A common condition called Gluteal Tendinopathy is when an individual is experiencing pain where the gluteus medius meets the greater trochanter (upper part of the hip).
There are some things that you definitely don’t want to do when it comes to gluteal tendinopathy. A lot of the time people will usually say “just stretch it” or “just roll it” because that will solve everything right? That’s not the case here, stretching the area could actually be making your pain worse. Figure 4 and pigeon stretches are great for stretching the gluteus medius, but in this case you want to avoid them because of the strain it puts on the injured area. Same thing with rollers, they are great, but you don’t want to compress the irritated area. If you have gluteal tendinopathy and you notice you cross your legs often, then that could also be contributing to your problem because you are putting your hip in a constant stretched state.
Now what should you do? We have 3 exercises that will help with this condition. The first one is an isometric hold, this one you are going to bring the hip into abduction and hold it; engage the gluteus medius and squeeze to hold your leg up. The second one is a banded glute bridge. With the banded glute bridge you want to focus on keeping the back straight, squeeze the glutes, and push your knees out against the band. Lastly, banded walks are another great exercise to target the glute med and strengthen the surrounding muscles. These are all explained in depth in our video below to help guide you to do each exercise properly.
Stretching sounds like a good option because of the tight feeling you may be experiencing, but even though it feels good it isn’t going to help you! Instead you need to strengthen your glute muscles with the exercises we recommend. We hope this helps you and if you have any other questions or concerns, reach out to us and let us know how we can help you!
