Coccyx and inner butt cheek pain

[Ashley Squatson]

Hi my name is Ashley. A little background info:

36 years old, 163 pounds, 5 foot 7 inches, have been running the novice linear progression for about 6 weeks.

Lifts are currently (pounds x reps x sets):
Squat 110 X 3 X 5
Overhead Press 49 x 3 x 5
Bench Press 62.5 x 5 x 3
Deadlift 145 x 5 x 1

I have been experiencing some pain around my coccyx and up the region where my gluteus maximus meets the iliac crest. This pain is exacerbated by squats and especially driving up out of the bottom. Deadlifts do not cause much of an increase in pain. I took a week off squats, took ibuprofen, continued with the other lifts, and the pain subsided. Tried to squat again today and after the second set at 100 pounds the pain started to creep back. Any idea what could be causing this and what might be a solution? Links to latest squat workouts:

Ash Squat 1 - YouTube

Ash Squat 2 - YouTube

Link to an image of roughly where the pain is located:

Butt Pain ? imgbb.com

Thanks!

[Brodie Butland]

It's hard to tell from the video, but it looks to me like you're not squatting symmetrically. Could you get a video from directly behind?

P.S.--I promise I'm not creeping.

[Ashley Squatson]

It's hard to tell from the video, but it looks to me like you're not squatting symmetrically. Could you get a video from directly behind?

P.S.--I promise I'm not creeping.

Hey Brodie, thanks for the response. Here is a link to my latest squat workout, shot directly from the rear:

Ash Squat 3 - YouTube

I have since deloaded down to 80 lbs, which doesn't aggravate the area much, and am working back up in weight. This is 90 lbs for 5 reps x 3 sets. There was a small amount of pain in the affected area but overall it seems to be trending upward.

[Bill Coyne]

Looks like you're getting pulled forward a little. Are you familiar with the "Master Cue"?

[Ashley Squatson]

Looks like you're getting pulled forward a little. Are you familiar with the "Master Cue"?

Hey Bill, yes trying to keep the bar moving in a straight vertical line. More than that I am focusing on keeping the weight evenly distributed across my feet, as the master cue seems a bit difficult with the weight being this light relative to the whole lifter-barbell system.

[Scaldrew]

Hey Bill, yes trying to keep the bar moving in a straight vertical line..

... over the middle of the foot. Easy to forget, yet incredibly important. It is difficult to focus on balance if the weight is too light, but then very light weight is incredibly ineffecient in causing injuries, too. Regardless of the difficulty of feeling balanced over your midfoot on light weight, I do believe your balance is a part of the problem. Or rather, the solution.

It seems to me as though you're overextending your lumbar spine at the bottom. I think you're overcueing the "hips back" and "drive hips up" parts of the squat. Ultimately, the hips have to go down and up, not so much back because then you cue them forward at the top, too, which is a dangerous thing when you get carried away. Really, if you centre your balance on your midfoot and lean forward, your hips move back relative to the position they would be in if you would only lean forward without keeping your balance on your midfoot. So think about the balance on the midfoot, lean forward, then move the hips/bar down and back up. It's good that you're wearing a belt already, but I'd urge you to remember to feel tight in your core and to not relax for anything at any point throughout the lift.

Besides this incorrect conceptualisation of the lift and the possible lack of bracing, I'd say think about your chest position. Maybe you're naturally lordotic in the low back and have to think about dropping your chest more than raising it. Not to the point of flexing the upper back, mind you, but to the degree that you're tight in the upper back, yet you feel like you're flexing both spinal positions. "Pointing your nipples to the floor" is a coarse cue that usually helps remedy this. Though, I would argue that you're just shoving your hips too far back on the descent and then upwards on the ascent.

I'm curious as to what Coaches Butland and Coyne have to say to this. This I gather mostly from your first video. The second video is more subtle in this, but the overextension can still be seen if you focus on depth. The hips simply move back more and rotate up slightly, barring you from actually hitting proper depth on the first two reps. You do seem to (almost?) make depth on the final rep and that one seems to me to be a painful rep.