As followers of my blog and website know, I cured in myself what was diagnosed as a classic case of hip osteoarthritis. I shared my story online and was urged by a number of people to write a book explaining how I did it. I’m currently in the process of writing a self-help guide to help others achieve the same results as me.

I’ve worked out a model that allows me to identify 4 different variations of the basic dysfunction (a muscle imbalance) that results in osteoarthritis symptoms and probably causes the underlying wear to the joint. Not every case is exactly like mine but the basic principles are the same. Using the model and the results of a couple of physical tests (which you can do yourself) I am able to predict which muscles are key players in the dysfunction and identify the no-go areas – the vulnerable nerves, muscles and other soft tissue that’s likely to be painful and reactive. From here I come up with a personalized set of corrective exercises. The golden rule is to never do anything that is uncomfortable. If the exercise selection is right then it won’t hurt.

My biggest challenge lies in figuring out the best way to achieve this in other people. I know what works best for me, but with my sporty background, fitness levels and interest in bio-mechanics my way of looking at things is different from most. I therefore recruited a number of volunteers with diagnosed hip osteoarthritis and I’m testing out my approaches on them to help me gauge how best to present the information to others. It’s a little challenging communicating everything via email but as the self help guide will be in print/online it’s good practice.

One of my ‘guinea pigs’, Claire has kindly agreed to let me share her progress on this blog.

Stage one was to convince Claire that there was a chance that her symptoms were due to a muscle balance and not to her actual joint. That wasn’t too hard to do with Claire – for a 70 year old lady she is EXTREMELY pro-active and determined to fight for her health. Claire knows that there are no guarantees of complete cure – that we can only correct all the soft tissue problems that we find and see where we end up. But without a doubt there’s every hope that she’s going to end up in a very good place! The most important ingredient is an individual’s attitude. It HAS to be a self help approach. No one can do it for you.

When muscles have been tight and sore for a long time the best place to start is just to give them a bit of help to loosen off. Claire has been working on finding and self treating trigger points in her body for a couple of weeks now. Immediately she got great results from releasing a trigger point in her piriformis muscle, reporting that she was able to walk pain free for the first time in ages. She’s been working more specifically this week on the muscles that are likely to be most affected by her particular muscle imbalance. I received this message from her today:

It’s lovely to get feedback like this. It makes it all worthwhile. It just seemed such a waste to figure all of this out then only use it on myself.

I’m working out an exercise plan for Claire tonight. The trigger point bit is the easy part – you can make HUGE gains very quickly. Enough for Claire to decide she doesn’t need a Total Hip Replacement after all! But it’s mostly symptomatic relief. Now that she’s out of pain and her muscles are little softer and more pliable it’s time to get to work untangling the mess of confused, tight and sore muscles. I know what’s wrong and how to correct it. The question is, will Claire’s body respond in the same way as mine? With imbalances like this it’s a moving target with a different ‘sticking point’ from day to day and week to week. The trick is to keep one step ahead and to keep coaxing everything into correct alignment.

We’ll share progress as soon as we have something worthwhile to report.

If you want to find out if your hip osteoarthritis is caused by muscle imbalances like mine then by all means drop me a line or comment below. I can give you a couple of quick tests to do that will give you an indication as to whether this approach is likely to help. I can also give you some tips and ideas to get you started on resolving your symptoms. Also it’s very helpful for me to hear from as many people as possible as it helps me to understand the type of information I need to share in the self help guide.

I working hard to try and get someone involved in osteoarthritis research to help verify my approach. A doctor from the research center for OA in the UK has kindly offered to ‘champion my cause’ and help me to find someone that can help make sure the guide is as useful as possible.

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