Femoral Accessory Motion Hypermobility

Femoral Accessory Motion Hypermobility Syndrome is usually a sign of early stages of hip joint degeneration.  The person with this syndrome displays rotation of the femoral head when the hip is flexed and the hamstring is stretched or when the hip is extended and the rectus femoris is stretched.  Sometimes these people will have tears of the labrum.

 The rotation is occuring because the hamstring and rectus femoris muscles are excessively tight.  This tightness causes compression into the hip joint and the rotation is a compensation to allow for hip flexion and extension to occur.  This syndrome is associated with deep hip joint pain and anterior groin pain.  Distraction of the femur reduces or eliminates the pain.

I have mentioned this several times before on the site but I will say it again.  I highly recommend Shirley Sahrmann's book, Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes.  In it she states, "This syndrome can also be found in cyclists.  Cycling can hypertrophy the quadriceps and hamstring muscles without commensurate hypertrophy of the intrinsic hip girdle muscles and the iliopsoas."

So what we are seeing is an imbalance between the thigh muscles and the hip muscles.  The hamstring muscles are dominant over the glutes and the rectus femoris is dominant over the iliopsoas.  Starting to sound like a broken record isn't it?  Correction of the problem is simple.  Stretching of the hamstrings and quadriceps will reduce the joint compression.  Strengthening of the glutes and psoas muscles will control the accessory motion of the femoral head.