[have video] Front Squat - hips hurt - help correct technique please

[TheRedReaper]

Sorry the video is really poor. Mine own camera is broken, so used friends mobile. Best I can do for now.

So I have a pain in the hips from doing front squat. It feels like it's right in the joint there, around the hip flexors. It happens at all weighted front squats, though obviously the heavier I go the worse it gets. It's really stopped me from training, and hurts when I walk after I train, so it's very important to fix.

I know I need weightlifting shoes (and a proper floor, too LOL). I'll get them. But I don't know if that's what actually causes the pain. I tried front squating in runners with a quite high heel and it hurt all the same - though maybe it was only hurting because I had ALREADY had the injury. I don't know.

The pain is not just regular muscle soreness in the hip flexors, either. I've been doing martial arts for years, so I know what the sweet pain of a good work out feels like. This is more like sharp shin splints in my hip joints rather than anything else.

The pain is not from back squats but I only feel them in front squats. I know this because I don't do back squats. The pain IS from what you see in the vid.

I've only learned to do front squats in the last few months. Though I started at a lower weight to practice technique. It was not until I started doing over 60 kilo regularly that it really started to become a problem.

I've been searching the net for answers, but thus far found nothing I'm certain is sound. Most the info I've found regards backsquats, which are quite different, so I don't know if the info is relative, despite people explaining the same sorts of pain.

Please tell me if you can figure what might actually be causing the pain and how to fix it. Thank you.

[Rachel Crass]

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[TheRedReaper]

Thanks Rachel. I'll focus on that. Specially hips. I know about shoes. I won't go bare foot again.

Doesn't anyone can tell me about the problem of the "knees sliding forward at the bottom of the squat" which causes hip pain and how to focus "keeping the knees out" to fix it? I just thought that was the problem, but have no idea what to focus on to fix it. Thanks.

I mean, this is what someone told me and I was expecting to get info on how to perform technique so it does not occur:

It may also be the classic hip flexor irritation at the ASIS that gets going when the knees move forward at the bottom of the squat (p 53-56 in 3rd edition of Starting Strength). This happens more commonly in squats than front squats due to the higher load and you may be causing the irritation with squats, especially if you've adopted a more knees ahead bottom position after starting to use the front squat with its very different bottom position.


Most people don't know where their hip joints are -- the hip joint is about directly under your nipple and deep, but your ASIS is a little bit lateral to this. Follow your tendons to localize the specific point of inflammation where the tendons attach against the pelvis.


Please address any further questions to the technique forum.

(It is not caused by back squats because I don't do them)