Short answer: Physio or chiropractor for hip pain? It depends on where the pain is really coming from. Pain felt in the hip can start in the hip joint, the tendons around it, or the low back and pelvis. Physios often lead with exercise for the joint and tendons; chiropractors also look closely at the spine and pelvis. Both are reasonable options.
Where is your hip pain actually coming from?
"Hip pain" covers a lot of ground. Where you feel it gives some useful clues, though it's never the full story.
- Front of the hip or groin: often linked to the hip joint itself, including wear-related changes, or the hip flexor muscles.
- Outside of the hip: often linked to the tendons and soft tissue over the bony point of the hip. Lying on that side at night is a classic aggravator.
- Back of the hip or buttock: often linked to the low back, the sacroiliac (SI) joint or the deep buttock muscles. This pain can travel down the leg.
The low back and pelvis can refer pain into the hip region, and a stiff hip can change how you load your back. That overlap is why a hip that "won't come good" sometimes turns out to involve the spine, and why a good assessment looks at both.
Physio or chiropractor for hip pain: how they compare
Physiotherapists and chiropractors are both university-trained and registered with AHPRA. Both assess hips. They tend to differ in where they start and what tools they reach for first.
| Chiropractor | Physiotherapist | |
|---|---|---|
| Usual starting point | The spine, pelvis and hip as one connected system | The hip joint, its muscles and tendons, and how you move |
| Common hands-on care | Adjustments to the low back, pelvis and hip, mobilisation | Mobilisation, soft tissue work |
| Exercise | Home exercises and rehab advice | Often the main focus, sometimes with supervised strength work |
| Nervous system lens | How the brain senses and controls the low back and pelvis, which feed the hip muscles | Retraining hip muscle control and strength through exercise |
| Medicare care plan | Eligible | Eligible |
For hip joint wear and tendon problems, guidelines put exercise and strengthening front and centre, which is a strength of physiotherapy and something chiropractors build in as well. Where hip pain is tied up with low back or pelvic stiffness, hands-on spinal care is one option many people find helpful.
Which one suits your hip pain?
When people often choose a physio
- The pain sits mainly in the groin or outside of the hip, with little or no back pain.
- You're recovering from a sports injury or building strength after time off.
- You want a closely supervised, exercise-led program.
When people often choose a chiropractor
- Your hip pain comes with low back stiffness, buttock pain or pain into the leg.
- One side of your pelvis feels "stuck", or you've noticed your posture has shifted.
- You'd like hands-on care for the spine and pelvis, with exercises to support it.
Plenty of people use both professions at different times. You're free to choose the practitioner who suits you, and there's no wrong door as long as you get a clear assessment and a plan that makes sense to you.
Why chiropractors look at the spine for hip pain: the nervous system link
Your hip muscles are steered by your nervous system, and the spine sits in the middle of that conversation. The nerves that supply the hip muscles leave the spine in the low back and pelvis, and the deep muscles around each spinal segment send a constant stream of position information to the brain. That's why chiropractors think of the spine as a sensory organ, not just a stack of bones.
When a low back or pelvic segment isn't moving or being controlled well, a pattern chiropractors call a vertebral subluxation, the brain's picture of that region can become less accurate, and the way it switches on the surrounding muscles can change.1 Research has explored this in the legs. After spinal adjustments, studies have recorded a stronger signal from the brain to lower-limb muscles,2 and a 12-week trial in adults over 65 found better ankle position sense and faster stepping reactions than in a control group.3
That's the chiropractic difference: we look at the spine that drives your hip muscles, not just the hip. Strength work around the hip matters too, so we combine both. More in chiropractic and your nervous system.
What about the "leg pull" hip adjustment?
You may have seen videos of a chiropractor gently pulling on someone's leg. In practice, this is usually a traction-style technique applied along the leg to move the hip joint or check how the pelvis responds. It's not about stretching the leg longer. Whether it's appropriate depends entirely on what's going on in your hip and back. We explain it in more detail in what happens when a chiropractor pulls your leg.
Helpful things to try at home
Whoever you see, strength around the hip tends to matter. These are simple, low-equipment exercises many people use as part of a broader plan:
- Glute bridges for the muscles at the back of the hip
- Glute clams for the muscles on the outside of the hip
- Regular walking at a pace that doesn't flare things up
If an exercise makes your pain sharply worse, stop it and ask your practitioner how to adjust it.
How we approach hip pain at MPCC
We check the hip, pelvis and low back together, so we don't miss where your pain is coming from.
- New patient appointment, 30 to 40 minutes. Your story, posture pictures, and a thorough chiropractic, orthopaedic and neurological check of your spine, joints and nerves. If your history and check point to them, we'll refer you for X-rays, which are bulk billed at the imaging clinic we refer to.
- Report of findings appointment. What we found, in plain English, and what we'd do. If we can help, you'll know what care looks like. If we can't, we'll tell you straight.
- Care, if it suits you. Depending on what we find, that may include adjustments to the low back, pelvis and hip, and home exercises.
Whether you're adjusted on the first visit is up to the clinical judgement of your chiropractor. See our hip pain page for more. No referral is needed to book.
References (3)
- Haavik H, et al. (2021). Contemporary model of vertebral column joint dysfunction. Eur J Appl Physiol. doi:10.1007/s00421-021-04727-z
- Haavik H, et al. (2016). Cortical drive to upper and lower limb muscles after spinal manipulation. Brain Sci. doi:10.3390/brainsci7010002
- Holt KR, et al. (2016). Sensorimotor function and falls risk in older people after chiropractic care. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. doi:10.1016/j.jmpt.2016.02.003