Groin Pain and Hip Strain: If you’ve ever felt a sharp twinge in your groin or a lingering ache around your hip and wondered if the two are connected, you’re not alone. Groin pain and hip strain are common, especially among runners, gym-goers, and weekend athletes.
While they can feel like separate problems, they often overlap. This guide breaks down why groin and hip pain frequently occur together and what symptoms to watch for.
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What do you need to know about groin pain?
The groin area is where your inner thigh meets your lower belly. Pain in this area can feel dull, sharp, or sore, and it might even happen when you walk, run, lift something, or just get out of bed. Common causes generally include muscle strain, hernia, hip joint problems or injuries to tendons and ligaments in that area. Sometimes groin pain is actually coming from your hip.
What do you need to know about hip strain?
Your hip is a ball-and-socket joint that allows your leg to move in different directions. A hip strain happens when the muscles or tendons around the hip get stretched or torn. You might feel a lot of pain when moving your legs, swelling or bruising. You might even have a feeling of hip weakness. Just like the groin pain, this can happen from overuse, sudden movements or even sitting too long in one position.
Are groin pain and hip pain interconnected?
Yes, they often are. The hip and groin share a tight network of muscles, tendons, and joint structures, so trouble in one area can easily show up in the other. Inner-thigh adductors, hip flexors, and pelvic tendons all attach around the hip; a strain or tightness in any of these can tug on nearby tissues and spark groin pain.
Sometimes the ache you feel in the groin actually starts in the hip joint. This “referred pain” means your brain maps the pain to the groin even though the source is elsewhere. Common culprits include hip flexor or adductor strains, hip impingement (FAI), labral tears, and osteoarthritis, all of which can radiate discomfort to the front of the hip and groin.
As these structures are interconnected, improving hip mobility and strength alongside groin muscle balance usually works better than treating either area in isolation.
Common causes that impact both hip and groin:
- A groin pull happens when you stretch or tear one of your inner thigh muscles. You might get this if you’re an athlete.
- A hip flexor strain is just as frequent; these muscles help lift the knee and bend at the waist, and when they’re overused or tight, they can trigger pain in both the hip and groin.
- A sports hernia is not the typical bulging hernia but rather a soft tissue injury around the groin. It’s common in sports like football and soccer, and can feel like hip pain that won’t go away.
Also Read | Sharp or dull hip pain? What it means and how to treat it
Hip strain and groin pain are closely connected, and one can set off the other if not treated. The upside is that most cases improve with rest, targeted care, and gentle movement, helping you return to the activities you love.