Damn. It was coming back. After a period of relief, I was feeling some pain in the front and outside of my hip. It's annoying. I am a personal trainer and a running coach. I actively strength train to help avoid these types of injuries, I foam roll, I stretch, I build rest and recovery into my training plan.

It seems I do everything right, but here I was with a potential overuse injury in my hip. I tried to pinpoint when I started feeling pain, Was it after the Disney Half Marathon?

It happens to the best of us. A tight hip flexor or hip flexor strain is common in runners. Maybe it's because I'm a little (cough, cough) older than I used to be and I need to build even more rest and recovery time in my training schedule. As we age, it simply takes longer to recover. I can't count on following the same protocol as I did even five years ago. I have to listen to my body as it speaks to me today. 

I went to see my massage therapist over the last couple months but didn't experience any long-term relief. I was stretching and foam rolling but in the mornings my hip felt so tight I couldn't touch my toes. I often would feel a sharp pain when I sit in a flexed position in the car in the morning.

One thing I was sure of is that ignoring a pain will never make it better, only worse over time. If my own strengthening and stretching routine was not working to resolve the issues, I had to seek outside help. I want to keep running, I want to train for a late fall or winter marathon and it's not going to happen with a sore and tight hip.

I've successfully used AIRROSTI rehab to correct a long-term shoulder problem and now I wonder why I let this hip issue linger when I already had a potential solution in my tool belt. 

WHAT IS AIRROSTI

AIRROSTI stands for Applied Integration for the Rapid Recovery of Soft Tissue Injuries. It's non-invasive manual therapy. This is my second experience with AIRROSTI.

About two years ago I hurt my shoulder doing pushups. Over a period of about twelve months a sports medicine doctor gave me injections, prescribed pain medications and referred me to a physical therapist. The physical therapist gave me a generic print out of shoulder exercises to do at home. I paid for an MRI to learn nothing was torn. I went to a Chiropractor who performed laser light therapy. I tried Cryotherapy sessions which helped inflammation but does not fix the root of the problem.

I spent thousands of dollars and I still had shoulder pain. I couldn't do any strength training that involved my shoulder and I couldn't run for about a year (gasp!) because swinging my arms caused irritation. I was desperate for relief when someone told me about AIRROSTI.

After three sessions of AIRROSTI, I regained my shoulder function and the pain was nearly gone. I was running, doing overhead presses and pushups again within weeks. I was sold on the effectiveness because it worked for my shoulder injury. I wrote more about my shoulder experience with AIRROSTI on my other blog.

WHAT TO EXPECT: MY FIRST APPOINTMENT

I made an appointment at the AIRROSTI rehab in Fort Worth to discuss my hip injury. Dr Vohra is great. He's friendly, sympathetic and an athlete himself, so he understood when I told him I wanted my hip to heal so I can start training for my next half marathon. 

In the first part of the appointment, the doctor administered flexibility and mobility tests to determine the cause of the pain. He took the time to show me on a map of the human musculature system where he saw my problem and talked through the treatment he would apply, which included manual deep tissue therapy to release the tight psoas. (Read: Painful.)

The pressure was a pain level of 7-8 out of 10. It was intense but short-lived. I sucked it up, knowing a little pain now would relieve future long-term pain. He retested the tightness in my hip flexor immediately after the treatment and it was improved. He explained that he was able to release it, but it is naturally going to want to return to the tight/shortened position, so in order for the treatment to be effective, I would have to do at-home exercises twice a day.

It took about thirty minutes for the assessment and the AIRROSTI treatment then I headed over to the physical therapist's side of the office to learn more about my at-home exercises. 

The therapist showed me a few rolling exercises to do using the lacrosse ball (ouch) and hip flexors stretches. She followed up with an email that had videos, pictures and written descriptions of the exercises so that I could remember them. I made a follow-up appointment for three days later to access my progress and determine the next steps.

AT HOME THE NEXT DAY

The next day I had bruising where he had done the manual therapy and some soreness in my knee (that was new!) and middle back. I emailed the doctor and he explained it was normal. My tight hip flexors were pulling my knee and back out of alignment so when he released them, my knee and mid back responded. He said the soreness should resolve itself as long as I keep up my physical therapy exercises at home.

TWO DAYS LATER

I woke up for the first time in months without any soreness or tightness in my hip. Hooray! I couldn't believe it. After months of pain, tightness and soreness, in one treatment the pain was gone. 

MY FOLLOW UP APPOINTMENT

They claim that most patients have their pain issues resolved in three visits or less which was my experience with my shoulder injury. 

My hip was feeling 99% better after one treatment so I was anxious to see if the doctor would need to treat me again or discharge me. 

When I arrived at the office he retested the tightness of my hip flexors and they were normal! He performed some additional mobility tests and discharged me with a few more foam rolling exercises to add to my daily routine. Since he didn't have to treat me again, I didn't have to pay for the follow-up appointment (which is nice because my insurance doesn't cover the cost of $225). 

I don't know why I waited as long as I did. One treatment of AIRROSTI and my hip pain issues seem to be completely resolved. I know that I need to keep up with the rehab exercises, rebuild my running base slowly and take adequate rest (which may be more than I think) to stay healthy.

I am thrilled with my results from AIRROSTI. This is not a sponsored post. I was not paid or asked to write this review. I paid for the visit out of my own pocket and am sharing my outstanding experience in order to help others who may need similar treatment in the future. 

This has been the latest edition of Lea's Beans. If you want to know what that means, check out this post to learn more. 

Did you like this post? Know someone who might benefit? It helps me when you share with your friends and followers. 

Coach Lea