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Thread: Possible Vastus Lateralis Injury

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
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    Orlando
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    Default Possible Vastus Lateralis Injury

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    About 3 weeks ago I started my normal squat warm up and noticed what felt like a dead leg/charlie horse about 6-9 inches below my left Anterior Superiliac Spine. There was no pain as such, just a bit of pressure during the eccentric portion of the squat. Other than needing a more extended warm up (and a little discomfort), it didnt affect my sessions at all. I wrote it off as merely the effects of an overvigorous foam rolling session (I pay a lot of attention to the TFL and the proximal portion of the hip flexors and abductors, so the location made sense).

    I continued to make good progress on both the squat and deadlift, but the discomfort didnt go away. On monday the warm up was very labored, with actual pain present by my third or forth warm up set. It was supposed to be a 5X5 day, but on my last planned 5rep warm up set I only completed 3 reps before reracking it. I ended up backing off and doing 4X8 at about 75% of my planned 5X5 weight, which was pain free, but I now notice quite a sharp pain in a very localized ROM. It doesnt hurt when I do pure abduction (straight out to the side). It doesnt hurt when I do straight hip flexion (straight out in front), but if I do a sort of combo movement, around 45 degrees from my torso there is a very sharp pain.

    I have no idea what caused this, and am a bit confused as I've never had a muscle injury and not known exactly what caused it and when it happened. I have to take an enforced 10 day training absence (going to Slovakia/Austria for a wedding), but dont really know how to move forward once I am ready to resume training. Presumably a Star rehab protocol, but what/how?

    - I was able to squat/dead/clean with it the "injury" for 3 weeks or so without problem, which makes me question if any of the normal exercises would really target the area enough for them to be a usefull choice.

    - If a combo abduction/flexion movement is what causes the pain, maybe doing that makes sense, but I neither want to look like a hairy Jane Fondaalike, but more importantly I dont see how I could progress them adequately enough.

    Anyone have experience with a simialrly located injury?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    London, England
    Posts
    2,250

    Default

    Sounds like it might be a trigger point.

    Get a tennis ball or lacrosse ball or golf ball. Locate a centre for the pain if you can. Apply constant pressure for 30s with the ball where the pain is at 5 on a scale of 1-10. If it's a trigger point, the pain should at least alter, and possibly disperse.

    Trigger points are supposedly localised cramps in the muscle. They react badly to stretching. If your problem is a trigger point, the angle you moved into that caused problems was simply a longer stretch.

    Oh, and trigger points very often hunt in packs, so you may well find a bunch of them. If you do, buying a foam roller is a great investment.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Orlando
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    Default

    Several weeks on, and while I've progressed the issue hasnt completely gone away (two transatlantic flights and excessive sitting in hip flexion seem to have aggrivated it). Today I went in for my second session of ART and something magic happened...

    Typically there is no pain when squatting until I hit about 80% of my 5RM. We figured out that pain at the bottom of the squat can be replicated without a load when I turn my toes in. He decided that meant we needed to work on my losening up my ankle (a tightness that helped cause previous problems with my calf). As I went through the ROM from dorsi to plantar flexion he worked on areas up and down my lateral shin (peroneous longus and brevis) that was surprisingly sore. Ten minutes later I could do an ATG bodyweight squat with toes turned in without even the merest hint of discomfort.

    Looking forward to squatting again tomorrow.

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