Hip exercises may help knee pain

BMJ Group News

Hip exercises may help with one of the most common causes of knee pain in young, active men and women, researchers say. However, the research so far is at an early stage.

What do we know already?

Knee pain is one of the most common problems suffered by young, active people, especially runners. The knee is a complex joint, and there’s lots that can go wrong with it. One possible problem is patellofemoral pain syndrome, sometimes called runner's knee.

Patellofemoral pain syndrome causes pain around the kneecap, which tends to happen when someone is active. However, people can also get pain after long periods spent sitting. Doctors think that patellofemoral pain syndrome is caused by the kneecap moving improperly over the thigh bone, although there’s often no clear sign of anything wrong with the knee joint. People usually get this condition after doing lots of exercise, so it’s sometimes described as an overuse injury.

Treatments for patellofemoral pain syndrome include exercises and physiotherapy, ice, and anti-inflammatory painkillers. In a new study, researchers have looked at whether hip-strengthening exercises could help.

What does the new study say?

During the six-week study, five women did hip-strengthening exercises for 30 to 45 minutes, twice a week. A comparison group of four women carried on with their normal running regime.

The women were asked to rate their pain on a scale from 0 to 10, with 3 representing the start of pain and 7 being bad enough to stop them running. At the start of the study, women doing the hip exercises ranked their pain at 7 when they ran on a treadmill. At the end of the study they ranked their pain at 2 or lower.

Unfortunately, the press release describing the study doesn’t say how well the women in the comparison group did. We queried this with the researchers, but at the time of writing we have yet to receive a reply. So, while women in the study may have had less pain after doing hip exercises, we don't know whether exercises are better than no treatment.

The researchers think that stronger hips might improve people’s running technique, somehow reducing the stresses on their knee joint.

How reliable is the research?

We’re looking at a very small pilot study, which includes just five people being treated, and a control group of four other runners. The researchers are planning a larger study to confirm their results.

We can’t fully assess how reliable the study is, as it hasn’t yet been fully published in a peer-reviewed journal. We have these early results because they were presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine.