Snapping hip? Side of hip pain?

It is not unusual to hear complaints from patients about front or side (lateral) of hip pain or snapping when shifting weight onto one leg, walking, or going up stairs.



Many times doctors assign one of the following diagnoses to this condition: bursitis, snapping hip, IT Band syndrome, or gluteal tendinopathy. Labral tears of the hip can also create altered mechanics of the hip that lead to lateral hip pain.

While knowing the diagnosis influences Physical Therapy interventions, the diagnosis does not indicate what the muscle imbalances are that must also be corrected. Physical Therapists conduct an evaluation to understand the muscle imbalances, as well as status of tissue healing, activity modification, and goals needed to develop a proper treatment plan.

Many times the associated muscle imbalance involves the lateral subsystem of muscles. This includes the gluteus medius, tensor fascia latae, adductors, and quadratus lumborum.

Here are some intermediate level exercises that can help strengthen this muscle system:

Side lunge

Side step up

Side band leg lift

Band side step

Skater jumps

Farmer's walk

These suggested exercises do not replace appropriate diagnosis and treatment of any condition.  Exercises and progressions used in Physical Therapy are determined on an individual basis after the Physical Therapy evaluation has been completed.

This blog post was written by Meredith Butulis, DPT, ACSM HFS. She practices at our Eden Prairie location. 

What is Physical Therapy?

What is Physical Therapy? The Physical Therapy experience depends on the clinic and on the injury. OSR is a Sports and Orthopedic clinic, so our patients generally work on strategies for activity modification, collaborating with coaches to fix technical sports movements that may be provoking the injury (if applicable), and activities such as strengthening and stretching as part of their treatment plan.

See how one patient describes what he does at OSR:

Life long learning

Congratulations to Eden Prairie Physical Therapist, Meredith Butulis, on completing her MBA this weekend. This life-long learner also holds a Doctorate and Master's in Physical Therapy, Bachelor's in Pre-Med Health Studies, and several Personal Training and Pilates certifications. 

Hip post op labral tear

After surgery, people typically ask how long it will take to get back to various activities. Today, we will focus on post-op hip labral repairs with bony resections.

A labral tear means that the cartilage rim that helps support your hip stability has been injured. Not all labral tears require surgery. Surgical procedures and post-op protocols are also highly variable. The ideas presented here relate to one of our more common protocols, but again, it does vary by surgeon and exact procedure.




Here are the typical time frames for common activities:

1 week: Driving (for left hip surgeries)
3 weeks: Walking without crutches, Driving for right hip surgeries
6 weeks: Elliptical trainer
10 weeks: Some jogging and sport training
12-16 weeks: Modified return to sport
6 months-1 year: High level competitive sport without restriction

We hope this provides you an overview of activities. You should always check with your surgeon on his/her specific time frames for your specific surgery. Have a question or idea to share? Leave us a post!

Patellofemoral syndrome

What is patellofemoral syndrome? This is a question that we hear quite often at OSR Physical Therapy!

Patellofemoral syndrome means that your kneecap is not staying in line with thigh when you perform activities like walking, stair climbing, running, squatting, lunging, and jumping.

Think of your kneecap (aka patella) like a train. Think of your thigh (aka femur) like a set of railroad tracks. The train needs to stay centered on the tracks while you perform activities.

While traditional physical therapy focuses on strengthening your VMO (aka vastus medialis) and providing orthotics (shoe inserts), we use a more comprehensive sports medicine approach at OSR.

As suggested at the annual Cincinnati Sport Medicine Conference, the focus needs to be on the hip, not so much at the knee cap. Therefore, we assess the hip, knee, ankle, foot, and even core for muscle imbalances. Once we find those imbalances, we create a comprehensive custom treatment plan to resolve the muscle imbalances and retrain how you are performing the activities that were provoking the pain.

Most of the time, we find that we focus much more on how the "train track" works, and then the "train" just needs a little fine tuning so you can enjoy activities again!

Here is a video of one "train track alignment" exercise that we find almost everyone benefits from at some point in time:


Have questions or comments? Leave us a post!

This article was written by Meredith Butulis, DPT, who works at our Eden Prairie office.

Anterior oblique system

Last week, we discussed the posterior oblique muscle system. This week, let's move on to the anterior oblique system. When your external obliques and opposite side adductor work together, you can create power. This is especially beneficial in throwing sports.

After you've activated any under-active muscles or reach the final stages of your rehab program, here are some conditioning exercises you may wish to consider to build the strength of your anterior oblique system:

Posterior Oblique Muscles and Exercises

Have you ever rehabbed a back, hip, knee, or ankle injury? If you rehabbed with a Physical Therapist at OSR, you likely incorporated some exercises for your glutes. Numerous Physical Therapy and Athletic Training research articles guide us in ensuring that we assess and treat hip weaknesses with any lower body injury.

At some point you will be ready to move beyond basic exercises. At this point, you might wonder, what comes after the basics like clams and bridges? Transitioning from the basics of Physical Therapy back into fitness and total body training in a logical progression is advised to achieve optimal performance.

Muscles not only work in isolation, but also in groups. These groups are referred to as muscle systems (aka subsystems or slings). This article will focus on the posterior oblique system. This refers to how your lats and gluteus maximus work together during every day motion and sports motion.

Here are three exercises that can be used to target how these muscle groups work together:

Squat to row: This can be done with a TRX, cable, or band. It can be progressed to standing on one foot instead of two.

Bridge lat pull: This is traditionally a Pilates exercise, but can be done with a band anchored to a fixed object.

Single leg RDL: This can be performed without weight, and then progressed to using dumbbells or kettlebells.

This article was written by Meredith Butulis, DPT, ACSM HFS, NASM CPT. Meredith is a Physical Therapist at our Eden Prairie location. OSR Physical Therapy does run an Aftercare program to transition from Physical Therapy back to sport.