How to rehab crippling leg pain?

[lkjmn]

Nearly 2 months ago I competed in an amateur strongman competition at a buddy's farm. I ended up failing on my last try at the hex deadlift (500 lbs). Felt fine during and immediately after, just sore and exhausted.

Over the next week or so, it started to become more and more clear that I wasn't just sore, but had somehow injured myself. Deadlifting became unbearable, and I had to deload down to 225 from 295. My squat hovered around 240 (down from 255) but even then it was taxing. While I could do the lifts, and even do heavier, I could feel as I went up in weight that I was hurting something and like my leg was buckling-- and the next day or two I would barely even be able to walk without having sharp radiating pain in my right leg. A handful of times it was so bad that I couldn't sleep at night.

It seems to be the compressive 'load' or 'unload' of weight on my leg that triggers a sharp pain, rather than any dynamic motion. On squats, its when I step back and suddenly my leg has to bear all the load for a split second, or when I unrack and all the weight decompresses. For deadlifts, the pain starts on the very first part of the 'pull', and will spike again when I finish and stand up after my last rep. The pain is near the top of my right leg-- it's not very localized, but it feels like it's somewhere deep in my bottom glute, circling around to the side and groin. On bad days my leg will ache even while I walk as I step and unstep.

I've tried to play around with deloaded weights, but the pain has just been fluctuating on and off as I stop and start back up again, without getting better. My coach wants me to take a few sessions off, but I want to make sure I haven't done something like crack a bone, and figure out what some good motions to do to rehab it might be.

Thanks.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I think you need a hip MRI. Sounds like you might have tweaked something in there.