Burning Hip Pain

I’m a 24 year old male. I’ve been experiencing a burning sensation in my hips for several months. The pain is worse on my right side compared to my left, and much worse when walking. When training it doesn’t bother me as much but it does get mildly inflamed. I’ve gone to two physical therapists, one of which being an SSC. The first physical therapist diagnosed me with femoral acetabular impingement. He ordered an X-ray, and saw nothing “wrong” with my hips but still diagnosed me with FAI anyway. I did the silly PT exercises for a few weeks. Didn’t help. Got an MRI on my hips, and came back with a good report. No damage was found according to whoever viewed it. Then I went to another PT who’s also a Starting Strength coach. Went over my training history and injury history. Told him I had a lumbar disc injury 3 years ago and described the pain I’m feeling now. He said the burning sensation in my hips could be from my back injury years ago. I trained with him, 3 days a week for a couple of weeks doing the standard starting strength LP. He cleaned up my form a bit, and advised that I continue to train. It’s been months since then, I’ve been going back and forth with linear progression, unsure if I should push through this pain or not. When the weights start getting heavy, the pain increases, but again, it’s worse when walking.

I know it can be difficult to give medical advice over the internet, but I’m at a loss. This pain is interfering with work, and overall daily tasks. Of course I want to train and get stronger. I’d absolutely love nothing more than that but not at the expense of potentially causing further damage. I would greatly appreciate any advice. I’m debating what my next move should be. If i should find yet another doctor, or continue to train through pain even if it makes it worse as the load progresses. Thank you for taking the time to read this and again I greatly appreciate any advice.

Hi Matt,

I’m sorry to hear about your difficulty here. I’m not too sure what’s going on here; this is a bit tricky, and that makes it even harder to deal with over the internet.

Where are you located? What does your current training look like? It sounds like you’re able to tolerate lifting better than walking?

Thank you for taking the time to read and reply to my post. I live in Fort Worth, Texas. I currently train 3x a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, cycling between workouts A and B. Workout A being Squat 3x5 / Overhead Press 3x5 / Deadlift 1x5 and workout B being Squat 3x5 / Bench 3x5 / Weighted Chin-ups 3x5. I do tolerate training better than walking. if I take a brisk walk that lasts more than 15 minutes it always causes my right hip to flare up. My training sessions typically last 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on rest periods. My last training session consisted of Squats, Bench and weighted chin-ups. I was able to tolerate squats and bench very well. For some reason weighted chins aggravated my hip, but if i were to take a guess it’s probably because my hip is sensitive anyway and the dip belt I use for weighted chins made it flare up. I don’t know. Still didn’t bother me nearly as much as a brisk walk does, though.

Since you live in Fort Worth, I’d recommend seeing if you can get a doctor’s referral to see Dr. Jarod Hall, who is a DPT in the area that I trust when it comes to pain/rehab, and I think he may have some more useful input on your case.