Four Hip Self-Tests You Can Do at Home This Afternoon

A woman came in last winter with a folder of eleven pages. Imaging report, orthopedist's notes, a printout from an urgent care visit in 2023. All of it described what her hip looked like. None of it described what her hip did.

That second thing is what I actually need.

So here are four checks you can run yourself today. You need a kitchen chair, a bed, a timer, and about ten minutes. None of these will diagnose anything. All four will tell you something real about the leg you are standing on.

Write the numbers down. A number you can compare in eight weeks beats a feeling you half remember.

Test one: seated hip rotation

Sit on a firm chair, feet flat, knees bent to about ninety degrees, thighs parallel. Keep your knee pointing straight ahead and swing that same foot outward, away from the midline of your body, without letting your knee drift or your hip lift off the seat. Your thigh bone is rotating inward inside the socket. That is internal rotation.

Do the same on the other side. Compare.

What you are looking for is a difference between sides. If one swings noticeably less far, or if the movement hits a hard stop or a pinch in the groin, that side is stiff into internal rotation. Restricted internal rotation is one of the more consistent findings in hips that are genuinely arthritic, and clinicians often use somewhere around 25 degrees as a rough threshold. The research behind that number comes from small studies that were never properly validated, so hold it loosely.

Why I check this one first: rotation is the plane almost nobody trains and everybody uses. If the hip will not rotate, something else is rotating extra to cover it, and that something is usually your low back.

What it does not prove: that you have arthritis. A tight capsule, an old labral issue, and a hip that has simply been guarded for two years all look the same from a kitchen chair.

Test two: hip extension at the edge of the bed

This one is the modified Thomas test and it surprises people most.

Sit on the very edge of a firm bed, close enough that when you lie back your tailbone is right at the corner. Pull both knees to your chest. Now lie back flat, keep one knee hugged tightly in, and let the other leg lower toward the bed.

Look at where it lands.

If that thigh comes down and rests flat, you have reasonable hip extension. If it hangs in the air, the front of that hip is tight. If the knee also straightens out on its own as it lowers, the quad is part of the story. If the whole leg drifts out to the side, that is a different structure again.

Now the other side. Almost nobody is symmetrical.

Why it matters: hip extension is what you need to push off when you walk. If you cannot get the leg behind you, you take a shorter step on that side, and the pelvis and low back start compensating for the rest of your life. You will feel that as a back problem long before you call it a hip problem.

What it does not prove: how much of that restriction is joint versus muscle versus protective guarding. It just tells you the range is not there.

Test three: single-leg stance, timed

Stand near a counter with something to grab, but do not hold on. Lift one foot a few inches off the floor. Start the timer. Stop it when you put the foot down, grab the counter, or start hopping around.

Do both sides. Eyes open.

A 2022 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine followed 1,702 people aged 51 to 75 and asked a version of this question. Over a median of about seven years, the people who could not hold a ten-second one-legged stance had roughly double the risk of dying from any cause compared with those who could, even after accounting for age, weight, and existing health conditions.

That does not mean balance kills you. Balance is a proxy. It reflects strength, joint control, nerve function, and vestibular health at once, which is why it is so informative and why you should not panic about a single bad attempt.

For a hip specifically, watch what your pelvis does. If the hip on the raised-leg side drops toward the floor, that is the gluteus medius on your standing leg failing to hold you level. That is a strength problem, and strength problems are fixable at any age.

What it does not prove: that your hip is the cause. Ankle stiffness, an old back issue, and inner ear problems all shorten this number. Which is why I check the ankle on the worse side before I touch the hip.

Test four: thirty-second chair stand

Firm chair against a wall. Arms crossed over your chest. Start seated. Stand up all the way and sit back down as many times as you can in thirty seconds, no hands.

Count them.

The CDC uses this test in its fall prevention program and publishes below-average cutoffs by age and sex. For men 65 to 69 the below-average mark is fewer than 12, and for women in the same range it is fewer than 11. For men 70 to 74 it is fewer than 12, and for women fewer than 10.

Landing under those numbers does not mean you are going to fall. It means you are in the range where clinicians start paying attention.

What it does not prove: anything about which leg. Most people quietly push off harder with the good side, and the count looks fine while the hip you are worried about barely participates. Have someone watch you from the front. If your knee dives inward or your trunk swings toward one side to get you out of the chair, that is the tell.

What to do with your four numbers

Look for asymmetry first. A 20-second difference between sides in single-leg stance means more than a mediocre score that is the same on both sides.

Then repeat the whole thing in eight weeks after real strength work. The chair stand count and the balance time both move quickly, usually within a month.

And do not self-manage past these lines:

• Groin or hip pain that wakes you every night regardless of how you lie.
• A hip that has gotten sharply worse over a few weeks with no clear reason.
• Numbness, pins and needles down the leg, or any change in bowel or bladder control. That is a same-week phone call to a physician, not a stretching problem.
• Hip or groin pain after a fall, especially if you have been told you have thin bones. Get imaging before you test anything.

In Michigan you can see a physical therapist without a referral, so if the tests told you something you did not like, you are allowed to just come in. You are also allowed to sit with the numbers and think about it.

The bottom line

None of these four tests will tell you why your hip hurts. Together they will tell you what it can do, which side is losing, and whether the problem is range, strength, or control.

That is more than most people learn in a fifteen-minute appointment.

And here is what I would say in the room. Anyone willing to run four tests on themselves and then look at the bad number instead of the good one is doing the hardest part already. Most people never measure anything.

Run them today. Write the numbers on the inside of a cabinet door. Then decide, on your own timeline, what to do about the worst one.

Ran the tests and did not like what you found? Bring the numbers in. The first visit here is a free 20-minute movement assessment, in clinic, where we look at the whole chain instead of just the sore spot. No charge, no insurance, and nobody will push you to schedule a thing. Call the West Front St office at (231) 944-6541.

There is a free copy of my hip replacement recovery book at thesuperiortherapy.com as well.