General information
Basically, hip pain that occurs when jogging should be taken seriously and not continued despite the pain. The large number of different causes for the pain often make a diagnosis not easy, although the hip pain can usually be localized well. In order to avoid serious injuries in the hip area, the pace of jogging should be reduced immediately or the rest of the route should be walked if hip pain is felt while running.
In many cases the complaints are caused by one-sided training or overloading. For this reason, hip pain can usually be relieved by taking it easy and avoiding chronic over-irritation. In particular, if the complaints worsen or recur repeatedly, a doctor should be consulted to rule out overloading or injury.
It is important to get clarity about the cause of the hip pain when jogging, since under certain circumstances an underlying, serious illness must be excluded. A thorough examination of the hip and knee joint should always be carried out, but an examination of the lumbar spine is also useful, since a herniated disc or nerve entrapment can also lead to severe hip pain. If an inflammatory process in the hip joint is detected (e.g. in coxitis), it may be necessary to puncture the joint to drain pus and infectious fluid.
Antibiotics are often prescribed afterwards. The treatment of hip pain while jogging depends on the underlying disease. In many cases it may be useful to take pain medication for a certain period of time to relax the muscles and relieve the pain.
Jogging training should always be adapted to the hip pain and pain-intensifying movements should be avoided. Instead of jogging, it is recommended, at least temporarily, to prefer hip-joint-friendly balancing sports such as swimming or cycling. Jogging as well as soccer, ice hockey, gymnastics or martial arts are sports with a high hip load and an increased load and injury potential.
A combination and regular change of the sports practiced reduces the risk of hip pain. Complete abstinence from sport is not advisable, even in the case of more serious illnesses (e.g. hip anomalies or early arthrosis of the hip joint). Instead, the specific hip load, frequency of training and individual body weight should be taken into account when selecting a sport. Overloading can relieve hip pain for a short time and for a limited period of time, but a light and loose movement of the hip joint should be resumed as soon as possible.
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