Hip pain while walking can turn routine activities—going to work, shopping, exercising, climbing stairs, or simply moving around the house—into uncomfortable challenges. Some people notice a dull ache that gradually worsens with activity, while others experience sharp pain, stiffness, weakness, or discomfort that travels into the groin, thigh, buttock, or lower back.
Because the hip is a complex weight-bearing joint, pain during walking can have many possible causes. Arthritis is common, but hip pain can also originate from tendons, bursae, muscles, nerves, the lower spine, or other structures surrounding the joint. Identifying the underlying source of pain is therefore an important part of developing an effective treatment plan.
At Premier Pain Management in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, patients with persistent hip pain can receive an individualized evaluation and explore non-surgical approaches designed to reduce pain, improve mobility, and support everyday function.
Why Does Your Hip Hurt When You Walk?
Walking requires coordinated movement between the hips, pelvis, lower back, knees, ankles, muscles, tendons, and nerves. The hip joint also absorbs substantial forces with every step.
When a joint structure becomes irritated, damaged, inflamed, or mechanically restricted, walking may make symptoms more noticeable. Pain can develop immediately after standing or may appear only after walking for several minutes or longer distances.
Where Hip Pain Occurs Can Provide Important Clues
The location of discomfort sometimes helps clinicians narrow down its potential source.
Pain deep in the groin or toward the front of the hip is commonly associated with problems involving the hip joint itself. Pain along the outside of the hip may involve tendons or the structures around the greater trochanter. Buttock or posterior hip pain can sometimes originate from the muscles, sacroiliac region, or lumbar spine.
Location alone cannot establish a diagnosis, however. A comprehensive evaluation is important when pain persists, interferes with walking, or becomes progressively worse.
Common Causes of Hip Pain When Walking
Several musculoskeletal and neurological conditions can produce hip-area pain during activity.
Hip Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is one of the most common causes of chronic hip pain, particularly among middle-aged and older adults. It develops as cartilage within the joint deteriorates and other structural changes occur.
Typical symptoms can include groin or hip pain, stiffness after inactivity, decreased range of motion, and discomfort that becomes more noticeable with prolonged standing or walking.
Patients may also find it increasingly difficult to put on shoes, get in and out of a vehicle, climb stairs, or rotate the affected leg.
Greater Trochanteric Pain Syndrome
Pain on the outside of the hip is frequently associated with greater trochanteric pain syndrome (GTPS). This term encompasses conditions involving structures around the greater trochanter, including gluteal tendons and sometimes the nearby bursa.
Symptoms can include tenderness over the outer hip, pain when walking or climbing stairs, and discomfort when lying on the affected side.
Hip Bursitis
Bursae are small fluid-filled structures that help reduce friction between tissues. When a bursa around the hip becomes irritated, patients may develop localized pain and tenderness.
Although the term “hip bursitis” is commonly used, lateral hip pain can also involve the nearby tendons. Determining which structures are contributing to symptoms can help guide treatment.
Tendinopathy
Tendons connect muscles to bones. Repetitive loading, overuse, changes in activity, muscle weakness, or age-related tissue changes can contribute to tendon problems around the hip.
Gluteal tendinopathy, hip flexor tendon problems, and proximal hamstring tendinopathy are among the conditions that may cause discomfort during walking or other activities.
Hip Labral Injuries
The labrum is a ring of fibrocartilage surrounding the hip socket. It helps support joint stability and function.
Labral injuries may produce groin pain, stiffness, clicking, catching, or discomfort with certain hip movements. Symptoms may become particularly noticeable during prolonged walking, pivoting, squatting, or athletic activity.
Femoroacetabular Impingement
Femoroacetabular impingement, often abbreviated FAI, occurs when the shape of the femoral head, hip socket, or both results in abnormal contact during certain movements.
Some individuals have these anatomical characteristics without symptoms. When FAI becomes symptomatic, patients may experience groin pain, stiffness, limited hip movement, and discomfort with prolonged sitting or physical activity.
Muscle Strains
Muscles surrounding the hip can become strained through sports, exercise, falls, sudden movements, or repetitive activity.
Mild strains may improve with conservative care, while persistent symptoms may require evaluation to rule out tendon injuries or other underlying conditions.
Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction
The sacroiliac joints connect the pelvis to the lower spine. Problems involving this region may cause pain in the lower back, buttock, or hip area.
Walking, standing, climbing stairs, or transitioning between sitting and standing may aggravate symptoms in some patients.
Lumbar Spine Conditions
Not every symptom that feels like hip pain actually originates within the hip.
Lumbar disc problems, spinal stenosis, arthritis, or nerve compression can produce pain that extends into the buttocks, hips, thighs, or legs. Numbness, tingling, weakness, or pain traveling down the leg may suggest neurological involvement.
Lumbar spinal stenosis, for example, can cause discomfort or heaviness in the legs that becomes worse with standing and walking and improves when sitting or bending forward.
What Does Arthritis-Related Hip Pain Feel Like?
Hip osteoarthritis commonly causes a deep ache around the groin, although discomfort may also be felt in the thigh, buttock, or even around the knee.
Morning Stiffness and Start-Up Pain
Patients may notice stiffness when first getting out of bed or discomfort when standing after sitting for an extended period.
The hip may loosen somewhat after moving, although longer periods of activity can cause pain to return or increase.
Reduced Range of Motion
As osteoarthritis progresses, movements that once seemed simple may become difficult. Patients may struggle to rotate the hip, cross their legs, bend down, or put on socks and shoes.
Increasing Difficulty With Walking
Pain may initially occur only after long walks. As symptoms progress, shorter distances may become uncomfortable, and some patients develop a limp or begin unconsciously shifting weight away from the painful side.
Why Hip Pain Should Be Properly Evaluated
Simply treating the location where pain is felt may not address its underlying cause.
A detailed evaluation can help distinguish between hip joint pathology, tendon disorders, muscle problems, sacroiliac pain, and symptoms referred from the lumbar spine.
Medical History
Your provider may ask when symptoms started, where pain occurs, which movements aggravate it, whether you experienced an injury, and how the condition affects daily activities.
Physical Examination
A physical examination may assess hip range of motion, strength, tenderness, walking mechanics, neurological function, and movements that reproduce symptoms.
Diagnostic Imaging
Depending on the suspected condition, X-rays, MRI, ultrasound, or other imaging may be recommended.
Imaging findings should generally be interpreted alongside symptoms and physical examination findings. Structural changes seen on an image do not always correlate directly with the severity of a person’s pain.
Non-Surgical Treatment Options for Hip Pain
Many causes of hip pain can initially be managed without surgery. Treatment should be tailored to the diagnosis, severity of symptoms, medical history, activity level, and personal goals.
Activity Modification
Treatment does not necessarily mean eliminating activity. Instead, temporary modifications can reduce aggravating stress while allowing the patient to remain appropriately active.
This may include shortening walks, avoiding steep inclines temporarily, changing exercise routines, or breaking activities into smaller intervals.
Physical Therapy and Therapeutic Exercise
Physical therapy can be an important component of treatment for many types of hip pain.
A rehabilitation program may focus on improving hip mobility, strengthening the gluteal and surrounding muscles, improving core stability, addressing gait abnormalities, and gradually increasing tolerance for everyday activity.
Exercise programs should be individualized because exercises appropriate for one hip condition may aggravate another.
Medications
Over-the-counter or prescription medications may sometimes be incorporated into a comprehensive pain-management plan.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can help some patients with inflammatory or arthritis-related symptoms, but they are not appropriate for everyone. Medical history, kidney function, cardiovascular risk, gastrointestinal conditions, medication interactions, and other factors should be considered.
Image-Guided Hip Injections
For certain conditions, an injection may be considered when conservative treatment does not provide sufficient relief.
Corticosteroid injections can temporarily decrease inflammation and pain in appropriately selected patients. Image guidance may be used to improve accuracy when targeting deeper anatomical structures such as the hip joint.
Injections may also provide useful diagnostic information. If carefully targeted treatment temporarily relieves symptoms, the response can help clinicians better understand where the pain originates.
Regenerative Medicine Approaches
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is an orthobiologic treatment that uses a concentrated preparation of a patient’s own platelets.
PRP has been studied for several musculoskeletal conditions, including certain tendon disorders and osteoarthritis. Research continues to evolve, and outcomes can vary depending on the condition being treated, disease severity, preparation methods, and patient characteristics.
PRP is not appropriate for every patient, so candidacy should be determined following an individualized medical evaluation.
Treatments for Spine-Related Hip and Leg Pain
When pain that appears to involve the hip actually originates from the lumbar spine, treatment may need to focus on the spine rather than the hip joint.
Depending on the diagnosis, management might involve physical therapy, medications, activity modifications, targeted injections, or other interventional pain-management techniques.
This distinction is one reason accurate diagnosis is so important.
Can Exercise Help Hip Pain?
Appropriately selected exercise is often an important part of managing musculoskeletal hip conditions.
Strengthening the Muscles Around the Hip
The gluteal muscles play an important role in stabilizing the pelvis and controlling lower-extremity movement. Improving strength and endurance can support more efficient movement.
Improving Mobility
Reduced hip mobility can alter walking mechanics and place additional stress on surrounding structures. Targeted mobility exercises may be useful when restricted movement is contributing to symptoms.
Avoiding the “More Is Better” Approach
Exercise should generally be progressive rather than aggressive.
Continuing to repeatedly perform activities that substantially increase pain may irritate already-sensitive tissues. A rehabilitation professional can help establish appropriate exercises, intensity, and progression.
Should You Keep Walking if Your Hip Hurts?
Whether walking is appropriate depends on the cause and severity of the pain.
Mild discomfort does not always mean that activity must stop completely. For many musculoskeletal conditions, maintaining an appropriate level of movement can be beneficial.
However, significant pain, worsening limping, inability to bear weight, progressive weakness, or rapidly worsening symptoms warrant medical evaluation rather than attempting to “walk through” the problem.
When Should You See a Doctor for Hip Pain?
Consider scheduling an evaluation if hip pain lasts more than a few days to weeks, repeatedly returns, interferes with sleep, limits walking, causes a limp, or prevents you from completing normal activities.
Earlier evaluation may help identify the problem before pain significantly limits mobility.
When Hip Pain Requires More Urgent Medical Attention
Seek prompt medical attention for severe hip pain following a fall or trauma, inability to bear weight, obvious deformity, significant swelling, fever accompanied by a hot or swollen joint, rapidly worsening weakness, or other concerning symptoms.
Sudden neurological symptoms or changes in bowel or bladder control accompanied by severe back, hip, or leg symptoms require urgent medical assessment.
The Importance of Treating the Cause, Not Just the Symptom
“Hip pain” is a symptom rather than a diagnosis.
Two patients can experience discomfort in almost exactly the same location while having entirely different underlying problems. One may have osteoarthritis, another may have gluteal tendinopathy, and another may have nerve-related symptoms originating from the lumbar spine.
Effective pain management therefore begins with identifying the likely pain generator and creating a treatment plan around that diagnosis.
Non-Surgical Hip Pain Treatment at Premier Pain Management
Persistent hip pain does not automatically mean surgery is necessary.
Premier Pain Management provides individualized evaluation and treatment for patients experiencing hip pain and other musculoskeletal conditions. Depending on the diagnosis, a non-surgical treatment plan may incorporate rehabilitation, medication management, targeted procedures, or other conservative and interventional approaches.
The goal is not simply to temporarily mask discomfort. A comprehensive approach considers the underlying condition, functional limitations, activity goals, and factors that may be contributing to persistent symptoms.
If hip pain is making it difficult to walk, exercise, work, sleep, or participate in everyday activities, scheduling an evaluation can help determine what is causing your symptoms and which treatment options may be appropriate.
Frequently Asked Questions About Hip Pain When Walking
What is the most common cause of hip pain when walking?
There is no single cause for every patient. Hip osteoarthritis is a common source of chronic hip and groin pain, particularly in older adults, while tendon problems, greater trochanteric pain syndrome, muscle injuries, labral problems, and lumbar spine conditions can also cause symptoms during walking.
Why does my hip hurt only when I walk?
Walking repeatedly loads the hip and activates muscles and tendons surrounding the joint. A condition that produces little discomfort while resting may become symptomatic after repeated loading. An evaluation can help determine which structure is responsible.
Why does my hip hurt after walking but not while sitting?
Weight-bearing activity can aggravate arthritis, tendon disorders, mechanical hip problems, and some spinal conditions. Sitting removes some of the load placed on the hip and lower extremities, which may temporarily reduce symptoms.
Why does the outside of my hip hurt when I walk?
Outer hip pain is commonly associated with greater trochanteric pain syndrome, which may involve the gluteal tendons and surrounding structures. Other causes are possible, so persistent lateral hip pain should be evaluated.
Can hip arthritis cause pain when walking?
Yes. Hip osteoarthritis can cause pain, stiffness, decreased mobility, and difficulty walking. Symptoms may initially appear after longer periods of activity and become more noticeable as the condition progresses.
Can a back problem feel like hip pain?
Yes. Lumbar spinal stenosis, disc problems, arthritis, and nerve compression can produce pain in the buttock, hip, thigh, or leg. Numbness, tingling, weakness, or radiating pain can be important clues that nerves may be involved.
Can sciatica cause hip pain while walking?
Sciatic nerve irritation can cause symptoms through the buttock and leg, and some patients describe these sensations as hip pain. A clinical evaluation can help distinguish nerve-related symptoms from a problem within the hip itself.
Is physical therapy effective for hip pain?
Physical therapy can be beneficial for many causes of hip pain. Treatment may improve strength, mobility, balance, movement mechanics, and tolerance for activity. The specific program should be based on the patient’s diagnosis and functional limitations.
Are injections used for hip arthritis?
Intra-articular injections may be considered for certain patients with hip arthritis. Corticosteroid injections can provide temporary pain relief for some people. The potential benefits and risks should be discussed with a qualified healthcare professional.
Can PRP be used for hip pain?
PRP has been investigated for conditions including osteoarthritis and certain tendon disorders. Research continues to develop, and results vary. A medical evaluation is necessary to determine whether PRP is reasonable for a particular condition and patient.
Does every patient with severe hip pain eventually need surgery?
No. Many patients can manage hip pain through non-surgical treatment. Surgery may be appropriate when substantial structural disease causes persistent pain and functional impairment despite appropriate conservative management, but treatment decisions are individualized.
Can losing weight reduce hip pain?
For patients who are overweight, weight management may reduce mechanical stress on weight-bearing joints and can be one component of an overall treatment strategy. Hip pain is multifactorial, however, and weight is not the sole cause of symptoms.
How can I sleep more comfortably with hip pain?
Sleeping positions depend on the underlying condition. Some people find relief by avoiding direct pressure on the painful hip or placing a pillow between the knees when side sleeping. Persistent nighttime pain should be discussed with a healthcare provider.
How long should I wait before having hip pain evaluated?
Minor soreness associated with unusual activity may improve with temporary activity modification. Pain that persists, repeatedly returns, progressively worsens, causes a limp, or interferes with normal activities should be evaluated.
What happens if chronic hip pain is ignored?
Persistent pain may lead some people to reduce physical activity or change the way they walk. Over time, altered movement patterns can contribute to weakness, reduced mobility, and additional functional limitations. Determining why the hip hurts can help guide appropriate treatment.
What should I do if I suddenly cannot put weight on my hip?
Sudden inability to bear weight—particularly after a fall or injury—should receive prompt medical evaluation. Fractures and other serious conditions need to be ruled out.
Take the Next Step Toward More Comfortable Movement
Walking should not have to become an exercise in managing pain. Hip discomfort can have many causes, and understanding whether symptoms originate from arthritis, tendons, muscles, the hip joint, or the spine is an important first step toward effective care.
Premier Pain Management can evaluate persistent hip pain and help patients explore appropriate non-surgical strategies for reducing symptoms and improving mobility.
Contact Information
Premier Pain Management
8671 S Quebec St. Suite 150
Highlands Ranch, CO 80130
Phone: (303) 683-6868
Website: premierpaingroup.com
Appointments: premierpaingroup.com/appointments/