Hip and Knee Pain Archives - Synergy Rehab & Wellness

Ready to Say Goodbye to Your Hip and Knee Pains? Physical Therapy Can Help You Move with Ease

Kick Hip and Knee Pains to the Curb with the Help of Physical Therapy!

Is it difficult for you to engage in your regular activities due to hip or knee pain? Whether your hip or knee pain occurs when you’re moving or sitting, physical therapy can help get you back to your regular routine.

Our innovative care strategies at Synergy Rehab & Wellness will help you find quick relief. Be sure to call our office for a consultation to find out how we can help alleviate your pain. No one should have to live in pain – we can help.

What is hip and knee pain?

The hips and knees are the body’s largest joints. They work in close coordination with each for mobility and support the body’s weight. The hips and knees have a demanding task.

The knee is made of several ligaments and muscles and is a complicated joint. Knee pain can wreak havoc on your quality of life. As a matter of fact, knee pain is the second most common cause of chronic pain. The hip joint consists of two main parts: the femoral head and the acetabulum.

The femoral head of a ball-shaped piece of bone, and the acetabulum is the socket into which the femoral head fits. Ligaments connect the ball to the socket. Like the knee, the hip is a complex structure. Hip pain can also affect younger people.

Why am I experiencing hip/knee pain?

Knee pain can be caused by a wide variety of injuries and diseases. It can be the result of auto accidents, recreational activities, sports or a slip and fall.

The most common causes of knee pain include:

Gout
Osteoarthritis
Fractures around the knee
Anterior injuries
Ligament strains and sprains
Overuse

In addition to causing pain, knee pain can affect mobility, reduce strength and affect muscle control.

Problems with the hip joint can result in pain in the groin or inside the hip.

When the pain is on the outside of the hip, it’s typically due to issues with tendons, muscles and ligaments that surround the hip joint. Hip pain can also be due to:

Hip fracture
Bursitis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Osteoarthritis
Sprains
Sciatica

With hip pain, you may experience intense pain or the inability to stand.

What can physical therapy do for me?

A physical therapist will do a gait evaluation, palpitation, range of motion measurements, function mobility tests to determine a treatment plan for your hip pain or knee pain.

Different modalities may be incorporated into your treatment plan, such as heat and ice therapy, ultrasound and specific exercises.

Your hip and knee joints have a tough job to do. The hips must bear the entire weight of your upper body, while your knees must bear all of that weight plus the weight of the hips and thighs. At the same time, these joints must be able to flex so that you can walk, run, dance, sit, play sports, and perform other everyday tasks without losing your balance.

It’s not hard to understand how these demands can produce chronic hip or knee pain over time. Hip or knee pain can also come about quite suddenly (and intensely) in response to an acute injury.

You may get pain relief when you are at the physical therapist and going through treatment, but what about when you go home? A major goal of your physical therapist is to heal your injuries over the long term.

The various exercises and treatments they use with you will steadily improve your condition so that you experience less pain on a daily basis. As your body gets stronger and more mobile, you are likely to experience less pain in your hips and knees.

Research has shown that joint mobilization techniques used by a physical therapist can help with long and short-term pain involving the hip. There is typically an improvement in mobility also.

Find relief with us

The sooner you seek physical therapy for knee or hip pain, the better. Research shows that patients who rehab their hip or knee pain with physical therapy within 15 days of symptom onset have less need for pain injections, medications, or surgical intervention.

Whatever stage of pain you’re in, it’s never too late to benefit from physical therapy. If you’re experiencing hip or knee pain, be sure to call and schedule a one-on-one consultation with one of our physical therapists.

We can help eliminate your pain, so you can return to your normal activities. We’ve helped many others suffering with hip and knee pain, and can help you, too. We’ll help you live a pain-free life.

Kick Knee and Hip Pain to the Curb with Physical Therapy

The hips and knees are both very commonly reported areas of discomfort. This pain becomes exceptionally common as people age, due to the “wear and tear” of cartilage in the hips, knees, and lower back. However, people can also experience hip and knee pain from overuse, injury, or underlying conditions, such as arthritis. Some cases may become severe enough that surgery is unavoidable; however, physical therapy has been proven to treat hip and knee pain without the need for pain-relieving drugs or surgery. Contact Synergy Rehab and Wellness today for more information on how our physical therapists can help you overcome your hip and knee pain!

How is hip and knee pain determined?

When you schedule an appointment with a physical therapist, the first thing you can expect is a thorough evaluation. Our physical therapist will examine you to figure out where the painful area is, as well as where the pain is stemming from. For example, sometimes pain can be stemming from the hips but can be felt in the lower back, buttocks, groin, or the front/side of the hips. Additionally, pain stemming from the knees can be felt on the front or back of the knee joint. It can also be felt on the inside of the knee if a trauma occurred, or the outside of the knee if you are experiencing iliotibial band stress.

Hip pain is typically reported as a constant dull ache that doesn’t seem to go away. However, knee pain is a bit different, and is often assessed as one of several different types of pain:

Acute – Acute pain is the most intense type of knee pain. It typically occurs after an injury and will last for about a week. The treatment for acute pain is generally just to simply rest and isolate the affected area, as your body is working hard to heal it.
Subacute – Subacute pain is typically felt two to six weeks after an injury. The affected area will still be painful, but it will not be nearly as severe as the acute pain of the first week. The treatment for subacute knee pain generally consists of gentle motions meant to increase your range of motion and facilitate healing.
Chronic – Chronic pain can be defined as any pain that lasts longer than two or three months. If you’ve been living with serious knee pain for that long, you should consult with your doctor. He or she will most likely suggest performing another full physical exam, in addition to x-rays.

Getting Started With Physical Therapy

As part of your evaluation process, our physical therapist will administer a series of tests that can be used to analyze both hip and knee pain. These include:

Checking range of motion – Our physical therapist will test the limits of your knee or hip, to see how far it will bend. This helps in determining the severity of the trauma and will give our physical therapist an insight on what the course of treatment should be.
Checking strength – Testing the strength of your knee and hip structures will give our physical therapist a better idea on whether your pain is due to an injury or a physical imbalance.
Palpation – Our physical therapist will provide gentle palpation of the knee or hip to figure out where the pain is originating.
Gait analysis – Our physical therapist will assess how you walk to determine if anything is out of the ordinary with your gait.

Your balance may also be checked, and our physical therapist may want to measure how much inflammation is happening around the affected joint(s). Your initial evaluation is usually fairly lengthy, but it provides a great amount of information that your treatment is dependent upon. The results of your evaluation will help our physical therapist prescribe a treatment plan and a course of exercises based on your needs.

Your prescribed exercises will help you strengthen the muscle structures around the knee or hip (or both) that’s bothering you. Our physical therapist will work with you to monitor your progress and make sure you are on track to reaching your end goal. He or she will also encourage and support every achievement you make along the way!

If you’re ready to kick knee and hip pain to the curb, give Synergy Rehab and Wellness a call today and schedule an appointment with one of our physical therapists.

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Tired of Your Hip and Knee Pain? Find Lasting Relief with Physical Therapy

If you have been struggling with hip and knee pain for very long, it may feel like your pain is here to stay. After all, can you really get any lasting relief from serious joint pain? Actually, you can, and physical therapy is one of the best ways to do it. With the right physical therapy treatments, you can lessen the pain you experience in your hips and knees – and possibly even eliminate it altogether.

How to Get Lasting Pain Relief – Physical Therapy for Hip and Knee Pain

Hip and knee pain can be so frustrating – it seems like no matter what you have to do if you move you are going to experience pain. But there are ways to reduce your pain over the long term. It may take some time and effort on your part, but physical therapy has proven time and again to help reduce hip and knee pain for patients of all ages and backgrounds.

Why does the pain relief you get from physical therapy last for so long? There are a few reasons, including:

Getting to the source of the problem. If you just treat the symptoms of a hip and/or knee issue, you are almost guaranteed to see the problem pop up again later on. But if you can identify the source of the problem, you can actually treat what is causing the pain. Physical therapists have a process to identify the causes of hip and knee pain so that they can give you targeted treatments designed to get to the bottom of what is causing your pain.
Making you stronger so you don’t sustain further injuries. One of the big frustrations with joint pain is that it never seems to fully go away. Even if you rest for a while and feel better, when you go out and start moving again the injury can flare up all over again. But with physical therapy exercises, you get much stronger than you were before. The added strength allows your muscles to better support your joints, so you are less likely to experience additional irritation in the joint.
Helping you move in a healthier way. Many times the pain you are experiencing in your hip and knee is related to unhealthy movement patterns. They may have been learned over time or in response to an initial injury. Those unhealthy movements cause added strain on your joints and lead to further pain and injuries. Your physical therapist will help identify unhealthy movement patterns and give you the advice to replace those patterns with ones that will protect your joints from further injury.
Making it easier to lead an active lifestyle. Chronic hip and knee pain can be improved significantly through regular exercise and a healthy lifestyle. Of course, you have to be able to move without significant pain to exercise – something that is made much easier by physical therapy. Your physical therapist can help you improve your hip and knee pain significantly and teach you ways to exercise so that you avoid injuring your joints. Through physical therapy, you can regain strength and mobility so that you can lead a more active lifestyle.

Let Us Show You the Benefits of Physical Therapy for Hip and Knee Pain

If you are currently struggling with hip and knee pain, we want you to know that we are here to help. Our physical therapy team can help you reduce your pain over the short term and the long term. Please contact Synergy Rehab & Wellness Center at our Verona, VA, or Waynesboro, VA location today to schedule an appointment with your physical therapy team and get the relief you deserve!

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