Top Tips to Avoid Hip Pain When You are Overweight and Plan to Run

Running is an excellent form of exercise, which has many benefits. It improves your mood, cardiovascular health, and overall health. But if you are an overweight person and plan to run, you need to take some precautions to avoid hip and other joint pain.

The pressure on your hips and knees is many-fold of every pound of extra body weight that you carry. Exercising or running with that excess weight leads to injury.

Ask your Doctor the best workouts which suit your body. Before you start running, reduce those extra pounds from your body, because carrying that excess weight continuously, might cause you joint pain or hip pain. Hip pain is common in runners, and it has many causes.

Overuse is the common cause of hip pain. It is exciting and fun to run, but it puts stress on your body.

Important Tips for avoiding Hip Pain for an Overweight Runner

Prevention

Prevention is the best way to avoid any kind of injury while working out or while running. By stretching and strengthening your hip flexors, you can prevent hip injury.

Exercises such as leg lifts and leg raise in each direction, i.e., forward, back, in, and out, strengthen your hip flexors and foam rolling every day helps to keep your hip flexors relaxed and loose.

Even weak glutes can cause hip pain. Exercises such as bridge pose and squats strengthen your gluteal muscles. Pay heed to your aches and take immediate action towards it.

Stretching exercise and warm-up before and stretching and cool-down exercise after your workout or running is crucial. If needed, stop between your run and workout to stretch. If you feel any kind of pain, take a break or rest completely.

Do stretching and strengthening exercises for your lower back, quadriceps, glutes, and hips. If you are new to running, appoint a trainer who will teach you a proper running form, that is, precise techniques and running mechanics.

The amount of exercise you need to maintain your weight

Regular exercising helps you lose weight. Being overweight, you don’t have to work for longer hours. You need to work out regularly and smartly; even small workouts strengthen your muscles, improve your balance, and keep your hips flexible and strong.

You can start with simple exercises such as walking, swimming, water exercises, and climbing steps. According to the experts, 150 minutes of exercise weekly and weight training, two times a week with stretching and flexibility exercises are beneficial.

Workout at least five days a week for 30 minutes every day. If you cannot workout for 30 minutes at a stretch, you can take a break every 10 minutes.

Balanced Diet or Nutrient Food

Food that contains Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Calcium is essential. Vitamin C helps to form the collagen, lubricate, and cushions the hip bones in their socket. It also improves your bone health. Calcium and Vitamin D makes your bones strong.

Whole Grains: Oats and brown rice

Beans: Black beans and chickpeas

Vegetables: Leafy greens, broccoli

Dairy Products: milk and yogurt

Nuts: Almonds and seeds

Others: Berries, Tofu, Eggs, fatty fish such as Salmon

Recovery

If you are feeling hip pain, take a break from your running. Once you have recovered from your hip pain or are well enough to run again, you can re-start your running gradually.

Start your practice at half of the intensity and duration. When it is possible for you, you can slowly go back to your previous running schedule.

Rest

Rest is the best way to recover from an injury. If you are experiencing pain in the hip when running, you need to rest fully to recover from the pain.

Solicit medical advice immediately if your hip pain is severe, has a sign of infection and swelling. The Doctor will give you a proper treatment plan.

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The Common Causes of Hip Pain from Running and the Options to Prevent Hip Pain

IT Band Syndrome

Iliotibial (IT) band is a tissue that connects the outside of your hip to your knee and shinbone. Iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS) affects runners, and the pain can be felt outside of your hip and knee and thigh. By continuous movements and overuse, it becomes tight and irritating and also makes a clicking noise while running.

Prevention

Proper stretching before and after your workouts are essential. Even the warm-up before your workout or running and cool-down after your workout is necessary.

Stretching helps you to improve flexibility and strengthens your IT Band. Whenever you are working out or running, take a break in between and give your body time to recover.

You should run on flat surfaces. Take shorter strides while running. Regularly replace your shoes.

Muscle Strain and Tendonitis

When you run, the muscles of your hips are overused. Muscle strain and tendonitis are caused due to muscle imbalances. If your muscles are week while running, your muscles will constantly be under load.

Prevention

Strength Training, at least two times a week, is essential. This helps you to strengthen your muscles and tendons. Work on your lower body. To build the intensity level of your workout, warm-up before the session and cool-down after the session is essential. Before you take up your running event, build flexibility and strength in the muscles. Workout at least four to five days a week and learn the proper method of exercise.

Hip Impingement

This happens when there is a mismatch in the acetabulum (socket) and the femur (ball) that damages the joint’s protective cartilage (labrum) and ends up with degenerative osteoarthritis. Hip Impingement is a common cause in runners.

Prevention

Exercises such as band walk, dead bugs, and single-leg deadlifts tones your hips and glutes. It also gives more power to your body and protects your hip bone from injuries.

Muscle Tendon Bursitis

Bursae are more than a dozen fluid-filled sacs that cushion tendon, hip bones, soft tissues, and the muscles of the hip joint. Running, which is a repetitive activity, puts an impact on the Bursa sacs. Even poor form and muscle imbalance can hit any one of them.

Prevention

Exercises such as fire hydrants, band walk, single-leg deadlifts, high-knee raises and lying inner-thigh lifts, strengthens all the three planes of motions of the hip.

Hip Stress Fractures

Hip Stress Fracture is most common in runners, caused by running extreme distances. Pain is very sharp while running, walking, or working out, and you will feel uneasy the whole day.

Prevention

Increase your speed gradually, not more than 10 percent every week. A bone mineral density test is a must before you start any high-intensity workout.

Labral Cartilage Tears

The rim of the socket of your hip joint is surrounded by cartilage called Hip Labral Cartilage. It protects the top of your thighbone within your hip socket by stabilizing and cushioning the hip. A repetitive activity such as running causes the Labral tear.

Prevention

Exercises such as squats, donkey kicks, and side-leg raise help strengthen the muscles that support the hip joint.

To condition and stretch your lower body, Yoga is helpful.

To perform your sport in a proper form, train with a professional. While running or during any activity, avoid putting your full body weight on your hips.

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is common in runners or active marathoners. The pieces of cartilage break-down, split, or become brittle inside the hip joint. The cushioning of the hip joint reduces by loss of cartilage, and the friction of these cartilage pieces causes irritation, inflammation, and pain in the hip joint.

Prevention

Healthy Body Weight: Maintain a healthy weight to reduce the impact on your hip joint. The extra fat causes changes in the cartilage. This mostly hurts your hip, knees, ankles, and feet. Take the help of your trainer to lose weight safely.

Control your Blood Sugar Level: Manage the level of your blood sugar. The high blood sugar level increases the risk of getting osteoarthritis.

Be Active: Be active every day. The regular exercises prevent joint problems. It makes your muscles strong and helps your joints from getting stiff.

Prevent Joint Injuries: Start your exercise slowly to reach your goal. While running or working-out, warm-up, stretches, and cool-down of 5 to 10 minutes is essential. Try to change your exercises every day. Different exercises work on different parts of your body hence not put stress on the same joints every day. Exercises help you to prevent the injuries of ligaments, tendons, muscles, and joints.

Pay Attention to Pain: If after your exercise, you are getting pain in your joints for a longer time, e.g., 1 to 2 hours, you should give rest to your bones. Try to relieve the pain by using an ice pack. Do your exercises according to your ability, do not overdo.

These are the causes of hip pain and some essential tips to avoid hip pain. This will help you to prevent hip injuries and keep you on the track regularly without taking an unwanted break.