The Hips Don't Lie

Here’s a truth bomb: if your hips are hurting, they need help. But show them some TLC and they’ll look after you – and your running PB

- Amanda McCracken

Crazy but true: Nicole Jefferson was in her late 20s but felt as if she had the hips of a senior citizen. On her AM runs, It seemed as if something in her hip was constantly catching and snapping. Pain pinballed from her lower back to her groin to her hip. Short jogs – something that should have been a breeze for the former high school and university runner – were excruciating. “I just wanted to sit through a movie or a long car ride without aching,” she says.

Given her athletic history, doctors suspected a sports hernia, an injury to the soft tissue in her groin. But surgery only made her agony worse. Finally, five years ago, when she was 35, an MRl identified tears in her labrums, the gasket-like rings of cartilage around the hip sockets that stabilise the joint. Prior MRls (using older machines) had failed to pick up the problem. Her doc said there was so much inflammation in and around her hips, it was as if they were “on fire”. Nicole had surgery to fix it, followed by physio, but still experiences niggles. So what gives?

The XX factor