Differences in hip mobility and pain in hip flexor

[maxa]

Hi, Mark
Huge fan of your starting strength videos, I looked at them for weeks on end to get my form right for the deadlift and squat. Great, to-the-point and simple.
But I have two problems, not exactly sure of the causes (perhaps my form isn't as good as I thought), but I thought I'd ask and see if you had time to reply.

1. The first is the bottom position of my squat. My right ankle and hip flexor (if that's what it is) are way tighter and more unflexible than the left side. So if I squat down, I have sort of a 'lean', where my right knee sits higher than the left and the left knee is perhaps half an inch further forward than the right. It feels as though when I squat up, I use my right side more than the left. As a side note which maybe relevant, I only have access to a bench at my gym (it´s at work) so I can only do Zercher squats comfortably without a training partner.

2. The second is my left hip flexor, while not unflexible at all, sometimes it hurts when I bend up. For example, after having finished a deadlift, standing stiff legged and raising my upper body (important note: no back pain ever from deadlifting, I can do 3 reps of 95 kg without form failure) my left hip flexor aches and has a sharp kind of pain, but not in a muscle-good-sort of way. Same goes for kettlebell swings, where the end of the hip pop motion recently started aching, where it didn´t a couple weeks ago. If I tighten my abs hard I can counter this, and there is basically no pain. I´m quite certain I have a very tight right glute piriformis, if I clench I can feel that side has a bump, and if I lie down on a mattress I´m constantly aware of my right glute. Maybe this is related?

Hopefully what I've written makes sense, I would greatly appreciate an answer if you have the time.

Thanks,
/Max Arlestig

[Mark Rippetoe]

What you have written, in fact, makes no sense. Furthermore, what you have written about would require an actual physical examination, which I cannot perform from any significant distance. Sorry.