and really important that
you pull your tummy in and tuck your tailbone under.

So you drawing up the front and tucking your tailbone under then, once you've got that
and you've got your abs nice and tight, don't let your pelvis roll. Then you can push your hips forwards. You should instantly feel a stretch through either the front of your thigh or through the hip. Some people would like to
lift up their arms and again just make sure you're not arching
in the lower back too much and breathe. So from the side, what
you're trying to do is avoid sticking your
bum out and doing this. What you want to do is tuck
your tailbone under and then push your hips forward from there. You'll find that you can't go
as far forward, if you have good alignment in your pelvis. So that's your hip flexor stretch. I would do that 30 seconds. Build that up to a minute over
time, do that on both sides. If you feel any pain,
then just don't do it. If you can't kneel, I'm gonna show you an
alternative right now. So if you find that you can't do hip flexor
stretches on the floor what you can do is come
onto the bed, shuffle right up to the edge so that your
bum is basically just on the on the edge of the bed,
lie down and lift one knee, so if you want to stretch your right side, your right hip flexor, then pull your left knee
up towards your chest.

So what this does is it prevents
your pelvis from rolling. It prevents your back from arching. So it pulls the pelvis
and puts that nicely into into wherever you're lying on. Keep your legs straight
because if you bend your knee, you're going to be
stretching your quads more. So keep your legs straight and then let that leg just hang down. If you have someone available, what you can do is just get
them to put some pressure down on your thigh, just
to intensify that stretch. Personally, for me, I don't feel stretch. I would need someone pressing down. Not because I'm flexible, just because the weight is not enough. So work out which one works best for you. Again, do that for about 30 seconds. Build that up to a minute. Now, so far, the stretches that
we've done have been mainly for that internal snapping hip syndrome. So basically we've
covered the hip flexors, the iliopsoas.

Touching now onto the
external causes, the IT band. What we're gonna do is just a couple of stretches for the tensor fascia lata, which is the muscle that attaches to the front of the IT band. And then a stretch for the glute maximus, which attaches to the back. For more information about IT band, you can check out my video just here that they'll go into more
detail with these stretches. So check that one out as well. But what you're gonna do is similar to the lunge stretch that we did earlier. Get yourself onto a pad, something soft so your knees are not gonna hurt. Find something that you can hold onto.

Either side of you is fine. And with this front foot,
rather than it being directly in front of you, what
you're gonna do is shift that across to the opposite side. So it's gonna cross your body. From there you're keeping
your body pointing forward and shifting your hips across. So what you're doing is
you're putting some adduction through this hip that
you're trying to stretch. So you've gone across
the body with your hips and then lunge yourself forward.

Now this could stretch anywhere
from the top of your hip all the way down the thigh
to the outside of your knee. So if you feel any stretching
along this route here that's probably fairly
normal, as long as it's not causing you any pain,
so shift across and then lunge forwards again,
keeping your pelvis nice and tucked under. So tailbone tucked under, abs
tight, hold for 30 seconds. And over time build the up to one minute.

Once you've done that,
then obviously you can do the other side as well as shift
across, push your hips over, and then push forwards and repeat, Now to stretch the gluteus maximus, you can do that from a
seated position on the floor or you can do that from
a chair is no problem. It doesn't matter which one you do as long as you're comfortable doing it. So from a seated position on the floor, what you can do is bring
one foot over the other leg to the outside of your
other leg, grab your knee and pull that in towards
your opposite shoulder. So my right knee is going
over towards my left shoulder. You should feel a bit of a stretch through the
back of your buttocks.

If you don't feel a stretch then it may be just that
you don't need that stretch. So don't do it. Or if it's causing you pain or any discomfort, then just stop. But I would do 30 seconds
and build that up to one minute to stretch your
glute Maximus and doing this from a chair, it's pretty
much the same thing. Bring one foot up one to the other knee, grab your knee, and lift that up and over towards the opposite shoulder. Personally, I actually find
that this stretch is more effective for me sitting down than it is on the floor, but
choose which one works for you. If you feel pain, then don't do it. But if it feels good, they keep doing it. Start with 30 seconds and
build that up to one minute. And of course you can do both sides. Now, part of your recovery from the snapping hip syndrome
is going to be strengthening which is just as important
as the stretching.

So the first exercise we're going to do is called a dying bug. Don't ask me where that's coming from. You're going to lay down on your back and you can have your hands
down by your sides or up here if you want to decrease your stability or I'd recommend starting
just down by your sides. Press your spine into the ground. So you take out any lordosis,
any gap from the floor you press your back into the floor. Now with one leg only because we're starting from the basics. One leg only. You can lift that leg up,
have your knee at 90 degrees and then slowly take this
heel down to the floor. But you're keeping your
back pressed into the floor. Touch the floor and come up. There's a lot to think
about with this exercise, so take it slow. Although the leg is the
thing that's moving, it's actually the back that you're trying to be thinking about.

So as you're bringing that leg down, keep thinking about pressing
your lower back into the floor. Take your leg down slow,
touch the floor, and then up. If you feel any clicking in the hip, just try adjusting the
rotation through your hip or maybe just don't go down so far. So if you get a click in there, then you stop there and
then you come back up come down and you stop there. And over time, as you get stronger, then you can go further and further down. Now, once that becomes easy for you you can then do it with a straight leg. So the same principle applies,
back pressed into the floor. Nice and slow on the way down, touch the floor with your
heel and then come back up.

Do this really slowly. If you rush it, then you're not
thinking about the movement. You're not thinking
about your core muscles. You're not thinking about your
pelvis and your lower back. So everything should be still apart from the leg that's moving. What you don't want to see is
your spine coming up like this because then you will
get clicking in the hip. So I would do 10 repetitions. You could do one leg at a time. So you do 10 on the left,
then 10 on the right. As you get better and better, then you can add in a
second set and a third set. Once you feel like you are
quite strong and quite capable of doing this, then you can go
into doing it with two legs. So the same principles apply. You still trying to press your back into the floor and then
keep it nice and slow. And then obviously with
straight legs as well. So that is snapping hip.

Now, in my opinion,
snapping hip is mainly due to inflexibility or a lack
of strength and stability. Most people or most patients of mine have overcome
snapping hip syndrome. We're talking the internal
and external snapping hip. We're not talking about the
actual joint dysfunction. Most of my patients have overcome this through either stretching
or strengthening or both. Now, if you have snapping hip syndrome then spend a bit of time, first of all, on improving
your flexibility. Then once you've done
that for a period of time go into some strength training. Both of those are important components. You can't just do flexibility and you can't just do strengthening. You have to do both. Now, of course, it is worth
getting your hips checked out. So it's worth going to see
a doctor, getting an x-ray, just making sure you've got
actually no joint dysfunction or no sort of wear and tear in the joint.

Maybe even an MRI, just to rule out the possibility of a labral tears. Once you've been given
the all clear from that and you've had a proper
test, proper diagnosis and it is snapping hip syndrome and it is internal or external, then go through this process. To overcome this fully could
potentially take months but most of the time the patients that I've worked
with have overcome this. So all it needs is
consistency and patience.

If you feel any pain,
while you're doing any of these exercises or
stretches, then obviously stop, give it a few days and
then carry on after that. What I want you to do after watching this video is
let me know which exercises or which stretches that you've tried and which ones have helped you. If you found them particularly
useful, let me know or if there's anything
else that you want me to do regarding hip or any
other part of your body then also please put that in
the comment section below. Until the next video, take
care, and I will see you soon..

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