Running and hip health

I've recently started running after years of living a fairly sedentary lifestyle. I feel pain in my left hip sometimes now. I was wondering if anyone else who runs has some good stretches or exercises for their hips. Any warm ups, cool downs or general advice would be appreciated.

It's my left hip. It gets kind of stiff and sometimes a little painful and I will usually put my leg up on the stairs, making almost a 90 degree angle, which pops my hip. This gives me some immediate relief but I don't think it's really addressing the problem.

I'm not sure if this will help, but I used to do yoga a lot when I was younger and these are some stretches that I would do to stretch/open my hips.

youtube.com/watch?v=ctiWm36p-J0

Here are a few more hip stretches

yogajournal.com/practice/2753

But honestly, if your hip is hurting a lot and you need to keep popping it to relieve the pressure/pain, you might want to consider seeing a professional. Needing to pop your hip doesn't sound very normal, especially if your right hip doesn't do the same thing. Here are a few things that could be causing the pain, and how to fix it. I really hope that some of this helps!

active.com/running/Articles/5-Common-Hip-Injuries-You-Can-Fix

(Sorry, I can't post links yet but you can just copy/paste the links into your address bar and it should take you to the link locations)