The work that you do can be hard on lots of different parts of your body. From your neck all the way to your toes, activities you do at work can easily lead to injuries. 

The hip is one of the important joints in your body. It is crucial to walking, bending over to pick up objects and more. However, workers can easily injure their hips. Who can help you learn about common hip injuries that workers develop? The same people who can help them treat their injuries: physical therapists. 

Common work-related hip injuries

There are millions of work injuries in the U.S. every year. For instance, 2.8 million work-related injuries and illnesses occurred among American workers in 2019. Though it doesn’t get a lot of press, the hip is one body part that workers can easily injure. Why? There are so many work-related factors that can lead to a hip injury. Some of these factors include overuse, lifting heavy loads, and slips, trips and falls. But what types of hip injuries do workers commonly develop? Here are three examples: 

1. Sprains and strains — Sprains and strains are the top category of injuries that happen in the workplace according to the National Safety Council. Sprains occur when a ligament is overstretched or torn. Strains are when overstretching or tearing happens in a muscle or tendon. Your hips are surrounded and controlled by ligaments, tendons and muscles. This leaves them vulnerable to a sprain or strain while you’re at work. Such injuries can even lead to lower back pain if left untreated. 

2. Fractures — Slips, trips and falls are a top source of work-related injuries. These incidents can easily lead to a hip fracture — especially if you fall onto concrete or another hard surface. 

3. Hip bursitis — There is a pillowlike sac of fluid on the point of your hipbone. This is known as the trochanteric bursa. Walking, bending and other work-related activities can cause this bursa to become inflamed. You have hip bursitis when this happens, and it can cause you to develop symptoms like hip pain and tenderness. 

How can physical therapy address common work-related hip injuries?

Physical therapists are capable of addressing many common work injuries, including those that affect your hips. To help you treat your injury, a physical therapist can build you a customized physical therapy plan. Such a plan may include effective techniques like: 

• Therapeutic exercises intended to stretch and strengthen muscles that help support and move your hips. 

• Manual therapy that can help ease hip stiffness and help improve hip mobility and range of motion. 

• Dry needling designed to help reduce hip pain and break up knots of scar tissue. 

• Fall risk assessments that can help you learn how likely you are to fall at work and how to prevent fall-related injuries. 

Franklin Rehab is ready to help workers tackle common hip injuries

Recently developed one of these common hip injuries at work? You can find help for your injury at Franklin Rehabilitation. Our physical therapists can determine how you’ve injured your hip by doing a free screening for you. You’ll also find that our clinicians are adept at building effective hip treatment plans designed to help get you back to work fast. 

Contact our team today for more information about how we can help with a hip injury or to schedule an initial appointment for your injury.