Why Your Hip Clicks and Snaps When You Walk

Your hip makes a sound. A flick on the side when you walk, a clunk when you swing your legs out of a car, a pop when you lift your knee.

Here is the honest answer first. A hip that snaps and does not hurt is usually not a problem, and there is no treatment you are missing by leaving it alone. Noise on its own is a finding, not an injury. What changes that answer is pain, a deep catching sensation in the groin, or a hip that stops doing what you ask of it.

What is usually making the noise

Most hip snapping is not happening inside the joint at all. It is a tendon or a thick band of tissue sliding across a bony bump, hanging up, then letting go. Two patterns cover nearly all of it.

The outside pattern. A thick band of tissue runs down the outside of the thigh and passes over the wide flare of bone at the top of the thigh bone, the part you feel as the bony point on the side of your hip. When that band is tight it does not glide over the bump smoothly. It catches, then releases with a thump you can feel and sometimes watch. Walking and stairs are the usual moments.

The front pattern. A tendon at the front of the hip, the one that pulls your knee toward your chest, passes over the bony rim of the pelvis and the front of the joint underneath. When the leg travels from a bent, turned-out position back toward straight, that tendon can shift across those structures with a clunk you can hear across a room. Bringing the knee up from a chair and getting out of a low car seat are the classic triggers. It feels deeper, but it is still a tendon outside the joint.

Both of those are surface events. A third sensation is a different thing: a click, catch or grinding that seems to come from inside the joint, in the groin, rather than a flick you can find with a fingertip. That one is worth separating out, because it can point at the cartilage rim or the joint surfaces instead of a tendon riding over bone.

When the snapping does matter

Ask yourself these:

• Does it hurt when it snaps, or only feel odd?
• Is it a deep catch or a lock in the groin rather than a superficial flick?
• Does the hip give way, or do you not trust it on a step?
• Did it start after a fall, a hard landing or a twist?
• Is it stopping you doing something you want to do?

If all of those are no, you have a noisy hip and nothing more. If any is yes, the noise is not the thing to look at. The pain, the catching, or the loss of confidence in the leg is. A deep, painful catch in the groin that is getting worse can point inside the joint, and that is worth an exam.

Why active people notice it more

Runners, dancers, cyclists and anyone on a lot of stairs take the hip from bent to straight thousands of times a week, which is the movement both patterns depend on. St. Thomas is steep, so stairs and hills are not optional here.

What helps when it is annoying but not painful

The target is not the sound. It is the tissue around it. Strength through the gluteal muscles and the deeper rotators changes how the thigh bone travels under that band, and flexibility work on the band and the hip flexors reduces how hard the tendon has to flick over bone to get past.

Most people who stay with that find the snapping quieter and less frequent. They also often find it does not vanish completely, and that is fine. A hip that clicks now and then and does not hurt is a hip that works. Silence was never the goal.

If you want it examined

An exam answers most of this in one visit. We take the hip through its range, watch you walk and stand on one leg, test the gluteal muscles, and reproduce the snap where we can to see which structure is making it. The low back and sacroiliac joints get checked too.

Dr. Keys is the Chair of the Virgin Islands Board of Chiropractic Examiners, a member of the Virgin Islands Chiropractic Society, and the International Chiropractors Association representative for the U.S. Virgin Islands.

If the snapping comes with real hip pain, the treatment side is on our hip pain page. If the ache travels toward the knee, see pain that radiates hip to knee. What we use is on our services page.

When hip symptoms need urgent care

Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room for:

• Inability to put weight on the leg after an injury
• A hip that is hot, swollen and painful, especially with a fever, which can mean an infected joint
• A hip that repeatedly gives way underneath you
• Groin pain with a deep catch that is getting worse rather than settling
• In an older adult, hip or groin pain after a fall even if walking is still possible, since a fracture can happen without any obvious deformity

Getting seen

Tradewinds Chiropractic & Wellness is in the VI Medical Foundation Building, Suite 202, 9150 Estate Thomas, St. Thomas, USVI 00802, just east of Charlotte Amalie. Hours are Mon, Wed, Thu: 10:00 am to 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Tue, Fri: 7:00 am to 2:00 pm. Closed Sat and Sun.

Call (340) 690-4994 or email info@tradewindschiropractic.com. We take walk-ins and same-day appointments. New patient forms are on the forms page to print and fill in.

Questions patients ask

My hip clicks when I walk. Should I be worried?

Usually not. A hip that clicks or snaps without pain is generally a tendon or a band of tissue moving over a bony bump, and it is not a sign the joint is being harmed. Get it examined if the noise comes with pain, a deep catch in the groin, a feeling that the hip gives way, or if it started after a fall.

What causes a snapping hip?

Two patterns cover most of it. On the outside, a thick band of tissue flicks over the wide bone at the top of the thigh, noticed on stairs and while walking. At the front, a tendon shifts over the rim of the pelvis when the knee comes up or you get out of a car. Both are structures outside the joint moving over bone.

My hip pops when I lift my leg. Is that normal?

It is common. Lifting the knee from a bent, turned-out position toward straight is the exact movement that makes the tendon at the front of the hip shift across the structures underneath it, which produces a clunk. On its own, with no pain and no catching, it is a normal variation rather than a problem.

Is clicking in the hip bad if it is not painful?

Painless clicking does not need treatment. There is no good evidence that a hip making noise is wearing itself out, and plenty of hips click for decades without ever hurting. The reason to have one looked at is pain, catching, giving way, or a change in what you can do.

Can the snapping be made to stop?

Often it can be made quieter and less frequent by strengthening the gluteal muscles and improving the flexibility of the band and the hip flexors involved, which changes how those structures travel over the bone. It may not go away entirely, and if it does not hurt, that is an acceptable outcome rather than a failed one.