I’ve been cycling a lot lately and have developed a bit of hip pain on the outside of my left hip. A proper bike fit is step one, but step two is addressing the overuse injury in my hip.

At first I thought it was nerve pain because it only hurt during deep squats at the gym. It turns out it’s actually Trochanteric Pain Syndrome, formerly called “trochanteric bursitis”. It’s a load related injury to the area that is used to stabilize the hip.

Overview & Symptoms

This injury is generally felt it in the bony area of the hip, or the “greater trochanter”. Symptoms typically include pain on the outside of the hip, especially laying on your side or direct pressure. And pain with single leg loading – running, cycling with high resistance, standing or hopping on one leg, getting in/out of a car or a low chair, etc.

Common causes for this pain are overuse, or poor running or cycling form. Essentially you’ve exceeded the glute tendon’s capacity via repeated mechanical stress.

Recovery

This is a tendon injury, and tendons heal best with LOAD! Not just rest. So you want to gradually strengthen and load the tendon after the initial calming phase.

Calm the tendon: 1-2 weeks

• Avoid laying your side or crossing your legs
• Avoid deep stretching of the hip
• Avoid high impact activities or lifts

Initial strength: 1-2 weeks

• Slow step downs, Romanian deadlifts, hip airplanes
• I’ve been experimenting with wall sits (even one legged to really hit the stabilization piece), clam shells, monster walks and also one-legged banded work (stand on one leg, pull on band that makes balancing difficult)

Reload and sport specific: 1-2 weeks

• Low level plyometrics
• Return to previous strength, running, cycling work

Full return takes is 3-6 weeks, maybe a little longer for more intense injuries or slow healers. 

Best of luck with the recovery! Hope this helps!