Head Over Hips

We’ve written before about managing osteoarthritis (or ideally: avoiding it, but that’s not always an option on the table, of course), so here’s a primer/refresher before we get into the meat of today’s article:

Avoiding/Managing Osteoarthritis

When the head gets in the way

Research shows that the problem with recovery in cases of osteoarthritis of the hip is in fact often not the hip itself, but rather, the head:

❝In fact, the stronger your muscles are, the more protected your joint is, and the less pain you will experience.

Our research has shown that people with hip osteoarthritis were unable to activate their muscles as efficiently, irrespective of strength.

Basically, people with hip arthritis are unable to activate their muscles properly because the brain is actively putting on the brake to stop them from using the muscle.❞

~ Dr. Myles Murphy

See: People with hip osteoarthritis have reduced quadriceps voluntary activation and altered motor cortex function

This is a case of a short-term protective response being unhelpful in the long-term. If you injure yourself, your brain will try to inhibit you from exacerbating that injury, such as by (for example) disobliging you from putting weight on an injured joint.

This is great if you merely twisted an ankle and just need to sit back and relax while your body works its healing magic, but it’s counterproductive if it’s a chronic issue like osteoarthritis. In such (i.e. chronic) cases, avoidance of use of the joint will simply cause atrophy of the surrounding muscle and other tissues, leading to more of the very wear-and-tear that led to the osteoarthritis in the first place.

So… How to deal with that?

You probably can exercise

It’s easy to get caught between the dichotomy of “exercise and inflame your joints” vs “rest and your joints seize up”, which is not pleasant.

However, the trick lies in how you exercise, per joint type:

When Bad Joints Stop You From Exercising (5 Things To Change)

…which to be clear, isn’t a case of “avoid using the joint that’s bad”, but is rather “use it in this specific way, so that it gets stronger without doing it more damage in the process”.

Which is exactly what is needed!

Want to learn more?

For those who like learning from short videos, here’s a trio of helpers (along with our own text-based overview for each):

• The Most Underrated Hip Mobility Exercise (Not Stretching)
• Overcome Front-Of-Hip Pain
• 10 Tips To Reduce Morning Pain & Stiffness With Arthritis

And for those who prefer just reading, here’s a book we reviewed on the topic:

11 Minutes to Pain-Free Hips – by Melinda Wright

Take care!