You stretch, foam roll, rest, and ice, but the pain on the outside of your hip keeps coming back. It’s frustrating and confusing, especially when you feel like you’re doing everything right. Lateral hip pain doesn’t always come from one obvious cause. In fact, the source is often deeper than the glutes or IT band you’ve been targeting.
You might be missing key culprits like:
- Hip stabilizer weakness
- Poor pelvic control during movement
- A gait pattern that overloads one side
- Referred pain from your lower back
If those sound unfamiliar, you’re not alone. Most athletes only focus on the pain point and not the movement patterns causing it.
That’s where the real breakthrough happens. Once you identify and fix the root cause, your lateral hip pain finally has a chance to resolve, for good.
Lateral Hip Pain: 10 Easy Exercise Therapy Solutions
When your hip pain flares up, even sitting cross legged or climbing stairs can feel impossible. Whether you’re dealing with greater trochanteric pain syndrome, hip osteoarthritis, or an overuse injury, targeted movement makes a difference.
The right strengthening exercises can improve your hip range, stabilize the painful side, and reduce pain over time. Here’s a detailed guide to ten smart moves that help retrain and rebuild the muscles around your hip joint.
Activate Your Gluteus Medius for Better Stability
Your gluteus medius plays a big role in stabilizing your pelvis and hip when you walk, run, or climb stairs. If it’s weak or overloaded, you may feel outer hip pain or even burning pain along the lateral hip region.
Try this:
- Lie on your unaffected leg with your affected hip facing up
- Keep your legs straight and lift the top leg to hip height
- Pause at the top, then slowly lower
This simple move activates your hip abductors and gluteal muscles. It helps with lateral hip pain and improves control when your weight shifts side to side.
Bridge Your Way to Stronger Buttock Muscles
Bridges wake up your gluteus muscles and deep gluteal muscles without stressing your hip joint. This one is great if you feel stiffness or pain around the greater trochanter or proximal femur.
Do this:
- Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat
- Squeeze your gluteal tendons and lift your hips
Hold for a few seconds, then lower. Repeat several times while keeping both feet pressed into the floor.
Strengthen Your Hip Abductors with a Side Step
When your hip abductors are weak or fatigued, your hip bone and soft tissues absorb more impact than they should. That leads to trochanteric pain syndrome and gluteal tendinopathy over time.
Add resistance:
- Place a loop band around your thighs just above your knees
- Bend your knees slightly and take slow, controlled side steps
Keep your feet pointed straight forward. Move in both directions to challenge both hips.
Improve Range of Motion with Seated Hip Rotations
Hip stiffness from hip osteoarthritis or surrounding muscles can limit your mobility. If you’ve noticed reduced internal rotation or pain in the anterior hip, this drill helps.
Try it like this:
- Sit tall with both feet flat on the floor
- Keeping your knees together, rotate your lower legs outward
This gentle movement encourages rotation in the hip joint without irritation. It’s helpful during flare-ups when painful side movement feels limited.
Target the Gluteal Tendons with a Wall Press
Gluteal tendon tears and inflammation from trochanteric bursitis respond well to isometric loading. These kinds of static contractions improve tendon strength without adding joint pressure.
Do this:
- Stand next to a wall with your affected hip closest
- Press the outside of your knee into the wall while keeping your hip steady
Hold that pressure for 5 to 10 seconds. Release and repeat. This directly targets the gluteal tendons around the greater trochanter.
If you’re tired of sitting out from the activities you love or waking up stiff and sore, it’s time for a change. Work with us at Revival PT and Wellness to restore motion, relieve pain, and give your body the tools it needs to thrive.
Reach out to Request an Appointment or call us at 612-605-7594 to schedule your first visit.
Open Up Tight Muscles with the Figure 4 Stretch
Tight muscles in the outer hip and deep gluteal area can cause radiating thigh pain or groin pain. Stretching gives those muscles space to relax.
Follow these steps:
- Lie on your back and cross one ankle over the opposite knee
- Pull the uncrossed leg gently toward your chest
You’ll feel this across the gluteus medius and into the lateral hip region. It’s a favorite among physical therapists for releasing the hip and buttock area.
Strengthen the Entire Posterior Chain with Romanian Deadlifts
These target not only your glutes but also hamstrings and surrounding muscles. If your hip pain stems from poor support in your lumbar spine or femoral neck area, this exercise can help.
Use good form:
- Stand tall with a slight bend in your knees
- Hinge at your hips while keeping your back flat
- Lower the weights just past your knees, then return to standing
This movement trains the hip to control motion with stability and strength. It also supports the connective tissue in the back of your body.
Train Balance to Reconnect with the Affected Hip
If you’re compensating for pain by shifting weight to your unaffected leg, you may lose strength and coordination in the painful side.
Here’s a challenge:
- Stand on one foot with your knee slightly bent
- Keep your hips level and hold for 30 seconds
Do this on both legs to compare. You’ll build strength and awareness in the gluteal muscles while improving your brain-body connection.
Alleviate Pain with Controlled Step-Ups
If climbing stairs triggers your symptoms, the issue may lie in gluteal tendon stress or poor hip muscle control. Step-ups can retrain proper loading mechanics.
Here’s how:
- Step onto a low platform with your painful side
- Keep your weight evenly distributed and press through your heel
- Step down with control. Focus on smooth movement rather than speed.
Address Referred Pain with Lumbar Extension Work
Sometimes hip pain isn’t just about the hip. Referred pain from the lumbar spine can mimic greater trochanteric pain syndrome or unspecified hip pain.
Try this low-load option:
- Lie on your stomach and prop up on your forearms
- Let your back relax into a gentle arch
Hold for 20 to 30 seconds. This can relieve pain referred from your spine and help your physical therapist pinpoint the source.
Exercise therapy isn’t just about temporary relief. It builds long-term strength, flexibility, and control that conservative treatments like corticosteroid injection use alone can’t match.
When guided by physical examination findings and a full patient history, these movements become powerful tools to reduce pain and prevent surgical intervention.
Let your recovery start with movement that’s smart, simple, and effective.
Let Revival Physical Therapy Help You Heal Hip Pain
At Revival Physical Therapy and Wellness, we work with you to uncover the real reasons behind your hip pain. Whether it’s lateral hip pain, groin pain, or discomfort from greater trochanteric pain syndrome, we help you move better and feel stronger.
We Focus on You, Not a One-Size-Fits-All Plan
Your body is unique, and your pain story is too. That’s why we never hand you a generic sheet of exercises and hope for the best.
Instead, we:
- Listen carefully to your patient history
- Use physical examination findings to assess how you move
- Consider the role of surrounding muscles, your hip joint, and possible referred pain from the lumbar spine
- Build a plan that works with your life and fitness level
You’ll always work directly with a licensed physical therapist who knows your goals and tracks your progress.
We Treat the Root, Not Just the Symptoms
Pain around the outer hip, thigh, or groin doesn’t always mean the issue is where it hurts. You might feel anterior hip pain or buttock pain, but the real issue could involve:
- Weak or tight muscles in the gluteus medius or other gluteal muscles
- Tendon irritation from gluteal tendinopathy or gluteal tendon tears
- Imbalance in how you load your painful side during activity
- A history of overuse injury or biomechanical stress
We use gentle yet effective strategies to retrain your hip muscles, support healing, and reduce pain through motion.
We Prioritize Long-Term Healing Over Quick Fixes
Corticosteroid injection use might dull the pain temporarily, but it doesn’t solve the movement problems behind your symptoms. That’s why our approach goes beyond temporary relief.
With us, you get:
- One-on-one support that evolves as your body heals
- Progressive strengthening exercises to improve hip range and stability
- Hands-on therapy and movement corrections tailored to your needs
- Education so you understand why you hurt and how to prevent future issues
We help you rebuild confidence and restore the freedom to move without fear.
Ready to Start Moving Without Lateral Hip Pain?
If you’re tired of sitting out from the activities you love or waking up stiff and sore, it’s time for a change. Let’s work together to restore motion, relieve pain, and give your body the tools it needs to thrive.
Reach out to Request an Appointment or call us at 612-605-7594 to schedule your first visit.
