10 months of hip pain

Dear Gabrielle!

I am hoping you can help me figure out what has become a chronic symptom for me. Last June, when I was about 2 and a half years into my yoga practice, I developed hip pain/tightness that has never resolved. I can pinpoint the day of onset to a Monday (one of my usual yoga days). I had a family emergency and thus had to skip yoga that day, spend time driving in the car and time sitting in waiting rooms at the hospital, and generally being stressed. After this, I started having this tightness in the left hip, impacting me in and out of the yoga room. The best way I can describe the pain is that build up of pressure you get in a joint before it pops….only it would never pop. In the early months, the pain would make it hard for me to sit for long, and I found myself shifting a lot to take the pressure off the left hip. Then for a while, I had this sensation of what is likely sciatic pain running down the left leg. Those things have mostly gone away, and I thought that over time I would recover. Yoga seemed to help, sitting and lack of exercise made it worse (such as when I had to travel for a conference). Now…today….I primarily experience the pain during class, although with extended sitting I feel some discomfort in the hip and sciatic nerve distribution.

I have a list of postures here that increase the pain in the hip, listed in order of how much pain it causes. In summary, basically any posture that would stretch the hamstring is likely to increase the pain, but to be clear, the pain feels like it is in the hip joint, not the hamstring.

1. Standing Separate Leg Intense Stretching Pose (I affectionately call this “Giraffe Pose”) — This one is the worst. The further apart my feet are, the worse the pain when I try to grab my heels. Someone told me that this is because moving the feet apart closes the pelvis. Anyway, simply getting my left hand under the heel causes a lot of pain. I always check my hip alignment in the mirror, and invariably the left hip is higher….when I try to level the hips, the pain increases. For a time, if I could get my hands under the heels, focus on breathing and form, and pull (as instructed), the pain would increase at first but then I felt like the stretch helped, as if it was releasing something. Lately, I haven’t had this pleasure!
2. Standing Separate Head to Knee Pose – only toward the left leg. I have to bend this leg now, but even so, the pain is there.
3. Seated Head to Knee Pose – same thing…though I have been trying to keep the leg straight. The pain is there whether or not I bend the knee.
4. Triangle – on the left side. Going into and (especially) out of the pose hurts, although it does not hurt while I am IN the pose.
5. Standing Bow and Balancing Stick – As I pitch forward, rotating on the left hip, it hurts. Not at first, but at a certain point (in balancing stick, I am about 2-3” shy of parallel when the pain kicks in).
6. Padahastasana – this used to hurt, but doesn’t really hurt now. But my range of motion is less (rarely can I lock my knees).

In case you are wondering, wind removing pose does NOT hurt at all.

I recently got so desperate that I decided to see a chiropractor. After five adjustments, nothing is better, so I see no point in returning. I’ve had other smaller issues in the past, but with ongoing yoga they resolved. I figured that would happen here too, but it has not.

One other thing that might be related or not…a short time before this all started, I had a teacher give a correction in Standing Head To Knee about kicking the heel forward. I had heard that in the dialogue for a long time, but never made full sense of it until he worked with me individually. I finally realized that what I had to do was square the hips…duh! Anyway, that completely changed the feel of this pose for me, and part of the change was how much muscle engagement (cramping) I experienced at the top of the thigh of the supporting leg. I just thought about this recently, and wondered if that change somehow tightened the hip muscles in a way that contributed to this hip pain. Could be a red herring, but thought I would mention it.

Apart from your general insight, I do have a question. I have been a twice-per week practitioner for three and a half years now. Mostly that is enough for me. But I am wondering if I need to try a more intense frequency for a bit…like a 10-day challenge? Due to my schedule, it’s hard to do more than what I do now, but I might be able to swing a brief but intense increase. I don’t ever feel that the yoga makes it worse, but in some ways seems to help…just not enough. The chiropractor advised against over stretching the hip, but then she didn’t help so I don’t know if I should believe that or not. What is your opinion on increasing the frequency for a while?

I apologize for this tome! 🙄 I look forward to any thoughts you might have on potential causes and solutions. Thank you!!

-Kristin