Summer should feel like momentum: travel, walking, hiking, gardening, running, pickleball, and long weekends outside.
But for a lot of active adults, July turns into a new pattern: you do something you love, and your hip or outside thigh pain checks your plans. You may notice discomfort, stiffness, or reduced mobility after physical activity, sitting for long periods, or increasing your walking mileage too quickly.
This month’s OhioChiro message is simple: recovery is not optional. It is part of the plan.
Hip Pain Is Not Just a Hip Problem
Lateral hip pain, or pain on the outside of the hip, is often linked to gluteal tendon irritation and load intolerance, rather than simply tight muscles. One reason it becomes persistent is that the hip joint is a force-transfer hub. Walking, stairs, single-leg balance, and rotation all load the same tendons, muscles, ligaments, and other soft tissues around the pelvis.
The hip is a ball-and-socket joint where the femoral head fits into the acetabulum. Cartilage and the labrum help support smooth movement within the socket joint. However, hip joint pain does not always begin inside the joint itself. The lower spine, buttocks, surrounding tendons, and movement patterns at the knee can also influence how the hip feels and functions.
When one part of the body is stiff, weak, or overloaded, your body compensates. Over time, those compensations can feed the same pain pattern, especially when summer adds heat, travel, and sudden increases in activity.
The Summer Pattern: Activity Spikes + Recovery Drops
Here is the trap that shows up every summer:
You do more walking, more hills, more pickleball, and more yardwork.
You sleep a little less.
You sit for long periods during travel or driving.
Your recovery tools are inconsistent.
So the tissues around the hip joint do not get the time or support they need to adapt.
The result is not only hip pain. It can include inflammation, swelling, tenderness, reduced range of motion, and a loss of walking tolerance and confidence. You start choosing routes based on pain rather than what you want to do.
This pattern can affect runners, recreational athletes, and older adults alike. It may also contribute to knee pain or lower-back discomfort when the body begins changing how it walks, climbs stairs, or shifts weight from one side to the other.
Understanding the Possible Causes of Hip Pain
There are many possible causes of hip pain, which is why the location of the symptoms alone does not always identify the underlying hip condition.
Pain on the outside of the hip may be associated with gluteal tendonitis, gluteal tendinopathy, hip bursitis, or irritation involving the bursae. A bursa is a small fluid-filled structure that helps reduce friction between moving tissues. When a bursa becomes irritated, bursitis may contribute to tenderness and discomfort around the outside of the hip.
Other hip problems, including osteoarthritis, hip arthritis, hip impingement, labral tears, hip dysplasia, stress fractures, or a hip fracture, can produce different symptom patterns. Groin pain, clicking, significant stiffness, or pain deep within the joint may point toward a different driver than pain focused along the outside thigh.
Traumatic injury, fractures, deformity, and changes involving the labrum or cartilage may require medical attention and further evaluation. Obesity, changes in physical activity, and age-related joint changes can also affect the amount of stress placed on the hip.
Determining the most common cause for one person requires more than choosing a diagnosis from a symptom list. A physical exam or physical examination helps evaluate range of motion, strength, walking mechanics, symptom location, and how the hip responds to different movements.
Do Not Just Stretch Harder When Walking Hurts
When tendons are irritated, aggressive stretching can sometimes increase irritation. A smarter approach is to identify which loads are aggravating the tissues, which mechanics may be causing overload, what your current tolerance is, and how to progress strength and capacity safely.
This comprehensive approach may include changes to activity, targeted exercise, recovery strategies, and gradual strength development. Physical therapy and sports medicine programs also commonly use progressive loading and movement education as conservative treatments for certain tendon-related hip conditions.
The goal is to improve mobility and capacity without repeatedly pushing the tissues beyond what they can currently manage.
What Research Suggests
For lateral hip pain and gluteal tendinopathy, education plus targeted exercise programs have been shown to improve pain and function. In a well-known trial, education and exercise outperformed a steroid injection at longer follow-up.
https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k1662
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29715073/
For IT band-related pain in runners, conservative strategies commonly include hip-focused strengthening as a key component.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11377285/
The best treatment depends on the source and severity of the symptoms. Some people may discuss medications such as ibuprofen or injections with a qualified medical provider. More complex conditions may require an expert opinion from an orthopedic surgeon.
Hip arthroscopy, hip surgery, hip replacement, and hip replacement surgery are forms of surgical intervention used for specific diagnoses and circumstances. They are not the starting point for every person experiencing hip pain. An appropriate examination helps determine whether conservative treatments are reasonable or whether referral and additional medical care are needed.
OhioChiro Advantage: Summer Mobility Check + Recovery Tools
Recovery tools are adjuncts to movement assessment, strength, and hip and back function. They are not a standalone solution.
The Summer Mobility Check is designed to answer:
Is it truly hip tendon overload?
Is it back-to-hip referral involving the lower spine?
Is it an IT band pattern caused by poor hip control?
Could hip bursitis or another source of lateral hip pain be contributing?
What is your current walking and load tolerance?
How is your hip joint moving through its available range of motion?
What is the safest next progression?
When recovery is the limiter, we may integrate pneumatic compression and other recovery tools to support blood flow, soreness management, and training consistency so you can keep moving while we build capacity.
Symptoms following a fall, traumatic injury, or sudden loss of function may require prompt medical attention. Severe groin pain, an inability to bear weight, visible deformity, or concern about fractures should be evaluated by an appropriate medical professional or MD.
Bottom Line
Hip pain does not have to own your summer, but recovery needs to remain part of your plan.
A thoughtful assessment can help separate tendon overload and movement-related irritation from other causes of hip pain that may need further attention. From there, the focus becomes improving mobility, building strength, managing physical activity, and helping your body tolerate the summer activities you enjoy.
If hip or outside thigh pain is limiting walking, travel, recreation, running, or pickleball, book an appointment for a Summer Mobility Check with OhioChiro and take the next step toward moving through summer with greater comfort and confidence.
OhioChiro
3380 Tremont Rd., Suite 190
Columbus, OH 43221
614-964-2341
Science Sources
https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k1662
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29715073/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11377285/
