Ever since I gave birth to Dan I developed persistent clicking in my right hip.
So after 6 years of hip clicking I decided to find out why it was clicking almost every time I externally rotated my right hip.
After an ultra-sound and x-ray, the results came out:
Os acetabulare and CAM type femoroacetabular impingement in my right hip with tiny os acetabulare in my left. Not to worry, I will explain this in simple language below.
Take a look at this picture, which is an Xray (not mine) of a cam-type FAI (femoroacetabular impingement, femur - thigh bone, acetabulum - hip socket).
Two black pointers at tiny bony bump on the thigh bone head indicate the CAM type impingement (there is also PINCER type - bony bump on socket rather than on thigh bone head and also MIXED type where both are present).
To put it simply, it means that there is an extra bony bit that is in the way of full range of motion in my right hip. There is also OS Acetabulare - meaning that my socket was under extra pressure due to extreme yogic poses and the socket rim has hardened into a bony structure. The same happened in my left but because there is no FAI - it is just tiny.
That explained clicking and also why I could never achieve #straddlesplits and why eka pada sirsasana (eka=one, pada=foot, sirsa=head or 1 foot behind head pose, see below image) worked better on the left side!
Eka Pada Sirsasana variation
These results have confirmed what I knew long ago - my hips were not made for straddle splits or samakonasana. Every time I tried to do them, I felt jammed in my outer hips and no matter how much I stretched things were not improving beyond certain point. Unfortunately, I did cause OS Acetabulare, which means that repetitive pressure on my hip socket caused hardening of its rim and there is a structural change in the tissues lining it.
The good news - there was no arthropathy (joint disease) signs.
This is due to my heightened bodily awareness as at a certain point I realised that it was the bony structure that held me back, not lack of practice and stretching. So I stopped trying. Thank goodness! Because today except for clicking, there is no pain or discomfort in my hip.
And clicking - is simply a tendon that gets trapped on external rotation, I was assured both by my doctor and chiropractor that this is not a problem.
As I was researching this subject I found a study on this condition with 18 hips of 15 patients studied. Interestingly, “all patients had been exposed to a physically demanding profession or contact sport”.
Wow!
So the conclusion of this post is - listen to your body. Not every body is made for every pose. Never compare and do not try to force yourself into a shape you see on social media.
We all tend to do poses that come easy to us. Like if you check my @madina_yoga Instagram account, you will see that all Eka Pada Sirsasana photos are with my left leg behind the head.
Now you know why!