Major squat suckage

[nisora33]

Rip:

Hip pain has returned during my back squats. Same thing happened last time I did them religiously. I?ve been pushing through worsening pain every workout for the last two weeks, seems to travel all the way from my anterior hip in the ASIS region all the way down my IT-band to my lateral knee. On my first warmup set, I actually lost my balance and dropped the bar when the pain stopped me, and after various forms of stretching and foam-rolling, I tried another warmup set but the pain left me gasping. This is a whole new level of pain.

I?m seeing a massage therapist who?s working on my IT-band and hip, but at this point I?m afraid this might be nerve related (very intense shooting pain). My squat form is spot-on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtAhjLJ0NZ0

I puke in my mouth at the thought of doing the fucking leg press machine. Should I do this for a while, or use the deadlift (very little pain) in various set/rep combinations in place of the squat until I can at least do a bodyweight squat? Right now, I can only get about a fourth of the way down without getting floored by the pain. The act of pushing the knees out during the back squat really intensifies the pain, although any attempt to get down that low really hurts incredibly right now. The only other option that I can think is to go back to front squatting, which is still ridiculously painful but at least I don?t feel like I?m going to tear something or other. It all just seems out of the ordinary, even for this pussy.

Any sage advice?

-Stacey

[Mark Rippetoe]

Change massage therapists. There should be no "working on it". There should merely be an IT band release. If it were nerve pain, you would know. It is possible that something else is wrong too, but the IT needs to be ruled out first.

[zephed56]

let's say you put your pants on backwards, would the pain be where the back pockets are (anterior hip/thigh crease-ish area).

If so, I got the same thing, and I think it was because my knees would go forward at the bottom. I believe mark explained it somewhere that the forward knee movement at the bottom would pull on the quad muscle from the knee end. I think. Maybe. I dunno, but I sit back more and try hard to keep those knees in place right at the rebound.

I noticed that after rep 1 (in particular rep 4), the bar path starts to move forward at the very bottom, indicating a problem. There is some forward knee movement on some reps, and it looks like you end up with your balance more on your toes. Maybe try sitting back more?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I didn't see anything that egregious about his knees in the squat, not enough to account for that type of pain. Most likely it was caused by some previous problem.

[nisora33]

No, there is no absolutely no knees sliding forward on that video. I'm jamming my knees out as far as I'm cable, and any wavering you see in my knee position is my adductors trying to pull my knees in as I try like hell to jam them out. I've read Starting Strength a billion and one times, and I'm familiar with the kind of tendinitis you're describing. This is not it.

Rip's correct, this pain is the result of scar tissue built up from years of martial arts and and running, which I used to do lots of before I wised up. Form is not the issue. My failure to find a decent massage therapist, however, IS.