Nagging Hip/Back Injury

[Kyle5000]

Rip,

First off, I have looked at the sticky and I don't think I have a muscle belly tear. I'm 23 years old and I'm in very good health, no history of injuries. For the past month and a half or so I've had a nagging pain in the back of my hip, kind of at the same height as my sacrum but over to the left maybe 4 inches. I thought I did it while deadlifting, but I've been deadlifting ever since with no issues, but it is bothering me when I squat. Some days it's barely noticeable, and other days it bothers me around the house when I walk up and down stairs or when I bend over the wrong way. I did 3x5 at 260 lbs, a heavy set for me, a couple of days ago and it wasn't really an issue, but today I tried squatting heavy and I couldn't get it to loosen up. Just taking 245 lbs out of the rack and standing with it hurt like hell, so I abandoned that idea and did front squats instead.

About a week or two after I first started having the pain, I went away on vacation and took about a week and half off, and since the pain was never that bad in the first place, I figured it would be 100% when I got back, but it stuck with me. For the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to stretch it out a lot throughout the day, doing plenty of warm-up before workouts, but it just won't go away. I'm really pissed off about it because I don't think it's anything major, it just feels like a strain, but it won't go away, and it is interfering with my workouts. Any ideas?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Get an orthopod to look at your hip joint. The pain you describe is perhaps in that area.