What is a hip flexor strain?
A hip flexor strain is an injury to one of your hip flexors, the muscles where your thigh meets your hip. They’re a type of muscle strain — a tear in your muscle tissue. They’re one of the most common injuries, especially among athletes.
Strains are classified with three grades to indicate how severe they are. Most people can recover by resting their muscle and using at-home treatments like ice and over-the-counter medicine. If you’re feeling pain for a few weeks after your injury or have severe symptoms, see a healthcare provider.
Muscle strains vs. pulled muscles
There’s no difference between a strained muscled and a pulled muscle. People use the terms interchangeably. The same is true for a strained muscle and a torn muscle. They’re the same injury with the same symptoms and treatments.
Hip flexor strains and other injuries
There are lots of common injuries that cause muscle pain similar to hip flexor strains, including:
- Pinched nerves.
- Herniated disks.
- Blood clots.
- Other muscle strains — like groin strains and quadriceps strains.
- Femoroacetabular impingement (also called hip impingement).
Talk to a provider if you experience any sudden, sharp pain in your body, especially if it happens during physical activity like a workout or playing sports.
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Who do hip flexor strains affect?
Hip flexor strains can affect anyone. They’re common in athletes and people who are especially active.
Even if you don’t play sports or workout often, you can still strain your hip flexor, especially if you suddenly exert yourself much harder than usual.
How common are hip flexor strains?
Hip flexor strains are a common sports injury. Any athlete can injure their hip flexor, but the most common sports that cause hip flexor strains include:
- Running.
- Hockey.
- Football.
- Soccer.
- Martial arts.
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How do hip flexor strains affect my body?
Your hip flexors run across the bottom of your abdomen and down the top of your hips. Like all of your muscles, your hip flexors are made of thousands of small fibers woven together. These fibers stretching and pressing together is what allows your body to move when you squeeze a muscle.
When you overuse a muscle, the strands of muscle fiber are stretched beyond their limit and tear apart. If you’ve ever tried to use an old bungee cord to hold something in place you’ve seen this happen. New bungee cords — and healthy muscle fibers — have plenty of give and stretch. But if you use them for too long or suddenly jerk on them too hard, the elastic fibers in the bungee cord will start to pull apart. It’s the same way in your muscles. Strains are what happen when some of the thousands of fibers in your muscles are pulled beyond their limit and tear.
In addition to being painful, a hip flexor strain might make it hard to walk or move without pain. Your hip and leg might feel weak or unstable. They might also cause other symptoms like bruising.
