Lack of warm-up has caused hip "injury" - where do I go from here?

[Ryan Arnold]

Hey Opf,

Sorry if I mischaracterized your other post. I got it now. It seems like a frustrating situation. I think your warmup weights are fine. Your jumps are evenly spaced. I had a guy who contacted me for coaching who had similar hip pain issues that didn't subside. I sent him to Dr. John Petrizzo(SSC/Physical Therapist) and I believe he was able to help. This was in New York though. I know you are in Denmark. I would re-post this in Rip's Forum or the Coaches forum as some of the PT's on there will likely be more helpful

[Pawn]

Yeah, I got to the same conclusion last week and switched to high bar. Now if I could just do *that* without pain, but even the high bar is aggravating it. Guess I'll try out some front squats next (even though I hate them)

I've got some strongman training with makeshift gear roots (so it may be 'bad' advice) but I really like Zercher Squats. Nothing like covering one discomfort with another slightly more urgent discomfort (also may be 'bad' advice).

[Charlie Davies]

And which way would that be? It seems like no matter what I do - high bar, low bar, wide stance, narrow stance - no matter what cues I use, I get hip pain. Weird part is that I had one training where all of a sudden I had no hip pain at all for three worksets. But then it was back next time.

Sorry, I'm not a coach.

For me, it was knee slide and dive-bombing (too fast/sloppy descent) that caused my problem, and when I stopped doing that, my hips stopped getting worse.

They didn't stop hurting though -- that took months. I squatted carefully in the meantime. Also, deadlifting never bothered my hips. Maybe try leg presses if your gym has that.

Find what you can do, and do that while it heals. Just resting is not as good.

[Tiburon]

What area of your hip is the problem? One side only, or both? Do you only feel it when you squat heavy, and in what part of the squat do you feel it?

Did he answer these?

[AdamZiegler]

Not that I could tell.

[opf]

Did he answer these?

Hi mate, feel free to address me directly. I promise I won't bite.

I didn't answer that because I've talked to several coaches on this board about my hip pain, and no one seemed to be able to diagnose it (which I guess isn't that weird, being that we're on a message board and they aren't phyiscal therapists). So the point of this post wasn't "what's causing my pain?" more like "okay, I now accept that I have an actual injury that no one seems to know how to fix - should I keep training or not?"

Anyway, I can see why it can still be relevant, so here it comes

The pain is around where the upper left thigh connects to the hip. It's both on the inner and outer part of the thigh/hip - sort of like circling all the way around the thigh, actually. When it get's really bad - that is when I squat a lot of weight, it radiates to the rest of the thigh and all the way down to the knee and sometimes even past. It's never an intense, unbearable pain, although it is painful. More like really annoying and something that definitely shouldn't be there. On days where I'm not training (squatting) I don't feel it unless I try to aggravate/provoke it. For example if I lift my left knee up high and pull it to the side or if I kind of twist my leg around, I feel it - especially in the inner thigh.

If you have any suggestions about what to do, I'd love to hear them

[opf]

And to the question about what part of the squat: Going into the hole - goes away when I come out of the hole. But like I said, after squatting heavy, the aftermath is there all the time until a couple hours after training.

It's also interesting that when I'm out of the gym and when I'm just starting to squat, the pain is very concentrated in one area and is kind of a pinching pain. But when I then start to squat heavy, the pinching is replaced by an overall kind of "numb" pain in the entire left hip/thigh. So as I said - it's never unbearably painful, but it does feel like my hip is getting pissed off with me and is telling me to lay off

[Charlie Davies]

opf, your description doesn't exactly match the hip-flexor tendon pain that I had, and that the SSBBT book talks about as often caused by knee slide to be fixed with the TUBOW (terribly useful block of wood). But it's similar.

Can you reproduce the pain by just doing a leg raise to the front, or with any other loading of the hip flexors even with straight hips?
Does it hurt when getting in and out of an automobile?
The hip-flexor tendon pain I had was not bothered by deadlifts at all.

Maybe you have something else, like some tissue being pinched at the bottom of the squat. Maybe you should see an expert in person.

[Tiburon]

"okay, I now accept that I have an actual injury that no one seems to know how to fix - should I keep training or not?"

Anyway, I can see why it can still be relevant, so here it comes

The pain is around where the upper left thigh connects to the hip. It's both on the inner and outer part of the thigh/hip - sort of like circling all the way around the thigh, actually. When it get's really bad - that is when I squat a lot of weight, it radiates to the rest of the thigh and all the way down to the knee and sometimes even past. It's never an intense, unbearable pain, although it is painful. More like really annoying and something that definitely shouldn't be there. On days where I'm not training (squatting) I don't feel it unless I try to aggravate/provoke it. For example if I lift my left knee up high and pull it to the side or if I kind of twist my leg around, I feel it - especially in the inner thigh.

If you have any suggestions about what to do, I'd love to hear them

Argh that is indeed frustrating. Do you sit most of the day? Does that provoke it?

I might get kicked off the board but...

It wouldn't hurt to see a good PT that you trust, who understands the squat (if you can find one LOL).

It might be worth playing with stretches - try these: https://www.russianmachineneverbreak...or-stretch.jpg

And a foam roller might help - https://cdn.officer.com/files/base/c...c44b82544c.jpg

And you might want to try dry needling. I was very skeptical about it, but it helped when I had similar pain.

Finally, for the outside of the hip, see if Greater Trochanteric Bursitis matches your symptoms.

Good luck!!

[Ryan Arnold]

If you haven't yet tried taking a break from squats it might be time to attempt that. Maybe see what two weeks off does? If you can still Press, Bench, Chin, and Deadlift its not the end of the world. Next step would be to see a good PT though if that doesn't work. NSAIDS could also provide some short term relief