Client Cannot Hit Depth Due to Hip Pain

[Isaac Medina]

Hi Rip,

There's a guy at my gym who cannot hit depth in his squats due to pain in his hips. I've tried playing with his stance width, toe angle, and it always appears that there's a pinching sensation in his hips when he approaches the below parallel position in his squat. It bothers him when he even does BW squats. I tried having him do box squats to below parallel and it bothers his hips there too. As soon as he hits proper depth it hurts, and if he goes ATG the pain goes away. It's only in the proper depth position. Have you experienced this in your tenure coaching people, and what can I do to help him out?

Attached are photos of his stance, him BW squatting in the air and to a box, and where the hips hurt. The pain is in the joint.

As a side note, the hip pain seems to hurt less when he's not shoving his knees out with his elbows, hence the photo where his knees are tracking inside his toes

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[Mark Rippetoe]

It might help to take the kitchen appliances out of his pockets, so that he can move correctly.

[Isaac Medina]

I feel dumb for overlooking that. I've worked with him before, at a squat clinic I hosted at my gym, and he had the same issue then, too. We played around with stance width, and it seemed to fix the problem (the pain was still there, just not as severe), but it came back and nothing is working. And I made sure to have him empty his pockets during that clinic.

[JJ23]

I had awful hip pain and in response I kept shoving my knees out further and further, alas creating more hip pain.
Turns out that the real issue was that after initially breaking at the hips, I wasn't shoving my ass back enough. I started thinking "ass back" instead of "knees out". After correcting, my knees stay behind my toes, my back is much more horizontal, and my hips stopped pinching. Also make sure he isn't wearing tight boxer briefs. Just my two cents.

[Buddy Rich]

Please somebody post the SS video of Rip frisking a guy before he lifts because he had so much shit in his pockets. I remember seeing this a few years ago and can’t find it.

[Isaac Medina]

I had awful hip pain and in response I kept shoving my knees out further and further, alas creating more hip pain.
Turns out that the real issue was that after initially breaking at the hips, I wasn't shoving my ass back enough. I started thinking "ass back" instead of "knees out". After correcting, my knees stay behind my toes, my back is much more horizontal, and my hips stopped pinching. Also make sure he isn't wearing tight boxer briefs. Just my two cents.

I'll try that out. Ass back. In the instance that this doesn't work, what else could I try?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Video?

[Buddy Rich]

Go the the 2:52 mark. Rip with the shakedown:

[Satch12879]

Video?

Show us a shot from the front, too.

[Isaac Medina]

Next time I see him I'll get some footage.