Hip Pain

[One-Off]

50 still paddling probably about 10 miles a week, plus surfing whenever there are waves, gonna get back on the swim tip as soon as the water hits 50. Been working Demo/laborer for the last few years and it is starting to take a toll. Was always anti weights but guess I have to start. Thanks for the reply.

I was like you,- surfing is the best training for surfing....and it is...until it isn't. If you want to avoid injury, I'd advise getting started before you get injured. I was 58 when my back went haywire. I'm still not 100%, probably never will be. I sometimes think if I would have got on the deadlift program when I was 50 I'd still be surfing my 6-0.
Start by buying a olympic barbell and this book (written by an MD)-

The Barbell Prescription: Strength Training for Life After 40 – The Aasgaard Company

aasgaardco.com

 

[VonMeister]

50 still paddling probably about 10 miles a week, plus surfing whenever there are waves, gonna get back on the swim tip as soon as the water hits 50. Been working Demo/laborer for the last few years and it is starting to take a toll. Was always anti weights but guess I have to start. Thanks for the reply.

Is "Swim" his given name of just something you call him?

 

[mundus]

Is "Swim" his given name of just something you call him?

Grow up

 

[averagejoe]

50 still paddling probably about 10 miles a week, plus surfing whenever there are waves, gonna get back on the swim tip as soon as the water hits 50. Been working Demo/laborer for the last few years and it is starting to take a toll. Was always anti weights but guess I have to start. Thanks for the reply.

If you're working labor, getting into lifting is going to drain you, especially at 50.

unpopular suggestion - take a couple months off paddling/surfing and do the Starting Strength program. if you're working labor, surfing and trying to lift weights, you won't have enough gas in the tank to recover and you'll feel like a zombie. a couple months under the bar will do wonders for your hips and overall strength.

also - paddling is a waste of time unless you want to be a paddler (come at me)

 

[mundus]

If you're working labor, getting into lifting is going to drain you, especially at 50.

unpopular suggestion - take a couple months off paddling/surfing and do the Starting Strength program. if you're working labor, surfing and trying to lift weights, you won't have enough gas in the tank to recover and you'll feel like a zombie. a couple months under the bar will do wonders for your hips and overall strength.

also - paddling is a waste of time unless you want to be a paddler (come at me)

Fair enough,just what I do coming from a lifeguarding background,I think it helps for the rare EC tube days, the paddle out in a 5 mil is usually not easy. thanks for the response.

 

[One-Off]

Fair enough,just what I do coming from a lifeguarding background,I think it helps for the rare EC tube days, the paddle out in a 5 mil is usually not easy. thanks for the response.

Surfers are paddlers. Besides my back...I won't get into my shoulder and neck...

Timing your strength training can be problematic. We keep having reports of swell so I keep delaying. Now I'm waiting for Friday again and it will have been 2 weeks since my last barbell session which means guaranteed DOMs.

What averagejoe says makes sense, maybe further into spring when the waves are lackluster. I can't put surfing aside right now because right now is the season.

 

[GromsDad]

Getting old is sooo much fun Anyway started developing hip pain, not too bad yet but not heading in the right direction. Anybody have any advice besides the Ortho and MRI?

My 20 year golf addiction has worn my right hip out pretty good. Started getting low grade ache five or six years ago. What I have found that gives me tremendous relief is using the Hip Adduction Machine at the gym. When its bothering me I'll go do a good workout on that machine and I will get relief that lasts for a few days. Rinse and repeat.

If you're not a member at a gym put a basketball between your knees and squeeze it as hard as you can for as long as you can 10-20 times.

 

[VonMeister]

Surfers are paddlers. Besides my back...I won't get into my shoulder and neck...

Timing your strength training can be problematic. We keep having reports of swell so I keep delaying. Now I'm waiting for Friday again and it will have been 2 weeks since my last barbell session which means guaranteed DOMs.

What averagejoe says makes sense, maybe further into spring when the waves are lackluster. I can't put surfing aside right now because right now is the season.

Springtime is when I usually program my high intensity blocks for that very reason.

 

[VonMeister]

My 20 year golf addiction has worn my right hip out pretty good. Started getting low grade ache five or six years ago. What I have found that gives me tremendous relief is using the Hip Adduction Machine at the gym. When its bothering me I'll go do a good workout on that machine and I will get relief that lasts for a few days. Rinse and repeat.

If you're not a member at a gym put a basketball between your knees and squeeze it as hard as you can for as long as you can 10-20 times.

At some point sliding will cause tendonitis in your hip. Once you start sliding...which is a natural movement..it's hard to stop. I spent hundreds of hours trying to make hip rotation automatic again. If I'm not mindful of it, sliding and throwing my angles creeps back in.

 

[Mike_Jones]

Getting old is sooo much fun Anyway started developing hip pain, not too bad yet but not heading in the right direction. Anybody have any advice besides the Ortho and MRI?

Where does it hurt?
.

 

[Mr J]

I don't get anything I call pain in the hips, but I suffer from weakness and frequent muscle soreness in the hip region. Its the way I'm built and what I do. I've always been a skinny weakling and my hobbies of surfing and skateboarding work my flexors hard. I use a lot of leg kick to catch waves because my stringy arms aren't as effective as most peoples, plus I've always had a good swimming flutter kick - I discovered this when I did some swim training - just about everybody (including the women) could beat me in a lap of the pool using the front crawl, but I outdid everybody in a kickboard race. I'm also trying to ollie my skateboard, I can sort of ollie really badly - it works my flexors hard anyway.

I've discovered from trial and error that 2 days in a row of doing multiple sessions of surfing and/or skateboarding in a row is the maximum I can go before I need a rest day, otherwise I risk getting soreness so bad that it takes more than one rest day to recover or even a muscle pull. If I'm not careful to pace or condition myself I even get acute soreness - that is soreness that comes on the same day, I suppose if I recover within two days its not really a injury, but needing more than 1 rest day is counter productive to maximising fun.

My flexors are therefore prone to getting tight, something I have solved by all sorts of flexor stretches which I do regularly, but something more mysterious is (or I should say was) is my rear outer upper hip tendon attachment point. Completely symptom/soreness free, but whenever I get a massage (every 3 weeks) or if I'm on holiday in Thailand massage pressure in that area makes me wince with the tenderness. I asked the Australian massage therapist what that tendon attachment point is and he told me its for the gluteus minimus. Knowing that means I now know how to stretch it - lie on back if doing the right GM pull knee with hand to the left - and this is the important bit, pull the knee in the direction of the shoulder - I discovered this after the massage left me tender in this area and I really felt the stretch when pulling the knee upwards, not just across the body.

So you might think what's the problem if my gluteus minimus is symptom free when walking, but tender under massage pressure. Well I just don't believe that having somemuscle or tendon really tight is good for longevity. There is this idea that muscles sometimes get tight because they are weak, not just because repetetive motion is shortening them.

So what I am doing is rubber band exercises. I know this all sounds a bit pissweak compared to the barbell, but I'm able to exercise my hips from all angles and by going light with the bands on my rest days I can keep it up without interfering with my hobbies - very light with the easy yellow band. I don't really know how much this active recovery benefits me though, its just what I do.

Von Meister's philosophy of going hard with the training in the off season is great. The problem is a lot of don't have an off season, we a surfing non stop year round. However, for a combination of reasons about a month and a bit ago I spent a week+ off my surfboard/skateboard and was doing the bands almost every day, more vigorously than what I do now, 2 or 3 times a day and it really seemed to strengthen my flexors. A couple of the band exercises do the gluteus minimus too.

 

[Aruka]

@Mr J have you considered increasing calorie intake to help with the "scrawniness"?

i'm a hard gainer myself and it's taken me years of intentional caloric surplus + resistance training to gain muscle and fill out my lanky frame.

it's a lot of work but it's worth it in the long run I think.

 

[Aruka]

These are one of my favorites for hips. 3 sets of 10, twice a week.

 

[Mr J]

@Aruka I have a couple of ideopathic (unknown cause) health problems that has me on 5 meals a day. I can manage on 4, but feel better on 5 and I have had advice for my problems by a dietician my GI specialist sent me too. So I am eating as much as I can and that eating schedule limits me to about a 1hr each session ( twice in a day in winter, sometimes 3 in summer of surf/skate). So really no room for improvement. I've done several daily intake counts - reasonably recently too and I'm on up to about 2,200 kilocalories a day. I was discussing this intake on another thread and Grapedrink thought it was quite a lot, although some charts seem to think it is reasonable for my size and activity level.

I've always been this size ever since my early 20s. Except for a period of about a year when I took up bodybuilding when I was about 30. I did temporarily add some kilos then. I don't think bodybuilding is a good sport for me coz it interferes severely with hobbies such as surfing and I don't like the way the focus is all on body image. I was also pushing myself hard and getting some injuries, I don't regret trying it - I learned a few things about lifting weights which can be useful on a much milder intensity.

For my health limitations, age and hobbies I reckon I'm far better off doing the sort of planking exercises that you showed above. These aren't going to do anything for my scrawny build, but they do increase the stamina of my muscles. I did do the abduction exercise you showed above for a while, plus the opposite way of knee on the edge of a sofa or something for adduction (pulling leg towards centre line of body.

I'm always interested in refining what I do and currently into the elastic bands. I'm doing about half a dozen hip exercises from here 9 Hip Flexor Exercises Bands: Increase Strength & Hip Mobility (sportydoctor.com) I modified the "half jacks" and "riverdance" to be non jumping and instead slowly squat down and up for the half jack and keep standing on one leg for the riverdance doing circular out and up movements with a big emphasis on posture on one leg. I'm just making it up, but keeps things interesting for motivation. I like the bands because the intensity can be varied so easily by just not say abducting so much which means that I can adjust it according to how much recovery I need from my hobbies.

 

[Aruka]

@Mr J sorry to hear about your health problems. I was always super lanky growing up which wasn't the worst thing for surfing and skating but I am happier with a bit more weight these days. I'm tall so the amount of calories I have to eat to maintain or gain weight is pretty ridiculous. I don't count calories and I usually only eat 3 meals per day but they are huge and I do as much snacking as I want in between.

 

[Mr J]

I have 2 significant, lifechanging problems that are rare and I'd be surprised if anyone else has them. They are not getting worse and I'm still working and surfing. I have had heaps of tests and I'm not spending time wondering what caused them anymore, its better to just focus on good diet and exercise. One is an unusual type of glucose intolerance - I'm not insulin resistant, I'm told I'm the opposite - insulin sensitive, meaning I don't need to produce much insulin to keep my blood sugar low, possibly because I get a lot of exercise or at least that helps. This would be good except that my system is slow to start producing the insulin in response to food, it does achieve the right levels after eating, but too slow. So in order not to get hypoglycemic bounce or whatever its called, I shouldn't ingest too many carbs in one go, so its better to spread balanced meals into multiple small ones. This is supposed to be healthy anyway - not that you need to worry, you must be burning heaps of energy with the surfing you do and by the sound of it not fat. The other problem I have is something to do with the nerve supply to my stomach and this requires the multiple small meal approach too. I am told by dieticians that I am getting enough food.

 

[mundus]

Thanks everyone for all the advice. Been trying to stretch more, which I never did. Cut back on the manual labor and soft sand running it is feeling better

 

[SurfDoc]

My question is are you sure it's the hips? As in, is it in the joint, or the muscles and connective tissues across the joint? Or is it the sacroiliac joint? Quitting the sand running was a good idea. Bicycling will get you similar results with less pounding on the musculoskeletal system. Of course if the problem really is in the hip joint itself biking could aggravate it, too. Sounds like you did the stretching and some rest. The hard labor work for sure takes a toll, too.

 

[mundus]

My question is are you sure it's the hips? As in, is it in the joint, or the muscles and connective tissues across the joint? Or is it the sacroiliac joint? Quitting the sand running was a good idea. Bicycling will get you similar results with less pounding on the musculoskeletal system. Of course if the problem really is in the hip joint itself biking could aggravate it, too. Sounds like you did the stretching and some rest. The hard labor work for sure takes a toll, too.

It kind of moves around, sometimes on the inside, sometimes on the out side. Trying to train for a swim race in July and possibly a paddle board race later in summer, so having a hard time resting it completely.

 

[Bdog808]

Is the hip tight? I, 54, had hip replacement about a month ago. The problem with tightness and walking with limp started winter 2021, tried physical therapy for awhile, but finally got x-ray last November and it showed advanced arthritis bone on bone. Fortunately, I didn't advance to having pain and could still surf although pretty sore after. Surgery went super smooth and because I remained active and didn't wait years in denial like a lot of people do, screwing up other things in the process, I'm already back in the water surfing. Titanium ball joint and socket, good for 30 years, I'd line up that x-ray as that answered all my questions about the cause of the hip issue.