Is Walking Good for Gluteal Tendinopathy?

Yes, in the case of gluteal tendinopathy, walking as much as possible is essential. It’s even necessary if you want to get the best out of it.

However, certain conditions must be met to ensure that the problem is not aggravated.

In this article, I give you 5 of my best tips for making walking a valuable ally in managing your problem.

Happy reading! 🙂

(Any questions, comments or experiences to share? Feel free to use the comments section at the end of the article! 🙏)

♻️ Last update: 1 January 2024. Written by Nelly Darbois, physical therapist and scientific writer.
👨‍⚖️ Declaration of financial interests: no affiliate links. My complete declaration of financial interests is available in the legal notice section.

A few basic tips on gluteal tendinopathy

Gluteal tendinopathy is also known as :

• gluteus medius tendinopathy;
• or greater trochanter pain syndrome (pronounced “tro-kan-terre”; the greater trochanter is a bony part of the femur at hip level).

The tendons involved in gluteal tendinopathy are those of the gluteus medius and minimus muscles.

When you have this tendonitis, the pain is located on the side of the hip.

That said, how and why do you get this damn tendonitis?

How do you get gluteal tendinopathy?

The answer can be summed up in three words: genetics, aging and overstress.

➡️ Genetics: gluteal tendinopathy is at least twice as common in women, almost certainly due to differences in constitution.

Differences in constitution may relate to :

• the quality of tendons and their ability to self-regenerate in the event of trauma or micro-trauma;
• how anatomical parts (bones, muscles, tendons, etc.) are organized in relation to each other.

With regard to this last point, let’s imagine Charline and Mélanie. Let’s imagine that the same tendon attaches to the bone in Charline a little lower than in Mélanie.

This small difference can create a significant difference in the forces applied to the tendon, for the same activity.

➡️ Aging: this tendinitis is most common in people over 40 ( as is the case for many other tendinitises).

As we age, a tendon’s ability to heal itself after injury or micro-injury diminishes inexorably (believe me, I’m the first to regret that! 😕 ).

➡️ Overstrain: as with all tendinitis, the tendons involved are often overstrained.

In the case of gluteal tendinopathy, the typical over-stressing activity is running.

However, tendonitis is also found in sedentary people. In fact, depending on age and constitution, even little activity can be a source of tendonitis.

How do I walk with gluteal tendinopathy?

How do you go about walking with gluteal tendinopathy? Especially when it hurts even when you’re walking?

This question can be approached from two different angles:

1. Is there a particular walking technique? For example, a way of positioning the feet when walking?
2. Are there any rules or principles for managing the amount of effort required when walking? For example, can you walk every day?

I’ll deal with each of these angles in turn.

Is one walking technique better than another?

When you have gluteal tendinopathy, is there a way to walk, a particular technique that allows :

• to improve the situation?
• Or, failing that, to prevent the problem from getting worse?

There is no information on this subject in the scientific literature.

What’s more, I’ve never heard of it myself, either during my training or my professional practice.

Practical conclusion: don’t worry too much about your walking technique!

Ultimately, I’d say that the only technical factor that’s easily modifiable and possibly worth modifying is the length of your steps. I’ll come back to this a little further down.

Walking with gluteal tendinopathy: 5 principles to follow

1️⃣ Assess your basic walking ability.

How far or how long can you walk without pain on even, flat ground?

⚠️ “Pain-free” does not mean free of discomfort. A certain amount of discomfort is acceptable, as long as everything is back to normal within 24 hours.

To find out your basic walking ability, start slowly and increase the distance gradually, from one day to the next. Example:

1. On Monday lunchtime, you can walk 300 m without any problems;
2. On Tuesday lunchtime, you notice that you’ve had no more pain than usual since Monday lunchtime. You then decide to try to run 400 m.
3. you continue in this way until you reach the basic walking capacity of 1 km.

This initial assessment gives you an idea of how much your tendons can take without flinching.

The use of a pedometer or a dedicated application can be a useful tool for making this assessment.

2️⃣ Be aware thatthere’s walking and there’s walking !

For the same distance covered, several factors can vary the difficulty of walking, and ultimately the load on your tendons:

• your walking speed;
• the length of your steps: longer steps put a greater load on your tendons;
• the number of breaks during a single walk ;
• the ground: for example, walking on a sandy beach is harder on your tendons than walking on a tarmac road;
• the slope ;
• the amount of time you spent standing before going for a walk. Standing creates additional preliminary fatigue on the tendons.

Be aware of all these factors. For the same walking distance, modifying one of these parameters can significantly affect the work done by your tendons.

Note: using walking sticks may be an option to consider to reduce tendon stress(see on Amazon).

3️⃣ Estimate the daily workload inflicted on your tendons.

On a typical day, your tendons aren’t just stressed by walking. The simple act of standing activates and fatigues your tendons.

Consequence: the daily workload on your tendons = standing time + walking time (+ possibly exercises from your physiotherapist – see below).

So, when you come to estimate your basic walking ability (see point 1), pay close attention to the time you spend standing outside your walking outing.

Did you increase your walking distance too quickly? Possibly. The problem in this example is thatwe don’t know how long you stood on Tuesday.

Perhaps you stood for 3 hours, in which case you would have increased your total load with both walking and standing.

That’s why it’s important both to make sure your tendons are fully loaded, and to increase this load gradually.

4️⃣ Alternate betweenhigh andlowtotal workload days .

Let’s imagine that your basic walking ability to date is 1 km, and that you spend an average of 2 hours a day on your feet (in addition to walking).

Let’s call a day with a high total workload a day on which, at the very least, you actually walk 1 km in addition to standing for 2 hours.

From there, I recommend alternating a high workload day with a low workload day.

What might a low-load day look like?

• It may simply be a day when you walk less.
• Or a day during which you replace walking with another general physical activity that takes some or all of the strain off your tendons.

With regard to the latter, I’m thinking of cycling, swimming and rowing.

5️⃣ Considerprofessional assistance

When you have gluteal tendinopathy, managing a progressive fitness program can be difficult. A physiotherapist can be a great help.

What’s more, a physiotherapist can also suggest a number of exercises.

However, to date, it is not certain that exercises are more effective in the medium and long term than “simple” supervision accompanied by educational modules.

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