Most hip pain improves with a combination of targeted exercises, smart daily adjustments, and basic pain relief strategies you can start at home. The right approach depends on where your pain is and what’s causing it, but strengthening the muscles around the hip joint is the single most consistently recommended intervention across all major orthopedic guidelines. Here’s how to work through it systematically.
Figure Out Where Your Pain Is Coming From
Hip pain isn’t one condition. Where you feel it tells you a lot about what’s going on, and different causes respond to different strategies.
Pain in the front of the hip or groin often points to something inside the joint itself. In younger, active people, this could be a labral tear or impingement, where the bones of the joint don’t move smoothly together. In older adults, it’s more commonly osteoarthritis, which tends to come on gradually and worsens with prolonged sitting or walking. Groin pain after a fall in someone with osteoporosis raises concern for a fracture.
Pain on the outside of the hip is the most common pattern, especially in middle-aged women. This is usually greater trochanteric pain syndrome, a catch-all term that includes bursitis and irritation of the tendons that attach to the bony bump on the side of your hip. It typically hurts when you sleep on that side, climb stairs, or sit for a long time. Being overweight increases the risk.
Pain in the back of the hip or deep in the buttock can come from the hip itself, the lower back, or the muscles around the sciatic nerve. If you feel a burning sensation shooting down your leg that gets worse when sitting (especially in a car), deep gluteal syndrome is a likely culprit.
Exercises That Strengthen the Hip
Strengthening the muscles around your hip keeps the joint stable, reduces pain, and prevents further injury. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons recommends a progression-based approach: start with a weight or resistance level that lets you do 8 repetitions, then work up to 12. When 12 feels easy, add one pound of resistance and drop back to 8 reps.
Five exercises form the core of most hip conditioning programs:
- Hip abduction (lifting the leg out to the side): targets the gluteus medius, the key muscle for side-to-side hip stability. Weakness here is a primary driver of lateral hip pain.
- Hip adduction (squeezing the legs together against resistance): works the inner thigh muscles that balance the outer hip.
- Prone hip extension (lying face down and lifting the leg behind you): strengthens the gluteus maximus, your largest hip muscle and the main power source for walking and stair climbing.
- Clamshells (lying on your side with knees bent, opening the top knee like a clamshell): 1 set of 10 to 15 reps per side. This is one of the best entry-level exercises for lateral hip pain because it activates multiple glute muscles with minimal joint stress.
- Reverse clamshells (same position, but rotating the top foot upward while knees stay together): 1 set of 10 to 15 reps per side. Targets both the outer hip and inner thigh muscles simultaneously.
Physical therapy is strongly supported by evidence for mild to moderate hip osteoarthritis, backed by high-quality research showing improvements in both pain and function. If you’re unsure about form or your pain is more than mild, even a few sessions with a physical therapist can give you a tailored program and the confidence to continue on your own.
Ice, Heat, and Rest
For a new injury or a fresh flare-up, ice is your best tool in the first eight hours. Apply it with a thin barrier (a towel or cloth) for 10 to 20 minutes every one to two hours. Don’t ice continuously, as the alternating on-off cycle is what helps control swelling.
After that initial window, heat often feels better for chronic hip stiffness. A warm shower, heating pad, or warm towel for 15 to 20 minutes can loosen tight muscles before exercise or at the end of the day. Many people with ongoing hip pain find that heat before activity and ice after activity works well as a daily routine.
Over-the-Counter Pain Relief
Anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprofen are the strongest recommendation in orthopedic guidelines for hip osteoarthritis pain. The over-the-counter dose is 200 to 400 mg every 4 to 6 hours as needed, up to 1,200 mg per day. These work by reducing inflammation in the joint, not just masking pain, which is why they’re preferred over acetaminophen for most hip conditions.
Acetaminophen is a reasonable alternative if you can’t take anti-inflammatories due to stomach issues, kidney concerns, or blood thinner use, but the evidence for it is weaker. Oral opioids are specifically not recommended for non-surgical hip osteoarthritis management.
How Weight Affects Your Hips
Your hip joints bear a multiplied version of your body weight with every step. Losing just one pound of body weight removes 3 to 4 pounds of pressure from the joint. That means losing 10 pounds relieves roughly 40 pounds of force from your hips during daily activities like walking and climbing stairs. For people whose hip pain is related to osteoarthritis or bursitis, this is one of the most impactful long-term changes you can make.
You don’t need to reach an ideal weight to feel the difference. Even modest weight loss, in the range of 5 to 10 pounds, can noticeably reduce pain and improve how far you can walk comfortably.
Sleeping With Hip Pain
Nighttime hip pain is one of the most frustrating parts of the condition, especially for people with lateral hip pain who naturally sleep on their side. Two positions help keep the hip aligned and reduce pressure overnight.
If you sleep on your back, place a pillow under your knees. This tilts the pelvis slightly and takes tension off the hip flexors and joint capsule. If you’re a side sleeper, place a firm pillow between your knees to keep your hips level. Without that pillow, the top leg drops inward, pulling on the outer hip structures all night. A body pillow can serve double duty here, supporting both the knees and the upper body.
Cortisone Injections
If exercises and medication aren’t enough, a cortisone injection into the hip joint can reduce pain and improve function in the short term. This is supported by high-quality evidence for osteoarthritis. The relief typically lasts weeks to a few months, and the injection is most useful as a bridge: it reduces pain enough to let you participate more fully in physical therapy and exercise.
One treatment to be aware of as not effective: hyaluronic acid injections (sometimes marketed as gel injections or viscosupplementation) do not improve hip osteoarthritis pain or function better than a placebo. Orthopedic guidelines strongly recommend against them for the hip.
When Hip Pain Needs Urgent Attention
Most hip pain is manageable at home, but certain signs mean you should get evaluated immediately. Severe hip pain after a fall or injury, inability to walk or put weight on the leg, and any tingling or loss of sensation in the hip or leg after an injury all warrant emergency care. A hip that looks visibly deformed or a leg that appears shortened and rotated outward after a fall suggests a fracture.
Outside of emergencies, pain that hasn’t improved after two to three weeks of consistent home management, or pain that’s getting progressively worse, is worth a clinical evaluation. Imaging and a physical exam can distinguish between conditions that respond to conservative care and those that may need a different approach.