Most runners often experience unusual pain during or after working out. It is a commonplace for them to find that their hip hurts when running. If you have hip pain when walking or a painful hip from running, you need to understand what caused it and how to fix it.
HOW DO YOU KNOW YOUR HIP PAIN IS SERIOUS?
The severity of the pain matters. If it feels intense and overwhelming, then that warrants concern.
When that pain is so paralyzing that you cannot continue with your daily activities, this is serious. Not being able to do what you used to is something that necessitates medical attention.
Sometimes you may be unable to place a weight on your hips, which signifies that your hip pain is abnormal.
Alternatively, the shape of your hip could change. It may look inflamed or swollen.
If you try at-home remedies (over the counter pain killers, ice packs or warm compressors) for about a week and the pain persists, you know that your pain is serious. This applies for relatively less intense pain.
10 REASONS YOUR HIP HURTS WHEN RUNNING
1. POOR RUNNING POSTURE
There are situations when you feel pain in your hips because of the posture you assume while running.
First, you should ensure that you keep your head and shoulders up. Slouching or leaning forward will cause your body not be in alignment, and this could lead to hip pain when running.
Alternatively, your hips may not be in line when you make strides. Besides, your stride distance could be incorrect.
To relieve hip pain from running, you want to ensure that you choose a comfortable running stride and that you don’t jerk your hips from one point to another as you run; keep it in a straight line.
2. ARTHRITIS
Arthritis in and of itself causes hip pain. However, you may experience pain when running if you have arthritis because your joints do not have the range of motion or stamina that ordinary runners do.
According to this study, painful hips are often a sign of arthritis, Perthes disease or synovitis.
In case you have arthritis, you are susceptible to inflammation. This happens because the cartilage, which is the skin that cushions your hip bones, will have broken down.
You’ll thus start to feel stiff and experience pain after running. In such circumstances, the best remedy is to seek medical treatment.
3. OLD INJURY
Sometimes you may be suffering from an injury that you acquired around the hips. If you run long distances, you could reignite this injury and thus suffer from hip pain.
To know whether this is the case, you have to consider what happened to you in the past. If your hip hurts when running at the same place where you had an injury, then this could be the case.
4. STRESS FRACTURE
This sort of pain from running is usually more internal than external.
Sometimes you actually have a fracture or a broken bone. However, the pain may only manifest while running because the broken hip is under pressure.
It is not possible to know if you have a stress fracture until you get diagnosed. If you get a painful hip after jogging coming from inside, a broken bone could be the source.
5. BURSITIS
Aside from cartilage, your hips also have little liquid sacs called bursae designed to minimize friction from movement. If this liquid were absent, you would be experiencing many discomforts every time your hip bones were engaged.
On occasion, your bursae may be inflamed because of overworking. Running is a repetitive exercise that can easily strain the hip joint and cause the liquid sacs to inflame.
Bursitis can feel like a burn or ache with a popping sensation outside the hip.
Sometimes an ice pack is sufficient to deal with this issue. Subjecting that part to cold therapy might help minimize the inflammation.
This study reported that medications to tame bursitis or even surgical drainage might be necessary.
6. POOR RUNNING TECHNIQUE
Sometimes the way you run could be the problem because your technique could be putting too much strain on your hips.
Generally, running on an incline or running on a hill is a bit difficult for your hips. When you combine this with a reverse motion, you could be expecting too much from your hips.
Running side to side in hilly areas is not a good idea as this could be putting a heavy toll on your hips. To avoid the problem, reduce incline side-to-side running.
7. TENDINITIS
Your hips also have tendons, which are the pieces of tissue that connect your muscles to your bones. If you subject these tendons to too much stress, then you could irritate those tendons.
Depending on how you run, you could be overdoing it. Running entails repetitive motion, so if you do too much of it, you could predispose yourself to tendinitis.
In this research, it was shown that tendinitis is a type of overuse injury.
If your hip hurts when running, you may have to stop overexerting it hip by taking a break from running. When you resume, consider taking it slow and either doing fewer runs per week or running for a shorter amount of time.
8. MUSCLE STRAIN
You also have muscles around your hips that could be overexerted when you run.
Muscles easily get inflamed when they have been overused. Therefore, this could be the reason your hip hurts when running.
Warm compresses help loosen these muscles and give you comfort.
9. LONG DISTANCE RUNNING
As mentioned above, the way you run is a direct reason why your hip hurts when running.
If you frequently run long distances, then you may be subjecting your hips to strenuous conditions.
Some people can run for 2 hours at a time and not feel a thing. However, if you experience hip pain when your foot hits the ground, this could signify that your body is not ready for those excessive long hours.
Running long distance may especially take a heavy toll on your hips if you haven’t weaned your body into it. In other words, if you suddenly increased your running distance, then that could be a problem.
Always take the time to increase the distances you cover when running gradually. Start with short distances in the first few weeks then after your body has become conditioned, increase the distance just a little more while being careful not to continue if you feel pain.
10. LEG IMBALANCES
You may have disproportionate legs in that one of your legs is longer than the other. This means that you will experience hip pain whenever your foot hits the ground as you will be putting too much pressure on one side.
To treat leg imbalances, you will need a professional diagnosis. Once it has been established, you may need physiotherapy to help strengthen one of your legs.
THE BOTTOM LINE
If your hip hurts when running, it is mostly because of a dysfunction in the muscles, tendons, cartilages, bones or tissues around the hip area.
Sometimes the location of the pain and the timing can give you a clue as to the source.
On other occasions, it may be your running technique or decisions. For modest pain, start with at-home remedies like changing your running technique, ice backs or warm compresses.
If the pain persists, do not continue straining yourself, always seek medical advice.
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