That said, the pain on my torn hip labrum peaked at about 20 weeks for my pregnancy (coinciding with the peak of the relaxin hormone in your body), then subsided for a while, and peaked again towards the last 2 months (but I think at that point most women are uncomfortable and experiencing some pain even without a torn hip labrum). I wrote all about my hip pain during my pregnancy in these two posts:

Torn hip labrum during pregnancy (my 1st & 2nd trimester)
Torn hip labrum after pregnancy

The first month 1.5 months after birth was painful. Typically my pain is about 2/10 (maybe 4/10 on a bad day). During pregnancy and afterwards, there was times when the pain was in the 7/10 or 8/10 range (those are the days when I iced, had ice cream, and sometimes Tylenol). Still manageable compared to when I first injured my hip. However, when I reminded myself that I was carrying our much longed for child, well, I would do it all over again. You just need to keep your eyes on the prize.

Now 5 months after the birth, my pain level is back to normal (1/10 or 2/10 some days). I don’t know whether my exercising up until I was 7 months pregnant contributed to my increase in pain. I suspected that it might since the relaxin hormone made my hip joint slightly more instable than before (that and the 42 pounds I gained…. it’s the ice cream). However, exercising made it possible for me to climb up the side of levees 6 months pregnant looking for a pipeline (I’m an engineer) and gave me a shockingly easy and quick birth for a first time pregnancy (less than 10 hours of labor and 15 minutes of pushing).

And pregnancy is magical. I have no food allergies before. Now I lost pineapples and strawberries. Good luck.

For Brooke, who is requesting opinion, and in general.

It’s been a year and a half since my first hip problems, (you can read above), and I am doing pretty well. I read that strenghtening the hip is demonstrated to relieve pressure inside it, especially for people with femoroacetabular impingement like mine (I have a mild case), and also read a fellow in my case who could run, if doing the lateral reclining abduction exercise by Asithi.

So I tried to do the same, and that exercise really works for me. I have been 30 kms/week with no problem, but be careful, every case is different.

I even do the exercise with little amplitude, because I don’t want to mess with my impingement, but with 2 kg. hanging on my foot, and feel that I’m working on my gluteus medius. Now I can rise 400 times in a session, (no need that from the beginning), and I can tell you that exercise REALLY RELIEVES PRESSURE from my hips.

Regards.

Yes, I also feel that squatting (just like biking) makes my hip ache more. It is hard to find a comparable exercise since squatting works so many muscle groups at the same time on your leg. But I find that my hip response very well to Barre and Pilates type of workouts. The problem though is that you end up doing 2-3 exercises (ie. leg lifts and dead lifts) in order to accomplish the same results as the squat (so you spend more time exercising). Have you tried modifying the exercise by doing a sumo squat instead? I know that my hips can respond better to the sumo squat because it works my weaker inner thigh muscles (though it does not target the same muscles as the squat). You might want to try different foot placement to see if you can modify the squat to accommodate your torn hip labrum.