Suffering Glute Tendinitis?
Gluteal tendinopathy or glute tendinitis is a very common hip tendon injury. It is one of the most common causes of Greater Trochanteric Pain Sydrome.
Your glute tendons are the tough fibres that connect the glute muscles to the hip bone on the outside of the hip. A tendon injury here may seem to happen suddenly but in most cases it has been creeping up over time as the result of small microtears.
Tendonitis means ‘inflammation of the tendon’, whereas tendinopathy is the umbrella term including all tendon injuries. The most common injury to the gluteal tendon is tendinosis which is a non-inflammatory, degenerative process occurring in the tendon due to repetitive overloading. As such, in most cases calling it ‘glute tendinitis’ is technically wrong!
Most tendon injuries are a result of a low grade overload over time. Your tendons are designed to withstand high, repetitive loading, but when a continual load is applied to the tendon it may exceed the rate of repair causing micro-trauma with time. This starts the tendinosis process. The most common cause is poor hip and glute muscles control causing pain and instability around the pelvis. This instability can cause you to walk or run with poor control which can overload the bursae and gluteal tendons.
Gluteal tendinopathy usually causes pain, stiffness, and a loss of strength in these muscles. The pain often gets worse when you use the muscles and the tendon may be hot, swollen and inflamed after prolonged walking.
Your physiotherapist will do a full subjective and objective assessment of your hip considering a wide range of factors including the location of your symptoms, strength and balance of the muscles surrounding the lower limb and back, sporting goals, motor control, core stability, and biomechanical analysis. They will then do a physical examination to confirm the diagnosis.
City Physio & Sports Injury Centre has been providing musculoskeletal physiotherapy in the MLC Centre for over 30 years. Our team are expertly trained in providing detailed full-body assessments and delivering personalised treatment for musculoskeletal conditions, sports injuries, headaches, neck and back pain.