Could Gluteal Tendinopathy Be Affecting You?

While hip pain can be debilitating by itself, gluteal tendinopathy can also affect other areas of the body, with pain felt in the buttock, lower back, knee, thigh, or groin as a result of hip pain. This will depend on whether the pain is caused from within the hip itself, or from the hip joint or the muscle around the hip (hip flexor). 

Both conditions are caused by an injury to your tendon or bursa from an increase in stress or compression as they pass over your hip (the greater trochanter). This pressure can be caused by repetitive overloading or direct trauma to your hip.

Gluteal Tendinopathy 

Gluteal tendinopathy is caused by poor posture and poor movement associated with sitting with your legs crossed, walking, squatting, stair climbing, or running with excessive hip adduction (hip adductors are the muscles in your inner thigh that support balance and alignment). Over time, this leads to a loss of strength and control at the hip and pelvis. 

Gluteal tendinopathy affects 25% of women and 10% of men over the age of 50. This can be in association with hormonal changes (post-menopause or during pregnancy), and in patients with a history of inflammatory disorders such as arthritis. It also affects active runners who may be fit but lack sufficient strength and control around their hip. 

Symptoms of Gluteal Tendinopathy

• pain over the greater trochanter
• lateral thigh pain and upper lateral shin pain as well as some groin and glute pain
• It may be painful sleeping on the affected hip, but there may also be pain with the affected leg
• it may be painful walking up hills, climbing stairs and running
• if it is severe, it may be painful to stand on one leg to dress, to walk for the first few steps after sitting and may even be painful during sitting

Risk Factors for Gluteal Tendinopathy

The development of gluteal tendinopathy can be attributed to many different factors.

 Your physiotherapist will be the person to discuss these factors with you. The successful management of gluteal tendinopathy has become highly specialised over recent years as each factor can be targeted and adjusted. Your physiotherapist will help you to identify and address all the causes of your gluteal tendinopathy.

Research has identified the following factors with increased risk:

• Increased loading of the muscle through increased training loads or becoming adjusted to a higher capacity.
• Weak gluteal musculature
• An altered gait or way of walking
• Lumbar spine pain
• General health conditions – diabetes, thyroid function

How Your Physio Can Help

At City Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Clinic Adelaide we diagnose you based on a thorough history and musculoskeletal assessment. We talk to you about your pain, check how you stand and walk, and examine what movements cause you pain. 

Our physiotherapists will coach you through how to recruit the deep gluteal muscles, which are essential in correcting muscle imbalances and poor movement patterns, it is also effective in improving hip associated pain. The exercises would help to improve postural control, movement patterns and strength in standing, sit to stand, single leg stand, squats, climbing steps and running.

Your movement patterns will be assessed to where you have weaknesses and then corrected through training and strengthening of other areas of the body such as abdominals, gluteus maximus and quadriceps.

Clinical Pilates is another way that the experienced team at City Physio can help you address these issues. It is a very effective way to progress through your rehabilitation program allowing you to complete supervised exercise and to improve whole-body control and strength.

A lot of the time, people think they suffer from trochanteric bursitis when it is gluteal tendinopathy. Our skilled and experienced physiotherapy team are trained to diagnose and treat all forms of hip pain, so you are in safe hands. 

Physiotherapy for gluteal tendinopathy will focus on rest, pain relief and addressing underlying biomechanical dysfunctions and muscle weakness.

Our qualified physiotherapists will educate you about what activities should be avoided, such as positions that increase compressive forces around the hip and advise on how to safely remain active. 

Pain relief is dependent on the patient’s needs and can be achieved through physio techniques such as: 

• Dry needling
• Soft tissue massage
• Unload taping and stretches 
• Strengthening exercises or resistance training

Strengthening of the lateral hip musculature and improving core stability are usually the primary goals of management in order to help prevent recurrent episodes of gluteal tendinopathy. Sometimes, if the condition is not responding to physiotherapy management alone, we may refer you for an ultrasound-guided cortisone injection to assist with our management of your symptoms of gluteal tendinopathy.

Call 8212 4886 to enquire about your next appointment, or book online today with City Physio in Adelaide for an assessment on your hip from one of our qualified physios and start your journey to recovery with our qualified and highly experienced physiotherapists. 

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