A client asked me yesterday about the clunking/clicking coming from deep inside her hip. So what is making that sound? In her case, it was her tight Iliopsoas (Psoas) muscle snapping over the boney aspect of the front of her pelvis.
The psoas is a deep muscle that starts in your lumbar spine and attaches to your femur. It’s main action is hip flexion, and it also flexes the trunk.
People often think this noise is from their hip joint, and they are frightened. Unless you have been in a serious accident, this isn’t your hip joint “going out.” Hip joints are very stable and it would take a lot of force to dislocate it. It is normal for the psoas muscle to move over the front of the pelvis bone, but when it is too tight it will snap like a bowstring causing that deep clunking sound.
Psoas snapping syndrome can be easily solved by releasing the muscle using stretching, and manual release techniques.