Distance Runner Hip Pain

by Courtney
(Blacksburg, VA)

I am a collegiate distance runner who has been out for 4.5 months. From December 20th to March 7th I was recovering from bilateral femoral stress fractures.

Once I was comfortably doing 30-60 minutes every other day of running in late February, my doctor away from school told me to come in for lower leg strengthening sessions for the first week in March.

His strength trainer's exercises made me more sore than I had ever been in my glutes and hamstrings. They included lots of squat walks, lungs, side to side drills, and hip driving movements with kettle balls.

Five hours after the third session around March 7th, I was doing cariocao (a side to side running drill) as a warmup for my run. While pulling my left leg up over my right I felt an instantaneous pain shoot from my left hip through my groin.

Since then I have felt little relief right under my left hip during walking. I can hardly kick while swimming and cannot bike. It has been 1.5 months since the episode.

Two and a half weeks ago I was misdiagnosed with labral tear and when I flew to the surgeon's office he said he was 98% sure it was not a tear which was awesome news.

His radiologist only found inflammation in my iliopsoas on the MRI. He prescribed PT, light massage, and rest. After a week of PT, I still feel the pain while walking right below my hip.

My PT says I torqued my pelvis and we had to get it realigned. She has me doing subtle exercises while flexing my core muscles. Besides that I have been on the arm bike and have been going to an acupunturist.

Do you have any tips? Should this be taking over 1 month to heal and re-align itself? What else should I be doing to speed up the healing process.

-Extremely frustrated runner