Physio Assessment - Right Hip

I should really start this post with a word about Andy Murray and his Gold (and Silver!) medals. However, my mood, the last couple of days, has plummeted somewhat and it's hard to write with the inspiration the achievement deserves.

Woke up yesterday and today feeling tearful and depressed. I can only put it down to a further stage in the Trazadone withdrawal. I had a few days of feeling really good, alert, energised and positive and now I seem to have swung to the opposite. I shall just hang on in there and hope it'll pass.

Finally visited a local physiotherapist this afternoon about my right hip. The upshot of the hour-long appointment is that the pain/problems are still down to muscles imbalances and weakness. Even after 4 years of rehab directed at these main muscle groups, my glutes (esp the outer glutes) on my right side are still too weak to allow my hip to function properly. The upside is that it doesn't seem to be a structural problem and that a few daily, targeted strengthening and stretching exercises should sort things out. The downside is that I just cannot believe that, after 4 years, my hips still aren't strong enough to function properly. I should be pleased there's nothing seriously wrong, but I actually just feel gutted. For 4 years, I have done countless reps, with increasing difficulty, targeting the glute complex of muscles....and still they're too weak. At this point, I'd like to swear and curse etc etc but I won't. I suspect I'm not really in the right emotional head-space to deal with much at the moment.

So, the daily exercises are a couple of stretches targeting short/tight hip flexors and a couple of exercises aimed at strengthening the outer glutes on the right side (single leg glute bridges and an exercise where I stand on my right leg on the stairs and then drop/lift my left leg down/up from the hip (hard to explain, see below)).

Quad Stretch: 1 min, 4 x each leg

Hip Flexor Stretch: 1 min, 4 x each leg

Single-leg Glute Bridge: as illustrated but once in position B, lift left foot off the floor

and hold for 3-5 seconds, 5 reps, 2 x per day

5 reps, 2 x per day