Hip and groin pain that shows up together usually points to a problem inside or around the hip joint itself, since the hip refers pain directly into the groin. Relief depends on what’s causing it, but a combination of targeted exercises, smart modifications to how you sit and sleep, and the right pain management approach can make a significant difference for most people. Here’s how to work through it.
Figure Out What’s Driving the Pain
The hip joint sits deep in the body, surrounded by layers of muscle, tendon, and cartilage that can all generate pain in the same general area. Before you can effectively treat the problem, it helps to narrow down the source. The most common culprits fall into a few categories.
Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) is a bony mismatch where extra bone on the ball or socket of the hip joint pinches during movement. It tends to come on gradually without a specific injury and is especially bothersome during activities that require deep bending or wide hip motion. You’ll typically feel a deep ache in the front of the hip and groin that worsens with prolonged sitting or athletic activity.
Labral tears involve damage to the ring of cartilage lining the hip socket. They often result from sports injuries or repetitive motions in activities like dance, gymnastics, hockey, or soccer. A telltale sign is a popping, catching, or clicking sensation in the hip during movement, along with anterior hip pain.
Hip flexor and adductor strains are muscle or tendon injuries common in athletes. A partial tear or strain typically feels like shooting pain with local tenderness in the groin. Overuse injuries in the hip flexor start subtly, with pain only after activity, then gradually progress over months or even years into pain during and eventually at rest.
Hip osteoarthritis produces deep joint stiffness and aching that worsens with activity and improves with rest. It’s more common after age 50 and tends to limit your range of motion over time.
These conditions can mimic each other. Labral tears, for example, can produce the same dull groin pain and catching sensations as a hip flexor tendon issue. If your pain has lasted more than a few weeks or limits your ability to walk, getting a proper diagnosis will save you time and prevent you from doing exercises that could make things worse.
Exercises That Build Support Around the Joint
Strengthening the muscles around your hip reduces the load on irritated structures inside the joint. For most causes of hip and groin pain, the priority is building stability in the glutes, core, and hip rotators while avoiding positions that pinch or compress the joint.
These exercises are well-suited for hip and groin pain relief:
- Clamshells: Lie on your side with knees bent. Keeping your feet together, rotate your top knee open like a clamshell. This targets the deep hip stabilizers without stressing the joint.
- Glute bridges: Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat. Press through your heels to lift your hips. Progress to single-leg bridges as strength improves.
- Pelvic tilts: Lie on your back and gently flatten your lower back into the floor by engaging your core. This builds abdominal control that takes pressure off the hip.
- Isometric hip raises: While seated or lying down, press your thigh into a resistance (a wall, your hand, or a ball) without actually moving the leg. This strengthens without requiring painful range of motion.
- Hip flexor and piriformis stretches: Gentle stretching of the front and back of the hip can relieve tightness that contributes to impingement and groin tension.
Swimming and balance board exercises are also good options because they challenge hip stability with minimal impact. Avoid deep squats, heavy lunges, and any movement that forces the hip into extreme flexion or rotation until pain settles. Start with what you can do pain-free and build gradually.
What to Expect From Physical Therapy
If home exercises aren’t enough, supervised physical therapy follows a structured progression. Most protocols move through three phases: an acute phase focused on calming pain and protecting the tissue, an intermediate phase that rebuilds functional movement, and an advanced phase that restores full strength and activity tolerance.
According to rehabilitation guidelines from Sanford Health, six to eight weeks of supervised physical therapy is typically enough to see a meaningful response. If nothing has changed by that point, further evaluation (often imaging or a specialist referral) is usually the next step. Many people with labral tears and impingement improve enough with physical therapy to avoid surgery entirely.
Over-the-Counter Pain Relief
For day-to-day pain management, both acetaminophen and anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprofen or naproxen are reasonable options, but they work differently depending on your situation. Acetaminophen is generally recommended as a first choice for osteoarthritis pain. Anti-inflammatories offer a slight additional benefit, with studies showing only a small improvement over acetaminophen overall.
The gap widens in specific situations, though. If your pain is moderate to severe, or if you’re in an active flare where the joint is noticeably more swollen and painful than usual, anti-inflammatories tend to outperform acetaminophen more clearly. For mild, steady pain, the difference between the two is negligible. Choose based on what your body tolerates well, and use the lowest effective dose for the shortest time needed.
How Weight Affects Hip Pressure
Every pound of body weight translates to roughly three to four pounds of force on your hip and knee joints during movement. Losing just ten pounds removes about 40 pounds of pressure from your hips with every step. For someone carrying 50 extra pounds, that’s more than 200 pounds of additional force bearing down on the joint throughout the day.
This makes even modest weight loss one of the most effective long-term strategies for hip and groin pain, particularly if osteoarthritis or impingement is the underlying issue. The math works in your favor: small changes in body weight produce outsized relief at the joint.
Sleep Position Adjustments
Nighttime pain is one of the most frustrating parts of hip and groin problems because it disrupts recovery. Two positions consistently reduce pressure on the hip overnight. Sleeping on your back with a pillow under your knees keeps the hips in a neutral, slightly flexed position that minimizes joint compression. If you’re a side sleeper, placing a firm pillow between your knees keeps the hips aligned and prevents the top leg from pulling the pelvis into a rotated position.
If you tend to wake up sore after rolling onto the affected side, a body pillow can help keep you from shifting during the night.
Sitting, Standing, and Daily Habits
Prolonged sitting is one of the biggest aggravators of hip and groin pain because it holds the hip flexors in a shortened position for hours, increasing tension across the front of the joint. Adjust your chair so your feet rest flat on the floor and your thighs are parallel to the ground. This keeps the hip angle open enough to reduce compression.
More important than the perfect chair setup is simply not sitting in one position for too long. Get up and move around as often as you can throughout the day. Even a minute of standing and walking every 30 to 45 minutes can prevent the stiffness that makes pain worse when you finally do stand up. If you have the option to alternate between sitting and standing at work, use it.
When Hip and Groin Pain Needs Urgent Attention
Most hip and groin pain responds to conservative treatment over weeks to months. But certain symptoms signal something more serious. Go to an emergency department if you have sudden hip pain after a fall or trauma, if your leg looks deformed or badly bruised, or if you cannot bear weight on the leg at all. Hip pain that occurs in both joints simultaneously, or that comes with fever or a rash, also warrants prompt medical evaluation, as these patterns can indicate infection or inflammatory conditions that need treatment beyond rest and exercise.