039 Dr. Sarah Colón Louie - Maintaining Hip Health & Bringing Hope to All Runners No Matter Their Story

Episode Summary

Dr. Sarah Colón Louie is a fellowship-trained Doctor of Physical Therapy who specializes in treating women runners with hip pain to enable them to return to running pain-free, faster, and with more confidence.

Today, Whitney and Dr. Sarah talk all about hip health, the role that hips play in our running, and tips and best practices for keeping them healthy. Dr. Sarah speaks to running hygiene, techniques for maintaining good hip health while running and advice for pregnant and postpartum runners.

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Key Takeaways

01:00 – Whitney Heins welcomes Dr. Sarah Colón Louie to the show to share her running origin story and what inspired her to become a physical therapist

07:43 – Why hip problems are so common among women

11:06 – The role of the hips in the gait cycle and exercises to help your hips while running

16:33 – How to know if you have full hip range of motion and promoting overall hip health

22:40 – Signs that you are suffering from hip issues

26:19 – Knowing what you can and cannot run through

29:36 – Home remedies for helping with hip discomfort after running

31:42 – Hip health for pregnant women and postpartum and advice Dr. Sarah would give to pregnant runners

37:58 – Whitney thanks Dr. Sarah for joining the show and sharing her wisdom

Tweetable Quotes

“How I describe our bodies at a joint level, whether it’s in the hip or the back or knees, like our skin wrinkles on the outside of our face, our body is going to wrinkle on the inside of our body. So, we’re gonna have osteoarthritis. We’re gonna have degenerative issues, potentially even bulging disks. We’re gonna have labral tears. And these things are somewhat normal in the degenerative sense. If you had an MRI on your body tomorrow, I’m sure you’d be amazed at all of the things that are going on in there degenerative sense. If you had an MRI on your body tomorrow, I’m sure you’d be amazed at all of the things that are going on in there.” (08:18) (Dr. Sarah)

“I would say that the hips - and even the low back going up one segment - is where everything stems from.” (12:03) (Dr. Sarah)

“So, for us to figure out their level of comfort and then build them up on that, I really take into consideration their personal running hygiene and how they can run more comfortably.” (21:23) (Dr. Sarah)

“I would say that the number one red flag as a runner that we want to watch out for is a bone stress injury, or a stress fracture to the hip. This is probably the number one thing that I am never going to ask a runner to run through. And so we just want to clear that and have peace of mind around that. The symptoms of that can really look different to different people, but it’s mostly unrelenting pain.” (26:46) (Dr. Sarah)

“Working on a pelvic symmetry muscle energy technique is something that I love to do for my pregnant mom runners just to help reset their pelvis. And then I give them a ton of either double limb or single limb exercises - whatever they can tolerate - that are gonna get them to gently recruit their abdominals, low back, and hips to maintain that stability of their pelvis.” (33:12) (Dr. Sarah)

“My word for the year is ‘hope.’ And I just want to bring hope to as many runners as I can and just get them to their goals no matter what their story looks like.” (38:23) (Dr. Sarah)