I think it was in the middle of last year I suddenly developed pain in my hips and glutes area. It was painful enough to take painkillers and I went to see my physiotherapist, who worked out I had gluteal tendinopathy. I’d never had it before and never heard of it either. She set me on a course of exercises and saw me a couple of times along with ongoing clinical pilates classes. It got better and I wanted to make sure I kept the muscles in good shape. A month or two later I had joined the gym and was improving my fitness so I thought that would be the end of it.

Fast forward several months to this weekend when I developed a similar pain on both sides that became worse on the left again. Again I had to take painkillers when it was particularly bad. After a few days I realised this was the same thing I had before. I went to see my physiotherapist this morning and I was right. Except this time the problem is I have overdone things and my muscles were quite tight. She did dry needling on both sides and then massaged it. The massage was quite painful on the left side. I have to lay off cardio exercises that work the lower body for several days. But I’m free to do as many pilates classes as I like. And I have several home exercises to do, some of which I had already started on.