Three physical therapy methods for hip arthritis treatment

does physical therapy help arthritis pain relief

Your hip joints are painful while walking the dog. They’re stiff and sore first thing in the morning or after sitting down for a while. You feel a grating sensation in your hip when getting up from a chair. Every one of these issues is a sign that you could have hip osteoarthritis. 

Osteoarthritis can affect many joints in the body, and it’s also known as wear-and-tear arthritis. The hips are one of the most common places osteoarthritis develops; medical studies report that up to 10% of people can expect to develop symptomatic hip osteoarthritis. 

Physical therapy is a treatment option for hip osteoarthritis that can be beneficial. Physical therapists are experts in the musculoskeletal system that the hips are a part of. These specialists offer many therapy techniques that can help increase your quality of life. 

Three physical therapy methods used in hip osteoarthritis treatment

Your physical therapist won’t just randomly choose which therapy methods to use in your hip osteoarthritis treatment plan. First, they’ll evaluate your hips to determine the specific symptoms you have. They’ll also look for underlying issues that could be increasing your symptoms. 

Only once they’ve taken these two steps will your therapist start putting together your treatment plan. Some of the techniques that they could include in it are: 

  1. Functional dry needling — Most people would think that being stuck by a needle causes pain. However, the monofilament needles used in functional dry needling typically don’t cause any pain. What they can do is generate a local twitch response in soft tissue that can decrease joint pain. One study of dry needling reveals that it helped reduce patients’ worst hip pain by close to 53 points. 
  1. Manual therapy — Friends or family members who have been to physical therapy may have told you that the therapist used their hands to move the affected body part. These movements are a category of therapy called manual therapy. 

The goals of manual therapy methods include reducing pain and increasing soft tissue and joint flexibility. A medical study shows that manual therapy can help hip osteoarthritis sufferers. This study found that five weeks of manual therapy improved hip arthritis symptoms in 81% of the patients who had it. 

  1. Therapeutic exercises — You may also have heard that physical therapists tend to prescribe exercises for their patients. For hip arthritis patients, these exercises seek to improve strength in joint-supporting muscles. They can also help decrease pain. Medical researchers from one study learned just how effective therapeutic exercises can be. This study shows that patients had: 
  • A 24.4% improvement in hip flexor strength.
  • A nearly 48% increase in hip extensor strength.
  • A 41.2 % boost in hip abductor strength. 

Border Therapy Services offers effective hip osteoarthritis treatment

Ready to discover a physical therapy team that can help you with hip osteoarthritis treatment? You won’t have to look any further than our team at Border Therapy Services. We offer free screenings that can pinpoint the underlying issues behind your arthritis symptoms. In addition, our team can build you an individualized therapy plan that includes the methods discussed above and more. 

Is your hip arthritis keeping you stuck at home? No problem! Our team offers virtual therapy and at-home care services that allow you to receive effective in-home treatment. 

Contact our team today for more information about all our hip arthritis treatment services or to schedule an initial appointment.