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Writer's pictureChi Ingledew

Trochanteric Bursitis and how Pilates & Rebounding helped me.

Let’s start with what it is:

Trochanteric bursitis is inflammation of the bursa (fluid-filled sac near a joint) at the part of the hip called the greater trochanter. When this bursa becomes irritated or inflamed, it causes pain in the hip. This is a common cause of hip pain.


How I injured mine:

Deep Tissue (DT) massage gone wrong! We went to a Lodge for a nice weekend away and my body was tight from lots of exercising and long working hours. So I thought I’d treat myself to a nice massage. I opted for a Deep Tissue massage. I’ve never had one before and at the time it sounded like something my body might enjoy. I was in pain throughout the whole 60min massage, especially when she was working on my legs and lower back area, and pretty sure I was gripping the sides of the bed at one point. I thought it was normal, not thinking that she was causing some damage. At the end of the 60minutes I felt stiff immediately, my mother in law gave me some arnica gel and I started applying it that night already.


The next day I woke up and could barely move, and each day after that got worse. About 2 weeks after that I was at a point where I couldn’t even bend down and had to squat / 9month pregnant manoeuvre around to just get up and off the floor. A friend of mine who owns a spa looked at me, asked what’s wrong, I explained to her what happened and she just said that is not how I should look or feel after a DT massage.

It never got better and had to go to a physio to get it sorted and she diagnosed me with Bursitis of the hip.



She recommended a lot of glute and pelvic floor strengthening exercises to keep my hip and pelvis area strong and stable. With Pilates, I worked in imprint 99% of the time and did a lot of glute work being very careful to avoid side-lying work as that irritated the hip area and the Rebounding focused on low impact cardio and strengthening of the leg muscles. I had to go back to the basics to get everything strong again as I was out of action because of pain and discomfort for almost 3 months. It’s been 3 years since I’ve seen the Physio and about 2 years since I’ve had any issues. I notice it flaring up every time I take long breaks from exercising. Like while recovering from my caesarean. But after a few weeks of exercising it just feels normal again.


It’s also a very common thing in pregnant women, and I felt mine more during pregnancy, although not as intense as before (thank goodness) but I kept active during pregnancy which helped it.


This just shows you how important exercise is to heal and help the body. Stay active and moving. And LISTEN to your body. And when a massage doesn’t feel right, TELL THEM! Learn from my mistakes. ☺


Johlet Dalais




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