This blog was originally written on January 27, 2020, and has been updated since.

Anyone can suffer from a hip flexor injury, but athletes, martial artists, and dancers know this kind of injury all too well. The hip flexors are a group of muscles along the bottom of your abdomen and the top of your hips. Even if you’re not performing a three-hour stage show like a certain superstar, activities such as kicking, running, jumping, and dancing all engage those muscles.1

When you’re hitting all your marks and overusing or overstretching those muscles, they can become injured, resulting in pain and sometimes even limited mobility. But you don’t have to just tolerate it. Here’s what your recovery timeline may look like, how to kick that recovery into high gear, and what causes this type of injury in the first place. 

Call It What You Want—It’s a Hip Flexor Injury

Lights, camera, kick, smile—lifting your knee toward your body requires many muscles working together, including the psoas major and the iliacus, which are also known as the iliopsoas.2 While that may sound like a piece of classic literature, the iliopsoas muscles are actually part of the hip flexor group and the two muscles that are most often affected in a hip flexor injury. 

If a small number of these muscle fibers are torn, the injury is generally relatively minor and may not limit your function but will likely still be painful. However, if the muscle is completely torn, it can be quite severe and impact mobility.

Tell Me Why This Happened: What Causes Hip Flexor Injuries?

You already know that hip flexor injuries happen when you tear the fibers of the muscles, but why does this happen? Let’s take a look:1

    • Overuse: Doing repetitive motions, such as kicking or jumping, can lead to overtraining syndrome.3
  • Not warming up or stretching: We know—you want to get right into exercising or playing a sport, and it can feel so high school to take the time to stretch and warm up, but taking the time to do this can gradually increase the amount of stress you can put on your muscles, and that lets you do more with them.
  • Lack of flexibility: This can make your muscles and muscle fibers tighter, which makes them more prone to injuries.
  • Trauma: Falls, car accidents, and other types of traumas can cause injuries too—especially if you tense yourself to brace for the impact.

Hip Flexor Injury Symptoms

Aside from feeling quite a bit of pain, you may also experience:4

  • Swelling and bruising
  • Muscle spasms
  • Tightness or pulling sensations in your hip
  • Difficulty walking or climbing stairs
  • Difficulty getting up from a seated position, such as coming up from a squat or out of a chair

Soon You’ll Get Better: How Long It Takes to Recover

Being out of your normal routine for a while can leave you feeling frustrated and looking forward to doing what you love most again. While your exact recovery timeline depends on the severity of your injury, your recovery methods, and advice from your doctor, here’s a general idea of what you can expect:2

  • Minor injuries: 1-3 weeks with rest and recovery methods
  • Severe injuries: 4-6 weeks with rest and recovery methods
  • Untreated severe injuries: Months for a full recovery and might even cause chronic pain

Shake It Off with These Recovery Tips

First, as with any injury, it’s important to see your doctor for a diagnosis. They also may give you personalized recovery tips. Here are some general recovery methods you can use to supplement your doctor’s advice:

Rest

This is important, and it’s difficult for many, but you need to stop doing the activity that caused the injury for a while to avoid damaging the muscle further. This is a good time to catch up on some streaming shows or your to-be-read list.

Ice

Applying a cold compress or ice pack every hour for 10-15 minutes for the first day may help reduce inflammation deep in the damaged muscles and help relieve pain. Just don’t apply an ice pack directly to your skin—wrap it in a towel first.

Compression

Compression can help reduce swelling, reduce pain, and potentially increase your mobility. Active compression can even further reduce swelling. Bonus: With a cold and compression therapy system, you’ll get the best of both worlds.

Medication

Pain-relieving medications can temporarily relieve pain, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, may also help with swelling. However, before taking any medications, it’s important to talk with your doctor. They can also tell you if an NSAID will interfere with any other medications you’re currently taking.

Are You (Game) Ready for It?

Cold and compression therapy may be able to help reduce pain from a hip flexor injury as you recover. GAME READY is intended to treat post-surgical and acute injuries to reduce pain, edema, and swelling where cold and compression are indicated.5 Talk with your doctor today about the GAME READY cold and compression therapy system so you can get back to what you love—hopefully minus the pain.

 

References

  1. Hip Flexor Strain. Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23978-hip-flexor-strain. Last reviewed August 3, 2022.
  2. Nall, R. Understanding Hip Flexor Strain. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/hip-flexor-strain. Updated March 8, 2019.
  3. Overtraining Syndrome. Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/overtraining-syndrome. Last reviewed February 28, 2024.
  4. Hip Flexor Strain—Aftercare. Medline Plus. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000682.htm. Last reviewed April 24, 2023.
  5. Waterman B, Walker JJ, Swaims C et al. The Efficacy of Combined Cryotherapy and Compression Compared with Cryotherapy Alone Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction. J Knee Surg 2012, 25(2):155-160.