Exercise for hip bursitis. What to do AND what not to do

A quick search on Google for the best hip bursitis exercises and you’ll discover all the usual suspects. 

Clamshells, leg lifts and planks to name just a few.  But do these exercises work? Do they do anything to help alleviate your hip bursitis?

From my personal experience, they do not. 

They didn’t help me overcome my own chronic hip pain issues and they didn't help the hundreds of students I’ve worked with. 

I can’t tell you how many people through the years have said to me “Maks, please no more clamshells.” 

Well, dear hipster, in this article I won’t tell you to do anymore clamshells. Instead, I’ll help you understand what exercise can do for your hip bursitis and even more importantly, what it can’t. 

I will share the exact strategies that have helped me, and hundreds of others resolve their chronic hip pain. 

How to pick exercises for hip bursitis

What do you think the biggest obstacle is for people in their efforts to improve how their hips feel? Weak glutes? Poor movement function? One leg longer than the other?

The biggest challenge for most people is their mindset.

How you think about your pain and diagnosis will dictate how soon you’ll feel better or “normal” – whatever this means to you.  

If you think about your hip bursitis diagnosis as an isolated hip problem, then all the exercises you do will be hyper-focused on the symptomatic hip. 

But this approach is too narrowly focused. Pain in one area of the body does not mean the problem is in that area. 

The body does not operate like a machine, with each part doing its isolated task.  Instead, your body is connected to a highly sophisticated brain and nervous system.  

When you walk, the hip does not do its job while the shoulder and ankles wait for their turn. All joints and muscles in the body work together to move with as much efficiency as possible. 

Exercise should promote this type of coordinated and dynamic movement. Isolated exercises have their place but eventually you need to integrate what you learned into full body movements. 

So, what would this look like? 

The absolute first step I recommend to anyone looking to resolve their chronic hip pain is to fully understand the role of the brain and nervous system in chronic pain patterns.

Exercise is a tool, not an antidote. The true path to a lifetime of of pain-free hips is to become educated on how pain works. 

If you are conditioned to look at exercise as some magic pill for your hip bursitis or any other pain pattern for that matter, you’ll inevitably be disappointed. 

The second step is identifying where your movement limitations are. Just normal everyday movements like bending, squatting and lunging are all areas to focus on. 

Most modern day adults, especially those with aches and pains, will have trouble with these rudimentary movements. I know I did. 

I work on these movements myself and there is no shame in it! There is a misconception out there that you need to do difficult and strenuous exercises to feel better. 

But why? How does putting your hips into deep external rotation help you move with less pain and more comfort? 

If you don’t have a desire to get more flexible then many of the popular mobility exercises out there are useless at best and aggravating at worst.  If your main concern is better movement, focus on the ones you do all day long. 

Are there any exercises to avoid if you have hip bursitis?

I never received a diagnosis for hip bursitis, but I got just about all the other ones – labral tear, arthritis and hip impingement. 

I write about my experience with these diagnoses on my website and share what shifts in mindset made the biggest difference for me. 

One that I discovered resonates with many people is to reframe how to think about which activities are safe. 

Instead of asking yourself whether you can do a certain activity with [hip bursitis], ask yourself whether you can do the activity with hip pain?

Let’s examine what this would look like with some common activities and exercise.

Is walking good for hip bursitis? 

Harvard professor of exercise science Dan Lieberman, in his book Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding, talks about what he discovered in his research on walking. 

He explains that the “[a]verage hunter-gatherer men and women (Hadza included) walk about nine and six miles a day, respectively, not for health or fitness but to survive.”

It is a new phenomenon to look at walking as something that is optional. Historically, walking was not exercise or a recreational activity, it was a means of survival. If you couldn’t walk, you’d be dead. 

We evolved to walk. There is no better activity for humans than walking. The mental and physical benefits obtained from walking are second to none.  

With all of this in mind, how would your answer change if you reframed it to: is walking good for hip pain? 

Should you stretch with hip bursitis? 

I love to stretch but I do it for two reasons: (1) get flexible and (2) reduce tension. 

Stretching won’t fix your hip pain or your hip bursitis diagnosis. Just like exercise generally, stretching is just another tool to help you reach your goals. 

There is nothing wrong with it, just like there is nothing wrong with strength training. But there is something wrong in believing stretching is some magic fix to your chronic hip pain. 

Is running safe with hip bursitis? 

Let's reframe this question, shall we? Is it safe to run with hip pain?  Most of you would probably say yes. 

It may be uncomfortable but that does not mean that you are doing something terribly wrong to your hip. But pain during or after an activity is a sign that something is off.  

Your brain is interpreting the experience as a threat. The threat can be caused by some physical restriction or from the unconscious deciding that running is bad for your hip. 

Most people would say they are in the former category and that pain when running is due to some limitation in their bodies. It is possible but I would think about it this way. 

Are you someone that is already dealing with chronic hip pain in other activities or does it only show up when you run? 

If you also get pain when you walk, sit, bend, sleep and many other activities, I would encourage you to explore your unconscious brain more. On the other hand, if you only get pain when you run then I recommend you examine your physical limitations more. 

Closing Thoughts 

The information in this article might not be what you wanted - a quick and easy solution to hip bursitis. But I truly believe it is the information people need. 

The path out of chronic hip pain, whether it comes with a diagnosis of hip bursitis or not, requires a commitment to learning about how pain works. 

This approach takes some time but not as much time as the never-ending hamster wheel of looking for the perfect exercise to fix your pain. 

Only once you have your mindset locked in, can you finally reap all the amazing benefits exercise has to offer. It took me years to have this epiphany and articles like this are my way to help you get there sooner than I did.