Glute Medius pain/weakness
I have a question about what I think is glute medius pain when deadlifting and squatting. I searched and there were quite a few old threads that mostly suggested foam rolling etc (which I am doing) but I am wondering if there is an effective way to load this muscle in an accessory fashion beyond just squats and deadlifts, because it seems like it’s more a case of muscle weakness than a tear or injury.
Briefly: I was deadlifting last Saturday and on my 3rd rep at 385 felt a pretty sharp, intense pain, on both sides but worse on the right, in the upper glute area. It’s just below the iliac crest, across the upper buttock, but doesn’t involve the muscles above that in the lower back. The pain hit in the last 4 inches or so before lockout. I wasn’t able to complete the set after that but did do a backoff at 315 where the pain was present but wasn’t worse. The muscle pain lingered for about a day and a half but it feels, again, like really exquisite DOMS, not a tear or other structural injury.
Yesterday (Tuesday) I was doing volume squats at 300. On set 4, the pain came back in more or less the same place. It was worst towards the top of the squat. I did manage to get my 5th set in, but unracking the bar and walking it out was very painful. The pain disappeared completely when I’d begin the descent, and came back (but less intensely) on the ascent. (I’ve never had pain unracking the bar before now).
Unsure if it’s related, over the past few weeks I was having a similar pain on my left side (although about 2 inches lower and more around the side of the hip) at the *bottom* of the squat which seemed to be related to weakness in the abductors—holding the knees out at the proper alignment was hard, painful, and I’d occasionally fail reps at the bottom because of it. I started doing a few sets of isometric exercises by holding one leg off the ground, bent, and pushing the pelvis into the wall. This helped with the pain, and it seems to have made a difference in my squats too, because I haven’t had any problems at the bottom of the squat for several sessions. Doing this same exercise seems to help alleviate the soreness I am having today.
So, to repeat the question, is there a way to load these muscles beyond the squat and DL beyond what I’m already doing? It doesn’t seem to affect my ability to squat, as long as I can get the bar unracked and actually start squatting. It may affect my DLs; I will find out Friday. I chose not to do any volume pulls last night because it just hurt too much.