Hip pain during walking is one of the most common joint complaints, and it usually comes down to one of a handful causes: worn cartilage, inflamed soft tissues, a structural problem inside the joint, or muscle weakness that throws off your gait. Where exactly you feel the pain, whether it’s deep in the groin, on the outside of your hip, or in the back of your buttock, is the biggest clue to what’s going on.
Cartilage Wear and Osteoarthritis
The most common reason hips hurt during walking, especially after age 50, is osteoarthritis. The cartilage lining the ball-and-socket joint gradually thins, creating a rougher surface. As it wears down, the space between the bones narrows. In advanced cases, bone grinds directly on bone, and virtually any movement causes pain and stiffness. Cartilage doesn’t wear evenly, so a particular step or angle that loads a more damaged area will hurt more than others.
This type of pain typically sits deep in the groin or the front of the hip. It gets worse after standing or walking for long periods and often feels stiff first thing in the morning or after sitting for a while. You might notice that shorter walks feel fine but the pain ramps up with distance or duration. Over time, range of motion shrinks, and movements like bending to tie your shoes become harder.
Lateral Hip Pain and Tendon Irritation
If the pain is on the outside of your hip rather than the groin, the likely culprit is greater trochanteric pain syndrome (GTPS). This involves irritation of the tendons that attach your gluteal muscles to the bony point on the side of your hip, often alongside inflammation of the bursa (a small fluid-filled cushion) in that area. Pain typically sits right above or over that outer bony prominence and can radiate down the outside of your thigh, sometimes reaching as far as the knee.
Walking makes GTPS worse because every step requires the gluteal tendons to fire and stabilize your pelvis. You may also notice it flares when lying on the affected side at night, climbing stairs, or sitting cross-legged. Pressing firmly on the bony point on the outside of your hip will usually reproduce the tenderness. This condition is more common in women and in runners or people who have recently increased their walking distance.
Labral Tears and Joint Catching
Inside the hip socket, a ring of flexible cartilage called the labrum acts as a gasket, helping seal the joint and absorb shock. When that ring tears, you can feel a locking, clicking, or catching sensation during walking or when rotating the leg. The pain from a labral tear is usually felt deep in the groin or front of the hip, and it often comes on gradually without a clear injury, though it can also result from a twist or fall.
Labral tears sometimes overlap with a condition called femoroacetabular impingement, where the shape of the bones causes them to pinch the labrum during certain movements. People with this type of impingement often notice pain when flexing the hip (sitting in low chairs, getting in and out of a car) and may find that walking beyond a quarter mile or so becomes uncomfortable. The combination of a structural bone shape issue and a torn labrum is one of the more common reasons younger, active adults develop hip pain during walking.
Piriformis Syndrome and Posterior Hip Pain
Pain in the back of the hip or deep in the buttock that travels down the leg points toward the piriformis muscle and the sciatic nerve. The piriformis is a small muscle that sits deep in the buttock and rotates the hip outward. In more than 80% of people, the sciatic nerve runs directly underneath it. When the piriformis is overused, inflamed, or tight, it can compress the sciatic nerve and produce pain that mimics sciatica: a burning or shooting sensation from the buttock down the back of the thigh.
Walking aggravates this because each stride requires the piriformis to engage. Poor mechanics, like walking with your feet turned too far in or out, can chronically stress the muscle. Sitting for long periods and then standing up to walk is a classic trigger. Unlike a disc problem in the spine, piriformis syndrome tends to produce tenderness when you press deep into the center of the buttock, and stretching the piriformis (by pulling the knee toward the opposite shoulder while lying on your back) often reproduces the pain.
Weak Hip Muscles and Gait Problems
Sometimes the pain isn’t caused by damage inside the joint but by muscles that aren’t doing their job. The gluteus medius and gluteus minimus, which sit on the side of the pelvis, are responsible for keeping your hips level every time you take a step. When one foot lifts off the ground, these muscles on the standing leg must contract to prevent the opposite side of the pelvis from dropping.
If these muscles are weak, the pelvis tilts with every step, a pattern called a Trendelenburg gait. You might notice a waddle or a visible dip on one side. This uneven loading puts extra stress on the hip joint, the tendons, and the lower back, all of which can become painful over time. Weakness here is extremely common in people who sit most of the day, and it’s also a frequent finding after hip surgery or prolonged bed rest. Strengthening exercises like side-lying leg raises, clamshells, and single-leg bridges are the standard approach to correcting this pattern.
How Your Shoes Affect Hip Pain
Footwear plays a bigger role than most people realize. Research using instrumented hip implants found that shoes generally increase the load on the hip joint compared to walking barefoot, with everyday shoes and men’s dress shoes producing the highest increases, raising the peak force at heel strike by roughly 33 to 35%. Shoes with stiff soles or heavy cushioning elements also increased rotational forces on the joint.
The lowest-impact option was a minimalist “barefoot” shoe with a thin, flexible sole, which kept hip loading closest to actual barefoot walking. If you’re dealing with hip osteoarthritis or recovering from a hip procedure, switching to a low-profile shoe with a flexible sole can meaningfully reduce the forces passing through the joint with every step. High heels, rigid dress shoes, and heavily cushioned athletic shoes tend to do the opposite.
Signs That Need Prompt Attention
Most hip pain from walking builds gradually and responds to rest, stretching, or a change in activity. But certain symptoms signal something more urgent. If your hip looks visibly misshapen or appears out of place, you can’t move the leg at all, you’re unable to bear any weight, or you notice sudden severe swelling, you should get evaluated right away. Fever, chills, or a change in skin color on the affected leg alongside hip pain can indicate an infection in the joint, which is a medical emergency. A leg that suddenly appears shorter than the other side after a fall raises concern for a fracture, particularly in older adults.