I think you need an MRI and quit listening to your buddies.
I guess it was bound to happen at some point.
Last Friday I was deadlifting and squatting, and I noticed my left knee giving me seemingly random spikes of pain later that night. I didn't think too much of it until today, when I was supposed to have my proper squat and bench session.
I started warming up without the bar (I always hang around in the bottom position for a bit before starting with the bar) and suddenly it felt like someone was hammering a nail into my knee. The best I can describe the location of the pain is that it's on the outside, under the kneecap, but it spreads around quite a lot. I can't even fully flex my knee without pain right now.
My deadlift form changed very recently. Nothing too colossal - I just started keeping my toes perfectly forward, because if I use even a bit of external rotation, my grip widens to something that would be more appropriate for benching. In this new position however, it feels like my left leg is trying to force the toes of my left foot outwards. I surmised that whatever went wrong with my knee happened during those deadlifts.
So I started screwing about with my left leg. A buddy of mine helped me test out how my femoral rotation was. Right leg rotated outwards and inwards just fine. Left leg rotated outwards no problem at all. Inwards though... I shit you not, one inch of internal rotation and it feels like I've been stabbed in the groin/hip flexor. So something is clearly fucked up there. This would explain why even keeping my left foot pointed forwards feels fucked up and causes pain.
For the first time, I actually realized that my left leg has always been a bit all over the place. When I walk, my left femur is WAY more externally rotated than my right one. Also, for reasons I can't work out, contracting my left glute while standing causes pain in my left hip flexor.
In any case, he suggested some band stretches, but I'm not entirely convinced this is a mobility issue. The femurs lack of rotation isn't because something isn't stretching, it's because trying to rotate it feels like something is getting caught in between the bones down there, and BAD. It hurts like an absolute motherfucker.
So, uh, sorry for the long post. What do you guys think I should do? Is there anything to be done in the first place? I guess I could deadlift sumo - that would at least rid me of the grip problem and make it so that I don't have to keep my left foot straight, but that kind of just seems like avoiding the problem.
I'd really like to fix this if it is possible at all, not only for the sake of training, but because I don't think its all that good for my leg-parts to go around walking like frankensteins monster.
I think you need an MRI and quit listening to your buddies.
Sounds to me like you have a hip impingement. This can occur when you have a bit too much cartilage on the femur in the hip joint and down the head of the femur. Could be bony as well. Coach Ward is right, get an MRI. If it is an impingement, it could be fixed with a little bit of surgery and could be well right after.
Please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors, I am not a native speaker.