Sounds like SI joint stuff. Chiropractor?
Member
Injury: Glute or SI Joint?
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Current training status: Beginner-Intermediate
Chief Complaint:
Soreness in the upper right posterior quadrant of my ass. Hurts primarily when bearing weight with my hips shifting back (IE: a squat). Pain also at the top of the press (as hips lock out back), deadlifts, ab wheel (when I bother with it). Sneezing also makes it hurt. The first rep of every set is quite painful in the squat and the following reps are better (but still sore). More soreness getting up from racking the bar after. The soreness does not feel tingly, does not radiate down my leg, and I am feeling no numbness. This makes me think it is less likely to be spinal. My best guess is an SI joint issue?
Narrative describing the mechanism of injury: Nothing specific happened to cause this. It has been a long time pain, occurring ever since I started to squat aground body weight (RE: Years). It has come and gone and I usually just train through it but is quite bad now.
Pain (on a scale of 1-10): Perhaps a 5 on the first rep and 3 on subsequent reps.
Describe the pain (burning, shooting, aching, deep, sharp): Reasonably deep and dull. I am thinking joint or muscle, opposed to nerve (though I don't really know what I am talking about).
What makes it better?: It doesn't hurt when resting, but I don't know if rest actually helps the recovery.
What makes it worse?: Squats, deadlifts, presses, sneezing, and ab wheels all seem to induce pain, but I don't know if they do anything but bring attention to an underlying problem.
How do your symptoms behave throughout the day?: Nothing unless doing a lift, sneezing, or otherwise inducing the pain.
Signs and Symptoms: No visible issues. Does not limit my day to day lift, just my lifting.
Misc: I've tried rolling around on a tennis ball in the area and it doesn't seem to help. I once when to a doctor and he said it was tight hamstrings and not to squat until it was fixed. I actually took a lot of weight off my squats and did hamstring stretches and it seemed to get better temporarily but I don't really want to have to just not squat to fix it. Doc did no imaging or the like, and sent me to a physio who told me not to use the Valsalva as it weakened my core by not allowing my diaphragm to contract (so I didn't have much confidence in her).
Sorry for the long post. Any advice would be great.
TMPHBITEU
Sounds like SI joint stuff. Chiropractor?
Member
Thanks Mark. I have yet seen a chiropractor. Do you know if SI stuff tends to benefit more from active recovery vs rest, or is that outside your area of expertise?
TMPHBITEU
Almost nothing benefits from rest. This is not one of the things that does.
Member
Do you have any specific recommendations on how to train through this and get it to recover, beyond seeing a chiropractor? Any help is appreciated, thanks.Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe
Starting Strength Coach
Concur with Rip. Sounds like SI joint. Manual therapy will probably be of great benefit.
TMPHBITEU
Squat, deadlift, press, and see a chiropractor if you want to. It will heal either way.
Member
Okay last question: Do I go light or anything special or just grimace and try to PR, and pretend it isn't there?
Al's House of Shred
Excatly what Coach Rip said. I have the same injury.
Member
I had similar (pain when sneezing, pain on heavy squats). Diagnosis was excessively strong glutes compared to adductors.
I saw a PT, and got prescribed certain exercises:
1. Seated "knee squeezes". Hold for 20 seconds. Initially, these were remarkably tough.
2. Seat knee lifts. Lift each knee 3 inches or so. Sets of 20.
3. Prone legs lifts. Lie on front. Lift whole leg straight from the hip with minimal pelvic movement. Aim for a feeling of pushing the heel away from your butt.
YMMV.
Posting Permissions