Is it medial to your ilia (front hip bone)? If so, it could be your psoas muscle, which initiates flexion of the femur (lifting your leg). If you sit at a desk, the psoas is often in a shortened position which also doesn’t help. Often core strength helps, as it sometimes gets overworked if it’s trying to stabilize your trunk while also acting as a prime mover. It could be taking over in running if your hip abductors (outside of the hip) and TFL (a hip flexor that also stabilizes the top of the femur and keeps it from internally rotating) are weak. Two stretches I like for psoas are: low lunge yoga stretch, or lie on your back with your hips at the end of a table or bed and bring the non-symptomatic knee to your chest, letting the weight of your symptomatic leg and gravity provide a stretch to the muscle. While you do those, make sure you’re engaging the deeper core muscles, as any arching of the back will exacerbate it. And a tight psoas can also pull on your spine to arch your back, further reason to keep up with the core workouts.

Hi Thomas – I recently ran into a similar sensation, especially when I would extend the pained leg for a reach or a very high step. I asked some peers and they suggested it might actually be a strength issue, in which case I should do fire-hydrant excercises before climbing and on off days to strengthen the hip flexor. After two weeks of doing these excercises 10-20 times on both sides before climbing and on off days, I noticed the pain has subsided and I have a full range of motion. Hope this helps!

LB