Hip pain during walking is one of the most common musculoskeletal complaints in adults, and where you feel the pain is the single biggest clue to what’s causing it. About 14% of adults over 60 report significant hip pain on most days, but this isn’t just an aging problem. Younger adults develop hip pain from overuse injuries, structural issues, and muscle imbalances that all flare up during walking.
The hip joint absorbs enormous force with every step. Walking loads the joint with roughly two to three times your body weight, and that repetitive stress can aggravate problems in the joint itself, the tendons and muscles surrounding it, or even structures far from the hip that refer pain into the area.
Pain in the Front of Your Hip or Groin
If you feel a deep ache in the groin or the front of the hip when you walk, the problem is likely inside the joint itself. In older adults, hip osteoarthritis is the most common cause. Arthritis pain tends to be worst when you first stand up after sitting (sometimes called “startup stiffness”), then eases slightly as you keep moving, and worsens again after prolonged activity. Many people with hip arthritis feel it most in the groin rather than on the outside of the hip, which often surprises them.
In younger adults, groin-area hip pain during walking often points to a labral tear or femoroacetabular impingement. The labrum is a ring of cartilage that lines the hip socket, and when it tears, you may notice a clicking or catching sensation as you walk. Impingement happens when the bones of the hip joint don’t fit together smoothly, causing them to pinch the labrum or surrounding tissue during movement. Both conditions tend to produce sharp, intermittent pain rather than the constant dull ache of arthritis.
Less common but more serious causes of anterior hip pain include stress fractures of the femoral neck, which are typically linked to overuse (especially in runners or athletes with low energy availability), and avascular necrosis, where blood supply to the head of the thighbone is disrupted. Avascular necrosis most commonly appears in middle-aged to older adults and produces a deep, progressive ache that worsens with weight bearing.
Pain on the Outside of Your Hip
Lateral hip pain, felt on the bony point at the side of your hip and sometimes radiating down the outer thigh, is most commonly caused by a group of conditions collectively called greater trochanteric pain syndrome. This umbrella term covers irritation of the bursa (a fluid-filled cushion) over the outside of the hip, tendon damage in the gluteal muscles, and friction from the thick band of tissue running down the outside of your thigh.
This type of pain is especially common in women and tends to worsen with repetitive motions: climbing stairs, standing for long periods, or walking on hard surfaces. A hallmark symptom is pain when standing on one leg, like when you’re pulling on pants or stepping off a curb. That’s because single-leg stance places high demand on the muscles that stabilize your pelvis, and when those muscles or their tendons are inflamed or weakened, each step becomes painful.
Your doctor may check for something called a Trendelenburg sign, where one side of your pelvis drops below horizontal when you stand on the opposite leg. This indicates weakness in the hip abductor muscles and helps explain why your hip hurts specifically during walking, since every stride briefly puts all your weight on one leg.
Pain in the Buttock or Back of the Hip
Posterior hip pain has a surprisingly wide range of causes, and many of them don’t originate in the hip at all. Lower back problems, including herniated discs, spinal stenosis, and sacroiliac joint dysfunction, frequently send pain into the buttock and the back of the hip. Spinal stenosis in particular can cause pain, numbness, or tingling that travels down the leg during walking and eases when you sit down or lean forward.
Because hip and spine disorders share so many overlapping symptoms, it can be genuinely difficult to tell whether the pain is coming from the hip, the spine, or both. Some people have what’s called hip-spine syndrome, where problems in both areas contribute to the same pain pattern. If your “hip pain” worsens when you walk but also comes with tingling, numbness, or weakness in the leg, a spinal source is worth investigating.
Deep gluteal syndrome is another cause of posterior hip pain. This occurs when the sciatic nerve gets compressed by muscles deep in the buttock, most commonly the piriformis. The pain tends to be a deep ache that worsens with prolonged sitting and during walking, sometimes with a shooting quality down the back of the thigh. Hamstring tendon problems near the sit bone can produce a similar pattern, particularly pain that sharpens during the push-off phase of your stride.
Why Walking Makes It Worse
Walking is deceptively demanding on the hip. During each stride, the hip joint moves through flexion, extension, and rotation while bearing the full load of the body. For about 40% of each stride cycle, all of your weight is on a single leg. This places peak stress on the joint surfaces (aggravating arthritis or labral tears), the stabilizing muscles on the outside of the hip (aggravating tendinopathy and bursitis), and the tendons and nerves running behind the hip (aggravating deep gluteal syndrome or hamstring problems).
People who are less physically active actually report hip pain at higher rates than those who exercise regularly. In national survey data, 18.4% of older adults who hadn’t done any leisure-time physical activity in the previous month reported significant hip pain, compared to 12.6% of those who were physically active. This likely reflects the role of muscle strength and joint conditioning in protecting the hip during daily movement.
What Helps and What Doesn’t
The most effective approach depends on the specific cause, but a few principles apply broadly. Strengthening the gluteal muscles, especially the gluteus medius, is a cornerstone of treatment for both lateral and anterior hip pain. These muscles control pelvic stability during walking, and when they’re weak, other structures compensate and become overloaded.
Shoe inserts and orthotics are often recommended, but the evidence is mixed. A study of women with greater trochanteric pain syndrome found that medially posted foot orthotics did not meaningfully change hip biomechanics or reduce pain during walking. The small pain reduction observed was not considered clinically significant, even in women with pronated (flat) feet. This doesn’t mean orthotics are useless for all hip conditions, but they’re unlikely to be a standalone fix for lateral hip pain.
For osteoarthritis, maintaining a healthy weight has an outsized effect because every pound of body weight translates to multiple pounds of force on the hip joint during walking. Low-impact exercise like swimming or cycling can keep the muscles around the hip strong without the repetitive impact of walking on pavement. If walking is your primary exercise, shorter and more frequent walks tend to be better tolerated than long ones.
Signs That Need Prompt Attention
Most hip pain during walking is not an emergency, but certain patterns warrant quick evaluation. Severe hip pain after a fall or injury, especially if you can’t bear weight on the leg, needs immediate medical attention to rule out a fracture. Hip pain accompanied by fever, swelling, warmth, or skin color changes could indicate an infection in the joint, which requires urgent treatment.
Outside of emergencies, see your doctor if hip pain is interfering with your sleep, getting progressively worse, or hasn’t improved after two weeks of rest and home care. Morning stiffness in the hip lasting more than 30 minutes is a classic sign of inflammatory arthritis and deserves evaluation. And any new tingling, numbness, or weakness in the leg alongside hip pain points to possible nerve involvement that benefits from early diagnosis.