We talked about your hip, how it moves and why you have hip pain.  Gini told us about her super-dooper pain-relieving tool that you probably already have in your own kitchen.  And then I came up with another use for it.  I’ll bet you might, too. 

We had a fun talk.  I always enjoy interviewing someone who knows her stuff.

I know you will have a better understanding of your hip pain after you listen.  That’s important because it IS your body.

I also know you will gets lots of natural self-help relief techniques for the pain in your hip(s).

Here’s the link to the interview:  http://budurl.com/hiphip (<– click here)

After you listen, leave a comment here and let me know what other pain relief topics you’d like to hear.

The interview is only 30 minutes.  Don’t you owe that to yourself to get hip pain relief?  I’m thinking YES!

Every week I do another episode of Pain Relief Radio.  Today we talked about how to walk to prevent or get rid of back pain.  We talked about how our walking patterns become faulty and how that causes pain.

We talked about walking with stiff knees and hips.  This kind of stiff walk contributes directly to arthritis in your hips and knees and fragile bones in your pelvis.  But bones stay strong and healthy when we use all of our muscles as they were designed to be used.

Meir Schneider wrote a great book, “The Handbook of Self-Healing, Your Personal Program for Better Health and Increased Vitality,” and I quoted lots from Meir and threw in plenty of my own thoughts, too.

Meir is a brilliant bodyworker in San Francisco.  I’m so fortunate to have taken classes from him.  There are people who understand how bodies work and what we must do if we are to be pain-free.  Meir is one of them.  His story of curing his own blindness with massage, eye movements and exercises is inspirational.  He has been helping people feel better with self-help movements for years.  We just have to know what to do; that’s what Meir shares.

If you walk with a smooth movement you will have no pain.  But, if you learned or acquired a less-smooth or “jerky” or stiff way of walking, or if you do certain things that bodies don’t like–like locking your knees backward–then you will have pain.

Bodies operate by following certain natural laws; they were designed to move in certain ways.  Getting back to the movements that your body prefers will help reduce your pain.  Walking easily and correctly will help you get rid of your back pain, naturally.

And now I’d like to invite you to claim your free report about Healthy Walking (<– click here) so you can start learning how to walk without pain.

You can get rid of pain by walking.  You can feel better if you walk.  You were born to walk.

Nordic Walking uses “walking sticks” (poles) and can help people with hip pain more than using a cane.  A cane supports you on only one side, but walking with a pole in each hand gives you support on both sides.

Using these walking poles helps propel you forward.  They also cause you to swing your arms in a good, neutral position.  When you swing your arms correctly as you walk (next to your body rather than in front of your body, and with your thumbs pointed upward as when you shake hands) you use all of your upper body muscles as they were designed to be used.

Nordic Walking gives you a good upper body workout as well as your lower body.

Why is walking good for your hips?

We get into pain when we get out of muscular balance.  Walking is what we were designed to do.  We are supposed to move.  We are built to walk for miles and miles.

But, long hours of sitting and other lifestyle changes caused some muscles to become “too tight” and others to become weak.  Walking changes all that.  Walking helps get all of the muscles around your hip joint strong and balanced, each with the other.

Walking might not be something you can do easily anymore.  You might be able to do Nordic Walking or you simply might not.  You will have to really consider your body and how you feel, and you might want to check with your doctor.

You will find a video about Nordic Walking at Live Healthy By Walking. When you watch the video, you might think, “They are going too fast.  I could never do that.”  Well, maybe you can’t do it right now, but if you start out gradually at the pace you can manage, your hips will start to get happier and stronger.  This might be a helpful way to propel yourself as you walk.

Read Rosalie’s story when you are there.  She’s an inspiration!  You’ll discover how she’s getting rid of her hip pain with walking.

I’d also like to invite you to get a free report about walking and learn more about how to walk without hip pain (<– click here.)  I’d also like to hear from you when you tell me how you walked away from your pain…simply by walking.

Do you think you need a hip replacement?

Have you paid attention to where the pain in your hip is located?

Is it in the meaty back part, at the outside, or on the bone/at the joint? Is it at the inside or outside of your thigh? Is is mid-thigh on the outside of your leg?

Are there times when your hip pain is worse or not noticeable?

Answering these questions will help you determine what’s going on – why you have hip pain or discomfort – and how to get rid of it.

Having the answers to these questions will also help you explain your pain to your doctor in case you decide to talk to him or her about it.

Lately, people, including me, have been complaining about pain at the hip joint.

The hip joint is the bone that you can feel on the outside of your very upper leg. If you drop your hand down at your side, you will feel the bone somewhere around your lower arm or wrist, depending how long your arm is. What you are actually feeling is the head of your thigh bone.

Muscles and tough tissues cross over this joint.

Sometimes the bursa – a little pocket of lubrication for the joint – gets irritated. Your doctor may say you have bursitis. That can go away on its’ own, especially if you stop doing whatever was irritating it.

Sometimes the muscles get aggravated. This can be from pressure, like laying on your favorite side in bed all the time. It can also be from an over-stretch, like crossing your leg.

The position that would most likely cause over-stretch is when you move your knee closer or past your midline. The midline is the imaginary line is the line that goes from your nose to belly button, straight down your body.

Lots of times people think they need a hip replacement. Often all they need is…

> Some really good therapeutic massage to release the muscles and tissues which have become tight around the joint. This includes the powerful gluteal, or butt, muscles. They attach to the hip joint and if they get tight, they will pull too much across the joint and cause discomfort.

> To stop aggravating the joint. This could mean learning to sleep on your back or other side. It might mean not letting your knee move toward or across your midline.

> Finding a new seat or car seat. Sometimes the outer edge of a seat will press against our hip bone, especially if we have wide bones. That can aggravate the muscles and cause hip pain.

> Getting their legs measured by a doctor, physical therapist or neuromuscular massage therapist who understands how to measure for leg length difference. One out of ten of us has a leg length difference. If we do, and if we get a correct lift for our short leg – get this – it takes the pressure off the hip of the short leg.

Sometimes there has been so much wear on a hip joint – usually from having a short leg – that the joint must be replaced.

Other times, just taking the pressure off the joint and getting some deep muscle massage will take the pain away!

Here are a couple of beneficial things we can do at home, easily, in the comfort of our bed.

> The first is to make the muscles around your hip joint move in multiple directions.

Most of the time, we only move in one or two directions. Moving in various directions will warm your muscles and make them more flexible.

> The second is to strengthen the muscles on the outside of the joint.

To do this, lift your leg to the side. Do this in a way that you can feel your hip muscle – your gluteal (butt) muscles – contract. You want to know that you are using those muscles. Those muscles should be involved in this movement.

If the cause of your discomfort was over-stretched muscles, strengthening in this way will help correct the problem. It will help get you back in balance.

Why do I say “back in balance?”

Because you used to be in balance, when you were a child.

And you can be again.

“Because You Deserve to Feel Better!”