When the outside of your hip has been sore for months, it can start deciding where you sleep, how far you walk and whether you take the stairs. Rest may ease it for a while, yet the same activities keep bringing it back. Building strength gradually can help you move past that cycle.

Why rest alone is not enough

Long-term pain on the outside of the hip often involves the tendons that attach your buttock muscles to your thigh bone. Tendons get stronger when they are loaded gradually. When they are rested, they lose some of their ability to cope, so the pain returns as soon as you do more.

Around menopause, falling oestrogen can make tendons slower to adapt, so building them back up may take a little longer than you expect. It does not mean they cannot get stronger.

What the evidence says

Research is encouraging here. In a large trial of people with this kind of outer hip pain, those who had education about daily habits plus a gradual strength programme did better over the following year than those who had a steroid injection or waited to see. The combination of easing pressure and building strength seemed to matter most.

Easing pressure while you rebuild

The tendons on the outside of your hip are sensitive to being squashed. A few habits help take the pressure off while you strengthen them:

• Sit with your legs uncrossed and choose higher chairs.
• Share your weight between both feet when you stand.
• When lying on your other side, put a pillow between your knees so your top leg does not drop across your body.
• Leave out stretches that pull your leg across your body for now. Feeling tight does not mean the tendon needs stretching.

Building strength step by step

A good programme starts gently and builds over weeks. Something to try three or four times a week:

• Sit to stand. Rise from a chair without using your hands, then lower yourself slowly.
• Bridges. Lie on your back with your knees bent, lift your hips, then lower them slowly.
• Step-ups. Step up onto the bottom stair and down again, holding the banister.

If you would like to follow along, VIDA has short videos of sit to stands and bridges you can work through at your own pace.

Getting the amount right

Check how your hip feels later that day and the following morning. A mild ache that settles by the next day is usually fine. If it is sorer the next morning, ease back a little rather than stopping.

Once an exercise feels easy, you could add a few repetitions, slow down the lowering part or hold a rucksack for sit to stands. Changing one thing at a time, every week or two, gives the tendon time to adapt.

Bringing walking back in

Walking is part of your strength work too. If longer walks bring the pain back, you could split them into shorter ones and build the distance gradually. Level ground is usually easier than hills to start with. Shorter strides can also help, as long strides ask more of the outer hip. Swimming and cycling are good ways to stay active on days your hip prefers less load.

Looking after your nights

Hip pain often feels louder at night, and broken sleep around menopause can add to it. A pillow between your knees and a cool bedroom can help you settle. Your VIDA pain check-in can help you see the bigger pattern, including small wins like an easier walk or getting out of a chair more comfortably.

What to take away

• Strengthen your hip three or four times a week, starting gently.
• Keep pressure off the tendon by sitting with your legs uncrossed.
• Leave out stretches that pull your leg across your body.
• Use how your hip feels the next morning to guide how much you do.
• Build up walking and exercise one small step at a time.

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