{"id":663573,"date":"2026-05-25T05:52:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T05:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/663573\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T05:52:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T05:52:21","slug":"what-to-know-if-you-have-hip-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/663573\/","title":{"rendered":"What To Know If You Have Hip Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"

It can be alarming to realize you\u2019ve been having hip pain for a bit too long. After all, most people know someone who has had a hip replacement, and it\u2019s easy to conclude that\u2019s the only fix. According to the American College of Rheumatology<\/a>, 544,000 hip replacements are done every year in the United States, and a 2020 study<\/a> found that hip pain affects 10% of the general population and increases with age.<\/p>\n

But like any joint, there can be a wide variety of issues with the hip \u2015 and it isn\u2019t an ailment that just affects older folks. Dr. Derek Ochiai, a board-certified arthroscopic hip surgeon and sports medicine doctor at Nirschl Orthopaedic Center<\/a> in Arlington, Virginia, said there are a variety of hip issues that affect younger people, too. In fact, a 2023 study<\/a> reported that 22% to 55% of individuals reporting hip pain have a labral tear, a condition affecting the hip socket that Ochiai often treats in younger people.<\/p>\n

\"Hip<\/p>\n

bymuratdeniz via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Hip pain shouldn’t be ignored for too long.<\/p>\n

It can be easy to dismiss hip pain as an inevitability of getting older. But Ochiai stressed that\u2019s the one thing he wouldn\u2019t do if he personally was dealing with a hip problem.<\/p>\n

Why Putting Off A Doctor\u2019s Appointment For Hip Pain Could Be Seriously Harmful<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve had pain for more than a couple of weeks, it\u2019s time to visit a physician. <\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t ignore it. If you\u2019re a young patient and you can\u2019t sit in the car for 30 minutes at a time or you\u2019re walking down a hallway and noticing you take a turn by using little steps, not twisting, that is not normal,\u201d he said. \u201cThat could be a fixable, treatable hip condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pain with sitting, driving or sex might be a hip joint issue that needs to be evaluated, Ochiai added. Putting it off can put you at risk of arthritis, especially if you had a labral tear<\/a>, affecting the tissue that holds the ball and socket joint together. These tears are usually \u201catraumatic,\u201d meaning that you might not even know when it happened, rather than from a sudden injury, such as being \u201ctackled by a 300-pound lineman,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

He cited a Danish study that analyzed patients with hip pain for 10 years. Those who had hip pain with impingement (a marker for having a labral tear), the chances of getting arthritis within 10 years of starting to have pain was 26 times higher than for the general population. Another 2023 study<\/a> further confirmed that a labral tear increased the risk of developing osteoarthritis. <\/p>\n

\"Squatting<\/p>\n

LeoPatrizi via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Squatting can help strengthen your glutes, which in turn can help your hips.<\/p>\n

How To Tell If You Have Concerning Hip Pain, And What Else You Can Do About It<\/p>\n

If you picture a pelvic bone, there are many places you can have pain that might or might not be your hips. So first try to figure out if you actually have hip pain or if it\u2019s stemming from something else. For example, back and hip pain commonly occur together. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe central issue is that not all hip pain is clearly from the hip. What
we typically think about as hip pain, or pain that is located on the side of the hip, may in fact be coming from the hip, the muscles around the hip or joints next to the hip, including the lower back area and SI [sacroiliac] joint,\u201d said Dr. Rahul Shah<\/a>, a board-certified orthopedic spine surgeon.<\/p>\n

Typically you can identify hip pain if a deep flexion hurts, like when you\u2019re doing something more intense, like a goblet squat<\/a>, Ochiai said. You could also just experience general pain when you\u2019re sitting if you happen to flex your hip. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome people have really deep chairs, where the knees come up to the level of the waist, then say they can\u2019t get through the workday because it\u2019s hard to sit that long,\u201d he explained. \u201cA quick fix is either raise your chair and sit forward on the chair so you don\u2019t hyperflex your hip, or get a pillow or cushion and sit on that to raise your legs up higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some other signs include \u201cdifficulty standing on the affected leg, difficulty with putting on socks or shoes and difficulty with clipping toenails,\u201d Shah said.<\/p>\n

Ochiai also said that there\u2019s a hack, or \u201cquick and dirty way,\u201d to see if you might have a hip issue: \u201cLay on your back and grab the front of your knee with both hands, and pull that knee towards your chest. Then have someone take a picture of how close you got your knee to your chest. Then do it again on the other side. If there\u2019s a marked difference, that\u2019s not just tight muscles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yoga, Pilates, strengthening exercises and anything that improves your abdominal strength can help your hip, Ochiai said. His rehab protocols for post-hip surgery patients involve ab and back exercises. <\/p>\n

\u201cHip and back issues go together like peanut butter and jelly, so improving back strength can unload and actually improve your hip pain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Strengthening your glute muscles is also key to improving hip pain. Ochiai recommended performing exercises like hamstring stretches (such as touching your toes) and bodyweight squats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finally, don\u2019t underestimate the power of stretching. Shah said hip flexor stretches<\/a>, along with knee and ankle mobility stretches, can help achieve a full, painless range of motion.<\/p>\n

These methods, in combination with visiting a doctor for a more thorough evaluation, will have your hips thanking you.<\/p>\n

The original version of this story was published on HuffPost at an earlier date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It can be alarming to realize you\u2019ve been having hip pain for a bit too long. After all,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[38061,1111,97,290232],"class_list":["post-663573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-bone-health","tag-chronic-pain","tag-health","tag-hip-pain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}