Hello Rip,

I’ve been doing some research on the SS forums and I haven’t found a real answer to my problem. I’m not sure if someone has asked about this before, but I really hope you can tell me your opinion.

See, I began training, after reading your book in February of this year, along with a friend of mine, who is doing great with it, without any pain or any kind of problem.

I started with 95 pounds and increased ever since, the back pain I had was gone, I felt better, everything was great until I rosed the 295 pounds.

I’ve always had this groin pain, I feel it when I’m on vacation and I have to walk long distances, or when I’m riding a bike, running, etc. This pain is there since I was a teenager.

Anyways, it was also present when squatting, and I decided to ignore it, since I felt it only when I was warming up. This worked until i reached 295 pounds and I could felt the pain during my sets at the bottom of the squat, I tried different stances and it kind of helped with a wider stance for a time, but then I could felt the pain even there.

Anyway I stop training for around a month and when i went back to the gym I managed to squat 235 without pain, I was happy then, so I started doing squats 3 times a week to continue with the program, but the pain came back. I then started squatting once a week, and after each training I would take some pain killers and desinflammatory too, some ice in the hip groin and that’s it. Next week was ok too…but now the pain is no longer bearable.

I went to see a hip specialist, and I had some X-rays done where you could see that the top of the femur grew some extra bone that is somehow pinching the soft tissue within the acetabular…he said it’s called femoroacetabular impingement and it was discovered not so long ago. The only solution available for the moment is surgery.

I don’t want to have surgery, because I’m afraid it will make things worse. So my question to you is, is it possible squats are no longer for me? and if so, what would you recommend instead? what would be your advise? could I be a special snowflake? I have continued with the other exercises, my deadlifts are now 315 pounds.


Thanks a lot and I hope I can get an answer from you or your staff.
Daniel.