Upper leg pain

With such large muscle groups working together to help you move and support your body, injuries in your upper leg are very common. The muscles include your gluteals (buttock), quadriceps (thigh), hamstrings (at the back of the leg), and adductors (groin and inside leg), Plus many other tendons and tissues (e.g. your ilio-tibial band, your patella tendon)

Whether you are an elite sportsperson, a weekend warrior or you just like to walk, speak with your osteo about the best approach to manage or prevent an upper leg injury. They are listening, and will help you with:

• Posture
• Strength
• Your workplace – e.g. if you sit down a lot, bend over a lot, do a lot of heavy lifting
• Understanding how your glutes, thighs, hamstrings and other muscles interact
• Access to the full range of movement of the joints
• Exercises that are specific to the activities you enjoy
• Your training program. If you don’t have one, they’ll help you make one
• Managing activities that cause pain
• Rehabilitation from injury

Consult your osteo about how to best manage your injury, or how to prevent one.

Some general tips:

• Warm up and down when exercising
• Stretch regularly
• For sport or general training – gradually add weight or intensity so you don’t overdo it
• Take time to recover from heavy exercise
• Drink lots of water

Find out about Chris’ journey with osteopathy for an upper leg injury here:

Chris’s Journey

WATCH Move Osteopathy’s tips for hamstring injuries:

Sources:

Sports Medicine Australia. Hamstring Strain

Sports Medicine Australia: Corked thigh

The Osteo Joint

Sports and Spinal Albury Wodonga

There is limited high quality evidence for treatment fo hamstring injuries. However some studies suggest that stretching, agility and trunk stability exercises may be useful (Reurink et al 2012).

Clinical exercise programs may benefit patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome and persistent groin pain (Brown et al 2016) .

Extracorporeal shockwave therapy may be more useful than conservative management in the treatment of proximal hamstring tendinopathy (Korakakis et al 2017).

References:

Brown C et al. 2016. The effectiveness of exercise on recovery and clinical outcomes in patients with soft tissue injuries of the hip, thigh, or knee: a systematic review by the Ontario Protocol for Traffic Injury Management (OPTIMa) collaboration. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 2016 Feb;39(2):110-120

Reurink G et al. 2012. Therapeutic interventions for acute hamstring injuries: a systematic review. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2012 Feb;46(2):103-109

Korakakis V et al. 2017. The effectiveness of extracorporeal shockwave therapy in common lower limb conditions: a systematic review including quantification of patient-rated pain reduction. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2018 Mar;52(6):387-407. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2016-097347