Why Your Hip Hurts
Hip pain in active adults — runners, gym-goers, weekend warriors — is rarely a structural problem. It is almost always a strength and load management problem. The hip joint is surrounded by some of the most powerful muscles in the body: the glutes, hip flexors, hip abductors, and deep rotators. When any of these muscles are weak or inhibited, the joint absorbs forces it was never designed to handle.
The most common culprits are:
- Weak glute medius — the side-butt muscle responsible for hip stability during single-leg activities like walking, running, and stairs. When it's weak, the hip drops and the IT band, piriformis, and TFL all compensate.
- Tight hip flexors — from prolonged sitting. Tight hip flexors pull the pelvis into anterior tilt, compressing the front of the hip joint and overloading the lower back.
- Inhibited glute max — the largest muscle in the body is often the laziest. When the glute max doesn't fire properly, the hamstrings and lower back pick up the slack — and eventually complain about it.
- Poor hip mobility — a stiff hip joint forces the lumbar spine and knee to compensate, creating a chain of dysfunction that can cause pain far from the original problem.
Most hip pain is not a flexibility problem — it is a strength deficit. Stretching alone will not fix it. You need to strengthen the muscles that stabilize and move the hip, in the right sequence, at the right load.
The 3-Phase Approach
This protocol follows the same phased approach used in clinical PT settings. Rushing through phases is the most common reason people plateau. Work through each phase in order.
- Phase 1 (Weeks 1–2): Activate & Mobilize. Wake up inhibited muscles and restore hip mobility. Low load, high focus on quality of movement.
- Phase 2 (Weeks 3–5): Strengthen & Stabilize. Build strength in the glutes, hip abductors, and hip flexors under progressive load.
- Phase 3 (Weeks 6–8): Load & Return to Activity. Functional, single-leg, and sport-specific loading to prepare for full return to running, lifting, or sport.
90/90 Hip Stretch
Sit on the floor with both knees bent at 90 degrees — one leg in front, one behind. Sit tall and hinge forward over your front shin, keeping your spine long. This targets the external rotators and hip capsule simultaneously, which is where most hip stiffness originates. Do not force the stretch; breathe into it and let gravity do the work.
Glute Bridge
Lie on your back with knees bent, feet flat on the floor hip-width apart. Drive through your heels and squeeze your glutes to lift your hips until your body forms a straight line from knees to shoulders. Hold for 2 seconds at the top, then lower slowly. This is the foundational glute activation exercise — do not skip it, even if it feels easy. Focus on feeling the glutes contract, not the hamstrings.
Clamshell
Lie on your side with hips stacked, knees bent to 45 degrees, and feet together. Keeping your feet touching, rotate your top knee toward the ceiling as far as you can without rolling your pelvis back. Pause at the top, then lower slowly. This directly targets the glute medius — the most commonly weak muscle in people with hip pain. If you feel it in your TFL (front of hip) instead of the side of your glute, reduce your range of motion.
Side-Lying Hip Abduction
Lie on your side with your body in a straight line. Keeping your top leg straight and your toes pointing slightly toward the floor (not the ceiling), lift your leg to about 45 degrees. Pause, then lower slowly over 3 seconds. The slow lowering is where the strength gains happen — do not rush it. Add a resistance band above the knees once you can complete 3 sets of 20 with good form.
Single-Leg Glute Bridge
Start in the standard glute bridge position. Extend one leg straight out, keeping your thighs parallel. Drive through the heel of the planted foot and lift your hips. Your pelvis should stay level — if one side drops, you have found your weak side. This is one of the most effective exercises for isolating glute max strength and exposing asymmetries between sides.
Lateral Band Walk
Place a resistance band just above your knees. Stand with feet hip-width apart and sink into a quarter squat. Maintaining the squat position, step sideways — 10 steps in each direction. Keep your knees tracking over your toes and your torso upright. This exercise trains the glute medius in a functional, weight-bearing position that directly transfers to walking, running, and stair climbing.
Reverse Lunge
Stand tall. Step one foot back and lower your back knee toward the floor, keeping your front shin vertical and your front knee tracking over your second toe. Push through the heel of your front foot to return to standing. The reverse lunge is preferred over the forward lunge for hip pain because it loads the glutes more and places less stress on the anterior hip capsule. Progress to a Bulgarian split squat once you can complete 3 sets of 12 pain-free.
Step-Up
Stand in front of a step or box (8–12 inches high). Place one foot fully on the step. Drive through the heel of the elevated foot to step up, bringing your trailing leg to a 90-degree hip flexion at the top. Lower slowly and with control. The step-up is a functional single-leg exercise that directly replicates stair climbing, hiking, and the push-off phase of running. It is one of the best tests of whether your hip is ready to return to full activity.
How to Progress Safely
The most common mistake people make with hip rehab is progressing too fast. Pain during an exercise is a signal to reduce load, not push through. Use this framework:
- 0–2/10 pain during exercise: Acceptable. Continue.
- 3–4/10 pain during exercise: Reduce reps or load by 25%. If pain persists, drop back to the previous phase.
- 5+/10 pain during exercise: Stop. Rest 48 hours. If pain persists, see a healthcare provider.
- Pain that is worse the next morning: You did too much. Reduce volume by 50% and progress more slowly.
Before returning to running, sport, or heavy lifting, you should be able to: (1) complete all 8 exercises pain-free at full load, (2) perform a single-leg squat to 60 degrees without your hip dropping, and (3) walk for 30 minutes without pain during or after. If you cannot meet these criteria, extend Phase 2 for another 1–2 weeks.
What About Hip Flexor Stretching?
You have probably been told to stretch your hip flexors. And while hip flexor mobility matters, stretching alone will not fix hip pain — and in some cases it makes it worse. Here's why: if your hip flexors are tight because your glutes are weak, the hip flexors are compensating for the lack of posterior stability. Stretching them without strengthening the glutes removes a compensatory strategy without replacing it.
The correct sequence is: strengthen the glutes first, then stretch the hip flexors. Once the glutes are doing their job, the hip flexors will naturally relax. This is why the exercises in this protocol are ordered the way they are.
Get the Full Hip Protocol
The 8 exercises above are a solid starting point, but they are not the complete program. The full Wrecked Hip Protocol includes a detailed 8-week phased program with exercise progressions, loading guidelines, modifications for common diagnoses (hip impingement, bursitis, IT band syndrome), and free access to the exercise tracking portal to log your sessions and monitor your progress.
Get the Full Hip Protocol →Instant PDF download · Includes free exercise portal access