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Thread: Pain in upper thigh squatting

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Sydney Australia
    Posts
    2

    Default Pain in upper thigh squatting

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    G'day fellas and ladies,
    I'll start off by saying thanks for all your contributions to strength training.
    I'm a long time listener, first time caller who bought the book a million years ago and recently purchased the app.
    To cut a long story short I was about 6 weeks into NLP after about a 6 year lay off, getting some serious work in, and starting getting real tight nagging pain in my upper thigh/quad from squatting. Basically when your hands hang by your sides, everything you can grab by your palms was flaring up. Initially just my right side but now both.

    So I did what any sane man addicted to the gainz would do, I fucken cowboyed up, threw caution to the wind two days later and went for another all time PR of 125kg for 3 sets of Fahve. Hurt like a mother fucker, however I'm not one for falling prey to being a pussy so I decided I'd rather get stapled than rack early. And so I got stapled, on rep 3. Getting pinned didn't really do anything other than make me look silly but it seemed as though I'd really reached my limit on the day, and the pain was present throughout.

    So that brings me to now. I'm 4 weeks later and the pain isn't constant but it's positional and loading it is a problem. I can air squat and squat with a bar, but as soon as I get into the 70/80 KG range I got problems.

    I can post a form check if that's the done thing, however just wanna know if this sounds familiar to anyone and what to do about it.
    I got a 'sports massage' and all that did was hurt.
    Been to a physio and the guy, and I'm not kidding, shoved a needle in my ass and electrocuted me. Not sold.

    If I foam roll, which I know you guys will all say is bullshit anyway and I'm sure your right, I get some minor relief but nothing miraculous.

    I just wanna squat, you can take literally everything else away from me other than my family, my house and my job, but just let me damn squat to depth and work on getting it stronger and I'm a made man.

    30years old, 87KG, who sleeps and eats food.

    Cheers,
    Travis

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Long Island, NY
    Posts
    1,208

    Default

    Your post was quite a fun read Travis. The fact that you can squat the bar just fine but 70 hurts tells me this is most likely a rehab entry point issue. You may have to make your entry point back into the squat lower than you want. I would try starting your work sets at 40 and see if that pisses things off. If it doesn't just take 5-10 kilo jumps each session back up doing 3 sets of 5. Also the next time you are back in the area where things are getting really hard, change to an intermediate program. If your work sets start to consistently feel "life-altering" you need to make a change.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2020
    Posts
    46

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Travis Chambers View Post
    G'day fellas and ladies,
    I'll start off by saying thanks for all your contributions to strength training.
    I'm a long time listener, first time caller who bought the book a million years ago and recently purchased the app.
    To cut a long story short I was about 6 weeks into NLP after about a 6 year lay off, getting some serious work in, and starting getting real tight nagging pain in my upper thigh/quad from squatting. Basically when your hands hang by your sides, everything you can grab by your palms was flaring up. Initially just my right side but now both.

    So I did what any sane man addicted to the gainz would do, I fucken cowboyed up, threw caution to the wind two days later and went for another all time PR of 125kg for 3 sets of Fahve. Hurt like a mother fucker, however I'm not one for falling prey to being a pussy so I decided I'd rather get stapled than rack early. And so I got stapled, on rep 3. Getting pinned didn't really do anything other than make me look silly but it seemed as though I'd really reached my limit on the day, and the pain was present throughout.

    So that brings me to now. I'm 4 weeks later and the pain isn't constant but it's positional and loading it is a problem. I can air squat and squat with a bar, but as soon as I get into the 70/80 KG range I got problems.

    I can post a form check if that's the done thing, however just wanna know if this sounds familiar to anyone and what to do about it.
    I got a 'sports massage' and all that did was hurt.
    Been to a physio and the guy, and I'm not kidding, shoved a needle in my ass and electrocuted me. Not sold.

    If I foam roll, which I know you guys will all say is bullshit anyway and I'm sure your right, I get some minor relief but nothing miraculous.

    I just wanna squat, you can take literally everything else away from me other than my family, my house and my job, but just let me damn squat to depth and work on getting it stronger and I'm a made man.

    30years old, 87KG, who sleeps and eats food.

    Cheers,
    Travis
    Amazing write-up, can totally relate to the "toxic masculinity". I'm just curious, does the 'sports massage' include a happy ending?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Sydney Australia
    Posts
    2

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Nick D'Agostino View Post
    Your post was quite a fun read Travis. The fact that you can squat the bar just fine but 70 hurts tells me this is most likely a rehab entry point issue. You may have to make your entry point back into the squat lower than you want. I would try starting your work sets at 40 and see if that pisses things off. If it doesn't just take 5-10 kilo jumps each session back up doing 3 sets of 5. Also the next time you are back in the area where things are getting really hard, change to an intermediate program. If your work sets start to consistently feel "life-altering" you need to make a change.
    Gday Nick
    Thanks for your response. I’m relieved to know that despite the weight I was lifting my effort may have warranted intermediate programming. It’s a fucken shame I couldn’t have reached that conclusion on my own 5 weeks ago before I wrekt myself but that’s life.
    I took your advice, warmed up with the bar as usual then did 3sets of 5reps with 40kg. Honestly it didn’t feel great pain wise but wasn’t crippling so I’ll be smart about it and if tolerable progress incrementally as suggested.

    Just for some confirmation bias for the rest of the board I wandered over to the leg press after squats. I’ve not used one for years and in my head thought that maybe it could be a pain free alternative... unsurprisingly to anyone in here I discovered it hurt bad with just the Empty machine so I did my 1rep and learnt my lesson.

    Cheers again for your help
    Trav

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Long Island, NY
    Posts
    1,208

    Default

    Yeah, the leg press is rarely helpful in these situations. Good luck!

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