What to change when movement makes your hip sore

What hip pain exercises to try first

Choose a move that feels steady and is easy to repeat. Try standing from a firm chair, water walking, or easy cycling. Keep a counter or chair within reach if your balance isn't solid. Stop if you begin to rock, limp, hold your breath, or feel catching.

Start with one exercise instead of a long routine. You'll know which exercise raised the soreness if it hurts later. Don't add speed and effort on the same day. Ask a physical therapist which movement fits the sore area if you're unsure.

What to try first: hip bursitis exercises for outer-hip soreness

Hip bursitis is a common name for soreness over the bone on your outer hip. Lying on that side or doing side leg lifts may make it worse. You don't need to lie down for the exercise; hold a counter and lift the leg sideways. Don't lift more than a few inches, and keep your shoulders level over your feet.

You don't have to stop walking when the amount isn't making soreness climb. Try flatter ground, a slightly shorter step, and fewer minutes. Hills and long outings can wait until the outer hip is calmer. The next morning, check whether you slept worse or now walk with a limp.

How to sleep with hip pain tonight

Don't sleep directly on a tender outer hip if another position works. While facing the other way, support the top leg from thigh to ankle. On your back, a pillow under the knees may ease pulling at the front. Give each position enough time to see whether you stay asleep.

One poor night can't tell you the cause. New severe soreness that stays the same in every position deserves an exam. Fever, illness, or fast worsening means faster care. At QC Kinetix, medical providers, the people who check your hip and handle the treatment, can explain non-surgical regenerative care such as platelet-rich plasma (PRP); the clinic draws your blood, spins the sample, and uses a needle to put the prepared plasma at the sore spot.

Sources

1. The 2026 Cochrane update of exercise for hip osteoarthritis (18 trials, 1368 participants) found that against attention control or placebo, exercise may have little to no effect on pain (MD -6.31 points on 0-100, 95% CI -12.98 to 0.35, low certainty) and may improve physical function only slightly; against no treatment or usual care it probably reduces pain slightly (MD -7.19, 95% CI -10.70 to -3.68, moderate certainty) but the review states these improvements are unlikely to be clinically meaningful. This is a weaker result than the equivalent knee evidence and it must not be overstated.

   Hall M, et al. — Exercise for osteoarthritis of the hip.. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2026. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD007912.pub3.

2. A Cochrane review of 62 trials (6508 participants) found that adjunctive therapies added to land-based exercise - electrophysical agents, manual therapy, acupuncture, taping, insoles and others - produced no clinically important additional benefit for pain, function or quality of life. The reviewers explicitly warn that only one of the 62 trials studied hip OA alone, so extrapolation to the hip needs caution.

   French HP, et al. — Adjunctive therapies in addition to land-based exercise therapy for osteoarthritis of the hip or knee.. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2022. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD011915.pub2.

3. A Cochrane review of 13 aquatic-exercise trials (1190 participants with knee or hip OA) found small, short-term but clinically relevant improvements in pain (SMD -0.31, 95% CI -0.47 to -0.15) and disability (SMD -0.32), corresponding to about a five-point improvement on a 0-100 scale, with no serious adverse events reported.

   Bartels EM, et al. — Aquatic exercise for the treatment of knee and hip osteoarthritis.. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2016. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD005523.pub3.

4. In a three-arm randomized trial of 204 people with MRI-confirmed gluteal tendinopathy, an eight-week physiotherapist-led education and exercise programme produced success on global rating of change in 51/66 participants at 8 weeks versus 38/65 for a single corticosteroid injection and 20/68 for wait-and-see. Education plus exercise beat the injection at 8 weeks (risk difference 19.9%) and still beat it at 52 weeks (20.4%).

   Mellor R, et al. — Education plus exercise versus corticosteroid injection use versus a wait and see approach on global outcome and pain from gluteal tendinopathy: prospective, single blinded, randomised clinical trial.. BMJ, 2018. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.k1662.

5. A 2025 systematic review restricted to medium/high-quality low-risk-of-bias RCTs found only four interventions with demonstrated efficacy in gluteal tendinopathy: exercise and education (moderate strength, medium short-term effect on pain SMD 0.95 and function SMD 0.91), corticosteroid injection (small short-term pain effect SMD 0.51), PRP (superior to corticosteroid for short-term function), and focused shockwave therapy (long-term pain superiority over corticosteroid). Exercise and education is the recommended core.

   Bremer T, et al. — The efficacy of gluteal tendinopathy treatments: A systematic review.. Clinical Rehabilitation, 2025. DOI: 10.1177/02692155251327298.