Does this sound like you?
Common signs
- A deep ache in the groin or the front of the hip, particularly on standing up or getting out of a car
- Pain on the outside of the hip that is worse lying on that side at night
- Lower back ache that spreads across the buttock and into the hip on one side
- Stiffness first thing in the morning, or after sitting through a long meeting or drive
- Difficulty with stairs, squatting, or putting on socks and shoes on one side
- A clicking, catching or grinding sensation as the hip moves through its range
This list describes the condition in general. It is not a diagnosis. Only an in-person assessment can tell you what is causing your symptoms.
What contributes to it
Why it happens
- Prolonged sitting and hip position
- Long hours seated hold the hip in flexion, shorten the tissue at the front of it and let the gluteal muscles behind it do very little. Over years this reduces how much range the hip has available and shifts load into the lower back. Back ache and hip pain arrive together in desk workers for that reason.
- Gluteal tendon overload
- The tendons on the outside of the hip take a lot of load during standing, walking and single-leg work. When that load rises faster than the tendon adapts, it becomes irritable. This is the pattern behind most outside-of-hip pain that hurts to lie on, and it tends to respond to graded loading rather than rest.
- Joint restriction in the lower back and pelvis
- When a lumbar segment or a sacroiliac joint stops moving well, the hip on that side takes up the difference. We assess the spine and pelvis alongside the hip as standard for that reason. Working on the hip alone often leaves the driver untouched.
- Age-related joint change
- Cartilage and joint surfaces change with time, and imaging findings become more common with age whether or not there is pain. A finding on a scan describes the joint. It does not on its own explain the symptom, so we read it alongside how the hip actually moves and what it tolerates.
How we help
Our approach
Separating hip from back from pelvis
Your first visit follows the Gonstead six-step assessment: history taking, visualisation of the level of hips, shoulders and knees, nervoscope instrumentation, palpation with a full-motion assessment of the spinal and pelvic joints, X-ray analysis where indicated, and only then an adjustment. Alongside that, the hip is taken through its own range and loaded in the positions that provoke your symptoms, so we can tell which structure is the irritable one.
Adjustment and hands-on work
Where restricted spinal or pelvic joints are part of the picture, the adjustment is specific to them and delivered by hand, and your chiropractor will explain what they found before anything happens. Where the surrounding muscle and tendon are loaded, our physiotherapy side adds mobilisation and soft-tissue work to reduce the tension feeding into the joint.
Loading the hip back to tolerance
Hips generally do better with graded loading than with rest, and this is usually the slower half of the work. Programming progresses from range and control through to strength and, for anyone returning to sport, the specific demands of running, changing direction or lifting. What you do between visits tends to matter more here than what happens on the table.
Knowing when it is not ours to treat
Some hip presentations need an orthopaedic opinion or imaging beyond X-ray: a joint that is genuinely worn out, a suspected labral or bony problem, or a hip that is not responding the way the assessment predicted. If your chiropractor feels another healthcare provider would better help you, you will be referred appropriately.
When to seek urgent care
See a doctor first if you have any of these
These need a medical assessment before you begin chiropractic care. If any apply to you, contact a doctor or go to the nearest emergency department.
- Inability to bear weight on the leg, or hip pain following a fall or road accident
- Obvious deformity, or a leg that looks shorter or rotated compared with the other
- Hip or groin pain with fever, feeling generally unwell, or a hot and swollen joint
- Progressive numbness or weakness in the leg, or a foot that drags when you walk
- Loss of bladder or bowel control, or numbness around the groin and inner thighs
- Night pain that wakes you, unexplained weight loss, or a history of cancer alongside new hip pain
- Hip pain in someone with osteoporosis or on long-term steroids after even a minor fall
Frequently asked questions
What patients ask us
Is my problem my hip or my lower back?
Often it is genuinely both, and telling them apart is one of the main reasons to be assessed rather than to guess. Groin pain more commonly points to the hip joint; pain across the buttock and into the back tends to involve the spine or pelvis. Neither is a rule, so the examination tests the hip and the lower back separately to see which reproduces your symptoms.
Do I need an X-ray or a scan for hip pain?
Where imaging is used, it is because it gives a clearer picture of what is happening in the joint and in the spine above it, which is what the Gonstead assessment works from. X-ray analysis is used where it will change what we do, such as ruling out pathology or clarifying the state of the joint, and it is avoided for pregnant women and children unless there is a clear reason. If your presentation suggests an MRI or a specialist opinion would alter the plan, your chiropractor will say so and arrange the referral.
Should I rest my hip or keep moving it?
For most mechanical hip pain, staying moving is better tolerated than resting completely. Complete rest tends to leave the hip stiffer and weaker. Modifying usually works better than stopping altogether: reduce the positions that aggravate it and keep the movement you can do comfortably. You will be given specific guidance after your assessment rather than a general instruction.
I have been told I have hip arthritis. Is there any point coming in?
Joint change on imaging does not decide how much you can do. Many people with those findings improve their range, strength and day-to-day comfort with conservative care, and that is what we would be working on. Reversing the changes themselves is not on the table. Where a hip is advanced enough that a surgical opinion is the sensible next step, we will tell you that plainly.
How long will it take to feel better?
It depends on which structure is involved, how long it has been going on, and how the hip is loaded day to day. Tendon-related hip pain in particular tends to be measured in months rather than weeks. Your practitioner will give you a timeline based on your own assessment rather than a general figure.
