Hip clunk

Recently I've been getting some hip clunk when paddling on the right hand side and driving with the leg and rotating, a few weeks ago it seemed to go away after warming up but now it seems to stay for the length of the paddle. It causes no pain and its hard to tell if the clunk is at the top of the leg joint as it feels like its more in the lower spine area, I'm worried I might be wearing something out and it could cause problems down the track. I stretch my pelvic area every night but wonder if there is something else to do, perhaps some exercise to tighten some muscles or something?

What do you mean by the hip?

Is it on the outside of the leg? Or more over the buttock? Or in the groin? Or is it hard to tell? The last option is a perfectly permissible answer.

Not the outside of the leg, not in the groin, not even over the buttock really although that's the closest of the three, almost just to the right side of the lower spine, I'm gonna try and think about it some more on tomorrows paddle. Yes it is a bit hard to tell as it doesn't hurt, can just kind of feel in in the pelvic region. Almost between the tailbone and the top ball joint of the femur.

Sacro-iliac joint ? it can clunk ... but its usually pregnant woman that have issues with it

LOL I'll google it.

Could be onto something there. Almost a year ago my paddle coach noticed that my boat was leaning to one side and my head was leaning to the side to compensate. Sent me off to an osteopath who saw straight away one hip was higher than the other, treated, gave me some stretches, 6 weeks on my return I was 90% better, told me to continue doing what I was doing.
I did my own research and made myself a sacro wedgie which is designed to stretch the ligaments in the sacro region. I have been using it most nights while stretching and watching TV. Perhaps I've done too much and have loosened the ligaments too much. I'll try giving it a break to see if the clunk goes away. Shame because it feels good to stretch this region.

Thanks water2deep, will give it some time and report back in a few weeks.

Now I'm not so sure, sometimes today it felt like it was at the top of the leg in the ball joint, sometimes in the sacro region, its really hard to tell, thing is it did not do it the whole paddle today, more like about 25% of the time.

I take it when you mean the top of the leg in the ball joint you mean the groin, about where your front pants pocket is. Because that's where the ball joint lives.

I would say it would be at the very top of the pocket but deeper in, if I stand it would be where I would hook my thumbs into my pocket, towards the groin, just below my belt, but deeper in, right in the middle between front and rear. So perhaps just to the side of the groin as I know it.

It will be some sort of soft tissue "flicking". Just like your ilio tibial band catching on your femoral condyle. If it doesn't hurt don't worry.

When I over stretched as a runner, I would get clunky hips.
Many female runners seem to always have them, certainly most I have coached.

Agree, if it don't hurt, don't worry about it.

My guess would be a tendon catching somewhere. Does with me and doesn't hurt, but just feels awkward. If you cant put an exact finger on it its probably the same. Its deep in the hip/lower back/groin area somewhere.

Eventually got a lower back injury during a paddle. Could not move or rotate, bend forward (stinging sensation left of lower back). One physio immediately said its a herniated disc. His treatment didnt help much and I went to a chiro for a follow up - who diagnosed the root cause as sacroilliac joint problem. Over a loooong time it caused stiffness in my illia psoas, hips, groin, hamms, glutes the works (and the odd hip clunk noise). When we paddle we practically sit and rotate on this IS joint. Was the hip clunk and IS joint immobility connected?

Sure there are some med-xperts that can talk more about this little sucker?

The most common hip click is the hip extensor band catching on the outside of your pelvis but this is I think more to the side of where you describe. A feeling over the groin might be the deep muscle iliopsoas catching over the front of the pelvis. The first of these can sometimes lead to inflammation in the associated bursa (cushioning sac), but the second normally doesn't do anything other than click sometimes.

A clunk can also come from something floating about inside the hip joint, which you would feel in the groin (front pants pocket area) but sometimes can be very hard to pin down exactly where you think it is. Usually you also get a very unstable and/or weak feeling in the hip at the same time, so I don't think you have that one.

I'm currently voting for option 2, as long as you have no other problems in the area.

If you have a sacroiliac joint problem you always have at least some discomfort when pressing on the joint. You have one either side of the midline, about 2 to 3 inches out, about where the top of your back pocket would be. As long as you're not wearing hipsters. In which case it would be on the belt line.