Why Do People with Hip Pain Walk Like Pirates?

July 28, 2016

While not quite as popular as zombies these days, pirates are still pretty cool characters…

Unless the pirate happens to be you!

As a physical therapist and someone who enjoys “people watching”, I can’t help but notice when people start walking a little differently.

And one of the most common things I see is people with hip pain who look like they have a peg leg (they lock the knee and shift their weight way over to the outside of the hip).

Here’s what’s going on with these folks:

Hip pain often causes weakness in the surrounding muscles
As the muscle that attach the outside of the hip to the pelvis weaken, they have 2 options…
Option 1: the pelvis can drop down and dip every time they put weight on that leg.
Option 2: the person can compensate for the hip weakness by shifting their weight over the weak hip (this is the peg leg pattern and is much more common than option one)
So there you have it…mystery solved!

Hip pain leads to hip weakness, which then leads to an altered walking pattern.

If this sounds overly simple, it really is. And there are a lot of effective ways to help people like this regain the needed strength to walk normaly again.

So if you or someone you know and care about is struggling with ongoing hip pain, know that there is hope!

And if you’re not sure if physical therapy is right for you, just give us a call and we’ll help you schedule a free, 30-minute Discovery Visit with one of our PTs so you can find out the root cause of your pain and whether PT is the right choice for you. 509.892.5442

-Luke Gordon