Anterior thigh pain

[Lisalovelocks]

Hi there,
when I was at my pole dancing class a few days ago, I tried to do this move:Noname.jpg

And since the day after that, I've been having a dull, sometimes throbbing pain in the front of my left thigh (the leg which wraps around the pole), approx. 5 cm above the knee. When I stretch my gluts, the pain becomes more intense and feels sort of "linear", which made me think that possibly I trapped a nerve in my bum due to lack of flexibility in my back (as that's been a problem for me in the past, just with different symptoms). But lots of stretching hasn't helped and I'm worried that it may make it worse if it's not the right thing to do?
Stretching my quads is absolutely painfree, but any movement which stretches my gluts makes it slightly worse. I feel it when I'm walking, but even when I don't do anything at all. The only thing I've noticed that usually I don't feel any pain when I first wake up in the morning.
Any suggestions? Please help!
Lisa

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[Emanuele]

Hello Lisa,

It is very difficult to say what is going on in a "virtual consultation".
Does the pain that you are experiencing just in front of the thigh? Is it very pin pointed or it is more diffuse? Do you have this pain associated with any other disconfort elsewhere?
Did you feel any pull or tightness during the execution of the excercise at all?
Does pressing on the area create any trouble at all? Have you noticed a little bruise maybe?
There is anything that seems to alleviate your symptoms? such as putting ice or maybe having a hot bath?
What kind of gluteal stretching excercise do you do excatly? Is there anything else which seems to bring on the pain, like particular movement of the low back?
How the pain progressing since the onset? Getting any better?
You said that during the morning you are fine, when does the problem get a start again then? Any specific reason you could think of?
Would you mind to tell us a bit more about the problem you had in the past?

Thanks, all the best!

[Lisalovelocks]

Hi Emanuele and thank you for your reply.
As for the problem I've had in the past, due to a lack of flexibility in my back a nerve (I think it may have been the sciatic nerve) got trapped in my piriformis muscle causing me pain in my hip when I was running. After seeing the physio back then I started doing stretches as shown on the pictures, and the problem resolved (I am still doing these on a regular basis)

Lying-Hip-and-Glute-Stretch.jpg1273492200343-1235b5ewiaof2-500-90-500-70.jpg

When I do the lying hip-and-gluteal stretch, the pain is the same, doesn't ease off or doesn't get aggravated, but when doing the sitting down gluteal stretch, the pain gets slightly worse and take a while to ease slightly, but will never go completely. I just haven't been doing lots of this stretch, as I'm worried about making it worse.

The pain hasn't been getting any better or worse since the onset, but I've been taking it easy and not done any exercise other than walking involved in normal day-to-day activities, and a little bit of stretching. I'm usually fine in the morning, which I put down to having had a night of rest (but really that's just a guess), and then it starts when I've been moving around a bit, walking up and down stairs, sitting cross-legged etc. The pain is only in the front of my thigh and seems quite diffuse, only when I do above gluteal stretch it seems to be quite defined, I've tried to "draw" it for you (the red line is supposed to be the painful bit, roughly):

P1160506.JPG

I don't remember feeling any discomfort during execution of the exercise. There's no bruise, no swelling. I haven't tried any thermal treatment yet, but my gut feeling says that it wouldn't make any difference.

I sometimes feel it more intensely when I just sit down doing nothing rather than when I'm walking around. But it certainly seems to be aggravated by anything that involves a stretch of my gluteal muscles (doing above stretch, sitting cross-legged, squatting down etc).

Thank you for taking time!
Lisa

[Emanuele]

I would tend to exclude any kind of nerve problem. An affection of the Femoral nerve would give you a distributed paresthesia (pins and needles/numbness) on the anterior aspect of your thigh, and inner aspect of it down to the inner aspect of the leg till the ball of the foot via the saphenous nerve, and you haven't complained of any of these problems plus an objectifiable muscle weakness of your quadriceps, so don't worry about trapped nerves! Honestly I can't imagine how doing those stretching you reported, if gently performed and well executed, may give you any trouble/issue. Chances are that you may have overused some of your muscles of the anterior compartment of the thigh such as rectus femoris or maybe sartorius for example, during that section. Just give it another 4-7 days to see whether this disconfort you have at the moment will pass by, and try to avoid any strenuos activities in this period of time. See what happens, it doesn't sound very concerning to me, but still it is not very easy to have a clear idea if we cannot test you from real. Of course if after a period of 10-14 days from the onset of the problem, your presentation will still be the same or, even worse, it will aggravate (hopefully not!), then you may take in consideration to have a proper and full examination carried out by a colleague.

All the best

[Lisalovelocks]

Thank you Emanuele, I will see what happens!