What We Treat

Hip pain treatment in Seattle.

The ache deep in your hip crease when you get out of the car. The stiffness that never quite loosens up before your walk. It’s fixable, and it starts with a thorough evaluation, not a guess.

Hip bursitis Labral tears Tight hip flexors (opens in new tab)Talk to a Specialist

Sound Familiar?

Does this sound like you?

  • Sharp pain on the outside of your hip that wakes you up when you lie on that side
  • A catching or locking feeling deep in the hip crease when you pivot
  • Hip flexors that feel locked up every time you climb out of the car after a long drive
  • A deep grinding or ache in the joint that gets worse by the end of the day
  • A hitch in your walk or stride that friends and family have started to notice
  • Pain that flares up after a run or a long walk and lingers into the next day

Two or more? Keep reading.

Why It Happens

Hip pain is a symptom. Something causes it.

Your hip doesn’t hurt for no reason. And it’s almost never just one thing. It’s usually some mix of four culprits: an inflamed bursa flaring from repetitive impact. A labral tear from years of abnormal walking or running mechanics. Hip flexors and surrounding muscles pulling out of balance around the pelvis. And joint degeneration that’s been building quietly in the background.

None of that shows up on a quick glance. It takes a real, thorough evaluation to sort out which one is actually driving your pain. That’s why rest, ice, or a generic stretching sheet so often falls short: they treat the symptom, not the source. Find the real cause, and the fix gets obvious.

Physical therapist assessing a patient's hip flexion and mobility

The Honest Truth

Waiting on a hip doesn’t make it wait on you.

If you keep waiting

  • Your knees and low back start picking up the slack, and start hurting too
  • Flare-ups stop being an occasional thing and start being a weekly one
  • You move less to avoid the pain, which weakens the exact muscles supposed to stabilize your hip

If you start this week

  • You know the actual cause by the end of visit one
  • Hands-on relief starts before you leave the building
  • You get a plan with an endpoint: a real one, not an open tab of visits

You’re the one who keeps everyone else moving, at work, at home, on the trail. That’s exactly why you’ve been pushing through hip pain instead of dealing with it. Nobody regrets starting early. Every week, someone in our clinic wishes they had.

How We Fix It

The same four phases. Built for your hip.

Every plan has an endpoint. Here’s what the four phases look like for a hip.

Weeks 1–2

Pain

Calm the pain down.

Hands-on techniques calm the irritated bursa or joint and take the edge off inflammation, starting your very first visit.

Weeks 2–6

Prime

Get your motion back.

Targeted mobility work loosens tight hip flexors and restores motion in the joint that’s been guarding the injury.

Weeks 6–10

Perform

Make it strong enough to trust.

Progressive glute and hip strengthening corrects the muscle imbalance around the pelvis that let this start.

Weeks 10+

Prevent

Return better than before.

Walking and running mechanics get tested under real load before you’re cleared to go all-in: that’s the endpoint, not just another appointment.

I recommend Dr. Dan Benson as wholeheartedly as possible for athletes looking to fix any type of injury. They've helped me through serious hip injury and surgery recovery, along with many other injuries and pains I've had over the last 5 years.

Alexander N. · Google review

Before: a hip bursitis flare-up that made every step an ache

After: back on a running ramp-up plan

Hip pain A few months

Related Conditions

Pain rarely stays in one place.

Compensation patterns often show up nearby. Here’s what else we treat.

1

Low Back Pain

The stiffness when you stand up from the couch that never fully goes away.

Learn More 2

Knee Pain

Taking the stairs one at a time because your knee doesn’t trust the next step.

Learn More 3

Foot & Ankle Pain

That first-step pain in your heel every morning that eases off, then comes right back.

Learn More

Questions, Answered

What people ask before booking for hip pain.

Usually not as a first step. Hip pain can come from a labral tear, bursitis, tight hip flexors, or early arthritic changes, and imaging alone doesn’t tell us which one is actually driving your symptoms or how to fix it. We start with a hands-on evaluation of your hip mechanics to find the real cause, and if imaging ever becomes genuinely necessary, we’ll help you get it. You don’t have to wait on a scan to start feeling better.

In most cases, yes, once we know what’s driving the pain. Hip bursitis and tight hip flexors often respond well to movement dosed the right way, while abnormal walking or running mechanics need to be corrected so you’re not reloading the same spot. A Doctor of PT sorts out which situation you’re in at your evaluation, then progresses your walking or running safely from there.

Most patients feel meaningful change within 4–6 visits. A full plan for hip pain runs through all four phases, Pain, Prime, Perform, and Prevent, typically over 8–10 weeks, depending on how long you’ve been dealing with it and what’s driving it: bursitis, a labral tear, tight hip flexors, or joint degeneration. Either way, you get a plan with an endpoint: you’ll always know which phase you’re in and what’s left, not an open-ended string of appointments.

Book Your Visit

Ready when you are.

Request a time and a real person calls you back, usually within two business hours. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.

5.0 · 250+ Google reviews

Typical response: under 2 business hours

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So we know who to look for when you walk in.

Visit Us

Care this good, this close.

Forefront Physical Therapy

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