Hip Pain From Running
Really Isn't

Hip Pain From Running isn't really from running.

We're conditioned to think that if we're doing any particular activity and then develop tendonitis or some other pain issue, that the activity is to blame.

Doctors tell you to rest and/or to stop running.  That helps a bit but time passes and you try running again and the running pain symptoms are right back.

Again, we blame the running.

The good news is, running isn't the cause of the hip pain.

The bad news is, SOMETHING isn't working correctly.

What Causes Hip Pain From Running?

What causes hip pain from running?

If running isn't the cause, what is?

Ultimately, the Pain Causing Dynamic is the engine that drives muscle pain and problem.

The Pain Causing Dynamic is a core mechanism of the Tendonitis dynamic.

See:  What Is Tendonitis?

Basically the Pain Causing Dynamic (and Tendonitis) is made up of:

• Ever increasing muscle and connective tissue tightness
• Inflammation process
• Progressive nutritional insufficiency

These three factors actively conspire together to cause all sorts of pain and problem, including hip pain.

See:  Hip Pain

Important facts about physical function that play a role in hip pain you have been told is from running.

When a muscle is too tight:

1. Too many muscle fibers are continuously working so the muscle fatigues sooner than it ideally should
2. Muscle has less strength potential/ability to perform work
3. More nutrition gets used up

When a muscle doesn't have enough of the right nutrition:

1. Muscle is unable to relax (stays firing)
2. So muscle stays tight and gets tighter
3. So muscle uses up more nutrition

Pain triggers inflammation process, and:

1. Inflammation causes swelling (visible or non-visible) and releases pain enhancing chemical
2. Pain enhancing chemical enhances neuro-receptors' sensitivity so your brain receives more pain signal
3. Pain causes the body to tighten muscles to 'guard and protect' (so, more tightness and less available nutrition)

See:  Process of Inflammation

Hip Pain From Running
What Role Does Running Play?

The fact remains, you've been running, and now hip pain is present and is (presumably) limiting your running.

And maybe you have some fear about the prospect that running more might make things EVEN worse.

Well, it probably will.

But not because of the running.

This is not semantics, this is a VERY important distinction.

Running isn't the cause of the pain.  

The cause of the hip pain 'from running' is, ultimately muscle dysfunction.

Why muscle dysfuction?

1. If a muscle is too tight, it can't perform enough work, something else (that isn't designed to do so) has to take up the slack
   
2. Imbalance results
3. Pain signal results
4. Kinesthetic function and anatomical 'alignment' is off
5. Those cause 'compensation' of various types, which makes 1-5 even worse

So the muscle(s):

1. is less functional
2. absorbs less force than it should
3. that force has to go somewhere
4. lots of compensation is happening
5. you keep running down the road, and that aggravates the existing LACK OF FUNCTION

So, running is a factor, but not a cause.

If form and function was appropriate, you could run all you want with no issues. But the tendonitis dynamic just creeps in, no matter what you're doing.

Remember, the tendonitis dynamic is a -dynamic-....multiple factors at play in multiple directions.  As any one factor starts to go downhill, the rest of them do to.

As form and function decreases, the inability to run without experiencing the results of that decreased form and function INCREASES.

Hip Pain From Running

Don't be fearful of hip pain from running actually being from running.

It's not.  Running isn't the culprit.  If you quit running, the dynamic of pain and tightness is still in place.

Rest will not fix this issue.

Just like Hip Pain When Sitting and (obviously) Hip Pain While Sleeping, the activity is not the problem.  The body's ability to perform that function, is.

Having said all that, you want to keep running, and running obviously isn't going to fix the problem.

So what can you do about that?

1.  Get professional massage from a skilled massage therapist that can figure out the source of the problem.  Is it actually a hip issue?  Or is the hip pain the result of issue in the lower leg(s)?

(Remember, if muscles aren't absorbing force that force has to go somewhere...so if lower leg muscles aren't absorbing force and that force is translating up to the hip....

2.  See a very skilled physical therapist that can figure out what's up with the kinesthetic chain and correct that and/or any alignment issues (hip or otherwise).

3.  Self massage.  Look for and find anything that is tight.  Work it over time until it isn't.

4.  Anything anti-inflammatory you can do is a good thing.

5.  See:  Magnesium For Tendonitis

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