Hip pain after running can be both frustrating and excruciatingly painful, yet luckily there are ways to help ease it.
Make sure to schedule rest days and cross train on low-impact exercises until your hips feel better. Ice and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) may help relieve inflammation while strengthening and stretching may also provide benefits.
Rest
Take some time off running may seem counterproductive, but it’s essential for recovering hip injuries. Overworked muscles, tendons and joints can lead to inflammation which in turn causes more serious conditions like stress fractures.
The hip joint contains fluid-filled sacs (bursae) that help the joint move smoothly. Running can strain these tendons that line it, leading to pain, tenderness, and stiffness during movement.
Sharp, pinching pain during or shortly after running can be a telltale sign of hip impingement, caused when the iliotibial band, which connects from hip to knee and shin, rubs against a bony prominence in the hip joint and causes click or pop noises when your legs move or when running or moving your hips. This results in snapping hips – similar to snapping when moving the legs or moving one side more than another – when running or moving hips.
Ice
Repeated running can put undue strain on the hip joint. Although generally strong and resilient, this ball and socket joint may become inflamed when stressed from repetitive use, causing pain that needs treating with rest, treatment or ice therapy to alleviate.
Hip strain occurs when the muscles or tendons supporting your hips become overworked. Mild strains should heal in several weeks; severe injuries could take much longer.
Hip bursitis is another common running injury, caused when fluid-filled sacs known as bursae become inflamed and irritated – they serve as cushions between bones and soft tissue in your hip joint, providing protection from injury.
Ice can reduce inflammation and dull nerve endings that send pain signals directly to the brain. Apply ice for 20 minutes at a time several times every day for maximum effect; over-the-counter anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen, naproxen or aspirin may also help.
NSAIDs
NSAIDs, such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB), and naproxen sodium (Aleve), can be taken over-the-counter to reduce pain and fever. Available both as pills and liquids with various strength options for children who cannot swallow pills directly, some even come as suppositories for easier administration.
NSAIDs work by inhibiting certain enzymes that contribute to inflammation in your body – specifically COX enzymes which produce prostaglandins that lead to discomfort.
NSAIDs also exert an effect on the central nervous system, helping with persistent pain. You may need NSAIDs in combination with paracetamol or opioids depending on your pain level; for optimal results use an individual dose that assures both pain reduction and functional improvement, according to evidence-based efficacy studies.
Corticosteroid Injections
Corticosteroid injections in your hip joint can reduce pain and swelling, providing long-term relief. Multiple injections may be required if symptoms persist.
Health care providers begin by cleaning and applying numbing medicine around your hip, before injecting medicine directly into your joint using real-time X-ray fluoroscopy or ultrasound imaging guidance. While you may experience some initial pain and swelling after the procedure, these symptoms will typically subside within one or two days.
Studies have demonstrated that repeated intraarticular corticosteroid (IA CS) injections into hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients can accelerate cartilage destruction and hasten progression, resulting in increased joint damage and hastening the need for total replacement surgery. Additional research should be conducted into this issue.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapists create treatment plans designed to ease pain and strengthen hips. Exercise that involve both flexion and rotation of the joint is important, as is working all muscles around it for improved balance and strength. Deadlifts and squats are fantastic exercises; single leg movements like crab walks, lunges and Bulgarian split squats may also prove helpful in targeting specific muscle groups and strengthening them individually.
The hip is an impressive joint capable of withstanding much wear and tear, yet still susceptible to damage and injury. Most overuse injuries can be addressed through conservative therapies and at-home exercise therapy while more serious injuries may require physical therapy services, steroid injections or surgery as necessary.
