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Chiropractors/Pain in the hips

Expert: Dr. Man Tran, Ph.D., D.C., L.Ac. - 10/3/2009

Question

Hello, mr. Man Tran, I've been practicing taekwondo for 6 months now. I'm 19 years old. I have a problem, when i stretch in a V pose or any other stretch that i have to perform while sitting, or if i try to perform a high kick my hips start hurting. I've been to a doctor a few days ago, there were no problems with my hips, but my spine was damaged due to overtraining when i used to play rugby in my teen years (13-15). My doctor told me to grit my teeth and do the stretching anyway, is it really okay or should i try something else ? And i tried taking a break from taekwondo for about 2 months or so. the pain came back when i started stretching again.

Answer
Dear Ainis,

From the look at your X-ray, the right femur head is jammed into the acetabulum. This could be the reason causing you hip pain especially with stretching (opening the legs apart and bending forward or toward the center). Kicking may exacerbate the hip pain as well since this will also cause the bone to make contact with each other inside the socket.

The best thing to do is to strengthen the muscles around the hip joints so it can be stabilized without jamming into the socket. The second suggestion is to get treatment from a chiropractor who will perform a distraction adjustment of the hip in order displace the joint outward giving it more space.

I would suggest to lay off of the stretching until you have developed the muscles to hold the joint in a stabilize position. Then you can stretch those muscles that you have gained when they are tight. This should allow you to go back to Taekwondo practice.