Hips and Elliptical

nicolemariedwyer

Hi, My hip bone clicks (bones hit or something) when I am on the Elliptical. It doesn't hurt, but will ignoring it eventually cause harm? I love the amount of calories I'm able to kiss goodbye on it compared to the tredmill, but don't want to have to get early hip replacement surgery!

kfox15

I have the same problem when doing a varitey of exercises and I found a few things that help. See your doc and ask about the alignment of your pelvis and SI (sacro-iliac) joints. I was having some pain and discomfort in my hip while exercises and even standing for prolonged periods and it turns out I have a "lumbarized S1" which means that one the the vertebrae that is supposed to be fused into the sacrum isn't. This kinda messed up some muscle attachments so the abnormal anatomy contributed to some of the pain. I'm not saying that's what you have but it could be a "anatomical issue"
As for the exercises one legged squats have really help to correct the muscle imbalance I had deleloped. SInce I was always doing squats with both legs, I didn't realized how imbalanced I was but my normal side was waaaay stronger, I couldn't believe how much I struggled just doing my body weight on the abnormal side.
Another exercise that I found really helpful is hip extension and abduction with a resistance band. It's really helped with my balance and stablization which aliviated alot of the pain. In addition, you can do what I call "hip dips"; just stand on a bench or block and tilt one of your hips downwards then pull up using your opposite hip (be sure to really focus on which muscle you are contracting because it's easy to pull with your abs instead). This exercises the gluteus medius on the opposite side and really helps!
Hope that helps!