Pain in crease of left hip around bottom of squat

[Adam Stevens]

Over the past few weeks I've been developing a painful pinching sensation in my left hip, on the inside in the crease where the thigh joins with the V of the groin. The intensity seems to be increasing despite my best efforts, so I figured it's time to post something here.

Here's a link to my form check (video from latest workout):
Squat form check post

Things I've tried without noticeable success:

• Foam rolling along the entire inner thigh (& quads & glutes for good measure)
  Applying heat to the area
  Applying ice to the area (taking care to be precise...)
  Adding extra warm-up sets with the empty bar
  Swinging my legs back and forth and side to side during warm-up like a fool

Another observation: If I'm standing, feet forward, and raise my left thigh to my chest, there is no pain in the crease. If I point my left toes out 30-45 degrees and raise my thigh to the side of my chest along that trajectory, there is pain.

Unweighted, I've tried stance adjustments (a few inches narrower/wider, toes a few degrees in/out). Toes out an additional ~10deg and feet an additional ~4" apart seems to reduce most of the pain, but that's wider than what's been recommended (both SS book + camp). Or should I not question it if it works?

Thanks for reading this far.

-Greg

[Nate9]

Just use a stance that does not produce any pain, that's the usual course of action for this kind of problems.

[Daniel Cavallari]

OP, does it hurt when you walk? Specifically, when the affected leg is the most stretched.

[Russ Holmes]

I've been watching this thread hoping to see some answers as I have a similar thing going on.
A month back on my last 2 reps of my last workset I felt a something in that area at the bottom of the squat. I moved everything around afterwards and was unable to reproduce the pain so decided I was ok to keep training, it didn't effect my deadlifts afterwards either.
So I went up 5 lbs next training session and everything seemed fine until my last workset. Only this time it really hurt, sharp, stabbing hot poker pain as I came out of the hole, that immediately went away.
I do tend to get a little forward on the last grinding reps.
My first thought was hernia, but no bulging. Then I thought abdominal strain, but no residual soreness. I am suspicious now that it was my hip flexor, I've had problems with tight hip flexors over the years.
It felt abdominal, close to the crease, but everything is kinda mashed together when in the hole and I believe I misinterpreted where the pain was coming from.
I backed off weight and have been doing starr protocol the last few weeks. 20 reps of squats at any weight really sucks!!
I'm almost back up to my previous weights so I may know more soon.

[Daniel Cavallari]

I've been watching this thread hoping to see some answers as I have a similar thing going on.
A month back on my last 2 reps of my last workset I felt a something in that area at the bottom of the squat. I moved everything around afterwards and was unable to reproduce the pain so decided I was ok to keep training, it didn't effect my deadlifts afterwards either.
So I went up 5 lbs next training session and everything seemed fine until my last workset. Only this time it really hurt, sharp, stabbing hot poker pain as I came out of the hole, that immediately went away.
I do tend to get a little forward on the last grinding reps.
My first thought was hernia, but no bulging. Then I thought abdominal strain, but no residual soreness. I am suspicious now that it was my hip flexor, I've had problems with tight hip flexors over the years.
It felt abdominal, close to the crease, but everything is kinda mashed together when in the hole and I believe I misinterpreted where the pain was coming from.
I backed off weight and have been doing starr protocol the last few weeks. 20 reps of squats at any weight really sucks!!
I'm almost back up to my previous weights so I may know more soon.

I've had this in the past. To this day, I have no idea what caused it. No amount of squat stance changing or form checking produced any relief. I think it was some form of tendinitis.
After several months of dealing with this, I fixed it with two changes:

- It hurt when I walked, when my leg was the most stretched. So, I changed my gait to something that did not hurt i.e. not projecting myself forward so much with each step (if that makes sense - if not, tell me and I'll clarify);
- I started eating more and better.

Since I changed both simultaneously, I do not know which one actually had an effect (I suspect the latter). I suggest you guys try both. Use this as a guideline for improving your food consumption.

[Adam Stevens]

Daniel - No it doesn't hurt when I walk or take stairs. Maybe a -very- slight twinge but not enough to change my gait. It really only "pinches" when my leg is open, toes out, and my hip is in deep flexion.

Something tendonitis-like is my working hypothesis, too. I never had a hot pain like Russ mentions, it came on gradually over several weeks.

Russ - Yeah whenever I drift forward during a grind is when it flares up for me. Likewise, it doesn't bother me during deads.

I assume at some point you get better at staying in your hips during the grind?

Can't hurt to revisit diet, too. Thanks for the link.

[Russ Holmes]

The first time I felt it was a pinch, the second time was the stabbing, searing pain.
And I don't have any pain walking or doing anything else.
I was thinking more about this after I posted and remembered something that I've lived with for so long I've kinda forgotten about.
Along with occasional issues with hip flexor tightness I've had "clunk" in that hip since my teens.
If I bring my knee up towards my chest it will make a clunk noise on the way back down at around 90 degrees. It feels like something catches and then lets go as it makes this popping, clunking noise. It's been like this for nearly 30 years now and as it has never caused pain I've never bothered getting it checked out.
I did some reading up on this a long time back and "self diagnosed" snapping hip syndrome.
I'm now more convinced it's my hip flexor and not abdominal at all.
I think my ileopsoas tendon is catching when I'm in the hole and snapping as I come back out, and I think it's happening when I get to forward.
Google snapping hip syndrome

[Gregory Brown]

Not all inguinal hernias present with a visible bulge. Last year I had a pain in right hip groin region similar to what I read here. It hurt at the bottom of the squat for a few months, went away, or I got use to the pain, and then in December came back with severe pain in hip/groin and a little higher up in groin area. Pain was now occurring with any abdominal strain such as simply laying down on bench press bench. Had a physician look at it and diagnosed indirect inguinal hernia. Surgeon found another defect on left side during surgery and fixed that too. Left side never hurt even though the hernia was about the same size as on the right (2-3 cm).

[eavdr10]

Over the past few weeks I've been developing a painful pinching sensation in my left hip, on the inside in the crease where the thigh joins with the V of the groin. The intensity seems to be increasing despite my best efforts, so I figured it's time to post something here.

Here's a link to my form check (video from latest workout):
Squat form check post

Things I've tried without noticeable success:

• Foam rolling along the entire inner thigh (& quads & glutes for good measure)
  Applying heat to the area
  Applying ice to the area (taking care to be precise...)
  Adding extra warm-up sets with the empty bar
  Swinging my legs back and forth and side to side during warm-up like a fool

Another observation: If I'm standing, feet forward, and raise my left thigh to my chest, there is no pain in the crease. If I point my left toes out 30-45 degrees and raise my thigh to the side of my chest along that trajectory, there is pain.

Unweighted, I've tried stance adjustments (a few inches narrower/wider, toes a few degrees in/out). Toes out an additional ~10deg and feet an additional ~4" apart seems to reduce most of the pain, but that's wider than what's been recommended (both SS book + camp). Or should I not question it if it works?

Thanks for reading this far.

-Greg

I dealt with this in the beginning of LP, it has since gone away. I just chalked it up to my left not being as strong as my right side and it was just catching up. A lot of these muscles were not being used before I started LP. I was also getting twinges and spasms in my left tricep also, all day long twinges. Sounds like nothing, but it got annoying. That too has since subsided. Like i said, for me at least, I think my left side was just weaker and catching up.