Squat Form Check: Hip flexor/groin pain

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May 25 Squat: 215 lbs

45 years old, 6'0', 185 lbs. I started getting pain in the hip flexor/groin area (both sides equally) during and after squats when the weight got up to 200 lbs. Failed twice at 220 and backed off to 200. Working back up now and it still hurts every time. At 215 today, it was bad enough that I didn't do a third set. The residual tightness interferes with proper hip movement when I move on to the press, and then gradually improves over several hours -- but it'll flare back up even with empty bar form practice.

Past threads made me think this is the "interesting type of tendonitis" mentioned in the book, so I worked a lot with a TUBOW, turned toes out further and focused on leaning over more -- I thought I was doing somewhat better, but I definitely still don't feel like I'm getting hip drive right or feeling any real power from the bounce. I'd be grateful if anyone could suggest a few simple cues to focus on, since re-reading the chapters has me thinking about so many things (knees out, set knees early, brace lumbar in extension, lean over, feel the bounce, etc.) that I can't figure out what to focus on in the key seconds under the bar.

In case it's useful, here's Monday's squats at 210, after which I worked a lot on knee slide, though I'm not sure it made a difference.

Thanks for any help!

[Ryan Arnold]

Your squats look pretty good to me. Almost always aches and pains like this are a recovery issue. Time to start eating more

[stads]

Thanks Ryan, that's encouraging. I'm eating a ton but I'll step it up further and hope the pain improves.
I'm still deadlifting 3x weekly, so it sounds like it's probably time to back that down and start doing power cleans, as well. I'll give it a try.

[Jp1983]

I'm not a coach but I have a similar problem at a similar weight about 2 months into the NLP and I think I diagnosed it coming from a knee wobble. It's hard to see from the 45 degree angle but if you can line the camera up in the line of the path of your knee you can check it.

Here's mine (sorry it's a YouTube short, but it's obvious enough):

knee wobble in squat - YouTube

I didn't feel this wobble happening at all, which is odd because it's pronounced and I really have to focus on keeping my knees out at the bottom and especially as i drive my hips to try to fight it. I had to drastically decrease the weight I was squatting and really really focus on the form. Doing this the past few workouts there's some new muscle soreness in a weird place in my hips I'd never felt before but the groin pain is gone.

My 2 cents. Again I'm not a coach but we're at an almost identical spot and I had the same thing.

[Ryan Arnold]

I am not in the habit of diagnosing anything but if I had to I would diagnose it as not eating enough, same as the OP. Not knee wobbling. When you lift weights and don't eat enough a lot more things hurt than they would if you ate enough

[Roy Thomas]

Thanks Ryan, that's encouraging. I'm eating a ton but I'll step it up further and hope the pain improves.
I'm still deadlifting 3x weekly, so it sounds like it's probably time to back that down and start doing power cleans, as well. I'll give it a try.

What is a ton? If you're tracking protein/calories, a specific number would be beneficial. If you aren't tracking, it's time to start.
Sometimes it feels like you're eating enough, but you don't really know do you? People generally don't seem to eat enough unless they log it.

[Jp1983]

Well, regardless my knees shouldn't be wobbling at the bottom of the squat. That's bad no matter how much I'm eating. I think I was wrong with my prognosis though. I think my back was too vertical, my butt wasn't back far enough and my knees were too far forward and were consequently unstable. The solution was not to decrease the weight to the point i could stabilize my knees in a suboptimal position, the solution was to get my knees in the correct spot where they are much easier to stabilize.

[Ryan Arnold]

Well, regardless my knees shouldn't be wobbling at the bottom of the squat. That's bad no matter how much I'm eating. I think I was wrong with my prognosis though. I think my back was too vertical, my butt wasn't back far enough and my knees were too far forward and were consequently unstable. The solution was not to decrease the weight to the point i could stabilize my knees in a suboptimal position, the solution was to get my knees in the correct spot where they are much easier to stabilize.

Feel free to start another thread with a proper video angle and we'll take a look