Hip Pain: Causes, Exercises and When to See a Chiropractor
- Freya Moran
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Most people with hip pain describe a similar pattern. It starts small. A pull after a run, a stiff morning, an uncomfortable side when sleeping. You wait. And somewhere along the way, what started as an occasional ache becomes a daily fact of life — one that makes getting out of bed, climbing stairs, and going for a walk feel like obstacles rather than ordinary things.
What's actually going on — and what can you do about it?
Where exactly does hip pain hurt?
The answer often surprises people: not necessarily where the hip joint is. Hip pain can appear in the groin, on the outer edge of the pelvis, deep in the buttock, or down the thigh. Pain that travels into the leg is quickly labelled sciatica — but in many cases the sacroiliac joint or the piriformis muscle is the actual source, not the sciatic nerve itself.
The hip joint stands in direct functional connection with the lumbar spine, the sacroiliac joint, the knee, and foot mechanics. A pelvic tilt that has built up gradually over years can cause hip pain just as readily as a leg-length discrepancy or tight hip flexors. The cause and the location of pain are often quite separate in hip conditions.
Hip pain when lying down — why night is often the worst
A pattern we see frequently: pain is manageable during the day, but as soon as you lie on the affected side, the aching or sharp pain begins. Some patients can't lie on that side at all; others are woken up repeatedly through the night.
The most common reason is greater trochanteric bursitis — inflammation of the small fluid-filled bursa on the outer thigh bone. When you lie on your side, that bursa gets compressed directly. Irritated tendon attachments at the pelvic bone produce the same pattern.
Questions about pillows and mattresses for hip pain are understandable — but they address the surface, not the source. If the bursa or tendon is inflamed, no mattress will resolve that long-term.
Hip pain after running — when sport is the trigger
Pain that develops in the hip after running most often involves the iliotibial band — the dense connective tissue strip along the outside of the thigh — or overloaded hip flexors. Running too much too soon, with poor footwear, or with an existing pelvic imbalance loads these structures over and over.
The frustrating cycle: stretching and icing help short-term, but the pain returns after the next run. Without identifying the underlying mechanical cause — running technique, pelvic alignment, muscle imbalances — the pattern continues.
Which sport is best with hip pain? Swimming and cycling are generally well tolerated because they reduce load on the hip joint. What makes sense for you specifically depends on the cause of your pain.
Hip pain radiating into the leg — often not sciatica
Pain travelling from the hip into the leg is often automatically called sciatica. True sciatic nerve compression from a disc prolapse does exist — but it's less common than the label implies.
Far more often, a blocked sacroiliac joint or an irritated piriformis muscle is producing sciatica-like symptoms along almost the same pathway. These two conditions respond to very different treatments. A chiropractic assessment can usually distinguish between them at the first visit, without imaging.
What actually helps with hip pain?
Movement is medicine.
What do doctors recommend for hip pain? Clinical guidelines recommend manual therapy, targeted exercise, and — where inflammation is present — short-term anti-inflammatory medication. Is diclofenac useful for hip pain? Yes, short-term and when there is an inflammatory component — but it treats the symptom, not the cause.
What works durably is treatment of the mechanical cause: releasing restrictions, correcting muscular imbalances, restoring neuromuscular control. That is the goal of chiropractic treatment.
When to see a chiropractor in Munich?
No referral is needed. If your hip pain has lasted more than a week or two, radiates into your leg, disturbs your sleep, or recurs after sport — it's worth finding out what's driving it. Or when the pain has been on your mind for more than three days.
→ Read more about our hip pain treatment on our Hip Pain Munich page.
→ Pricing and insurance information is on our Pricing page.
→ Related conditions:
