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Thread: Squat form check please, experiencing hip flexor pain

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
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    Default Squat form check please, experiencing hip flexor pain

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    I'm currently on SSLP, and my highest 5-rep squat is 210. I started experiencing hip pain in the front crease of my legs (based on videos on hip impingement, seems like its in my hip flexors). around 180lbs and its got gradually worse. I felt it at the bottom, and I noticed on film that my knees were caving, so I deloaded to 165, which was the highest I could go and stop my knees from caving. I've been working on that, and got the knees mostly fixed I think, but now I don't feel the pain at the bottom so much as halfway up during the ascent. when it gets hard, it feels like my hip flexors are trying to pull my hips forward and its a sharpish pain I experience.

    Stats are: 38 y/o male, 177 lbs BW, 5'11". Please check my squat video and let me know if you see anything I'm doing that could cause this.



    link: Squat hip pain - YouTube

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
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    10,378

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    Your squats are a little high and your stance a little wide, but you are not sliding forward at the bottom, nor are your knees coming in, nor are you falling apart in any way. Here are my suggestions, which may or may not help with your hips. Narrow your stance about an inch. Go deeper in your squats – about two inches, or so. Drop your elbows. Get some lifting shoes. See where things go. It is possible that a slightly narrower stance with better depth in the squat may help with the hip pain since your quads, esp the rectus femoris will not be the primary muscle group putting the brakes on the descent.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Campitelli View Post
    It is possible that a slightly narrower stance with better depth in the squat may help with the hip pain since your quads, esp the rectus femoris will not be the primary muscle group putting the brakes on the descent.
    Explain please, doesn't a narrower stance require more knee flexion and hip flexion while descending so that both the anterior and posterior kinetic chain work more?

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by MartinB View Post
    Explain please, doesn't a narrower stance require more knee flexion and hip flexion while descending so that both the anterior and posterior kinetic chain work more?
    When you squat above parallel, something needs to stop you. In most cases, that becomes the job of the quadriceps. When going lower, you get an assist from the adductors that come to full elongation. They help provide a bounce in conjunction with the work the quads do. I make no promises that going deeper will help with the hip pain, but if the rectus femoris, which originates at the hip, is getting upset, it is possible this could be the case. Let's consider the wide stance, too. Hips can be funny. Abducting and externally rotating the femurs will tend to unimpinge the hip. In a moderate, shoulder-width stance, this is the case. With a wide stance, some people can further unimpinge the hip. However, if someone's hip joints don't like a wide stance due to how the bones articulate with one another, changing to a more moderate stance might be of assistance. Once again, I don't know any of this for sure, but we'll try and see.

  5. #5
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    Mar 2008
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    I should note that the glutes are also involved in arresting further hip flexion, as are the hammies, kinda.

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