Burning hip + numb thigh

[jensarneson]

Hey Docs,

First off, thanks for all the amazing material you all are putting out! I've especially enjoyed the training vlogs and the ongoing conversation about pain. I'm a previously untrained 36 yr old male about 2.5 months in to the NLP (with the BBM upper body plug-in for the last two weeks, which has been great) no history of major surgery or injury. I've started getting a recurring burning sensation and numbness on the outside of one thigh, accompanied by a really intense sharp pain in what I think is my tensor fasciae latae, though I could be totally wrong about that. First happened immediately after squatting, a few days later after dead lifts, and now it happens even when walking in the morning. It's been about 3 weeks, at this point. The pain is actually most acute when I'm bench pressing if I attempt to get my feet under me at all. googling around, it seems like it might be meralgia paresthetica, specifically the numbness and burning, but I don't have any of the risk factors. When I attempt a quad stretch, its fires like crazy, especially if I'm holding my foot with the opposite hand. Is this something I need to rest? stretch? I know you guys are skeptical of mobility stuff. It loosens up during squats but seems to come back with a vengeance. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jens

[Austin Baraki]

Hard to say exactly what's going on, but meralgia paresthetica is a benign, self-limited condition. Well over 90% of cases improve on their own with no intervention needed. I'd probably start by temporarily adjusting your bench setup to avoid flaring it up, and giving it a little time.

[mikimr]

I have a similar issue. A few hours after a heavy squat day, medium press, and medium deadlift about 4 weeks ago, I developed a muscle spasm in my right lat, which prevented me from even bending over. I rested a couple of days, but during this time, my right thigh started hurting, specifically on the outer side. The pain was so severe that it'd wake me in the middle of the night, with the only thing relieving the pain is placing my thigh on a cricket ball... I saw a doctor who thought it's a facet joint issue in the back. After a better inspection, it was diagnosed with a tweaked L3.

After mobilising L3, the pain subsided, however, the thigh itself became numb. I'm still able to squat and deadlift, although a bit lighter, as is does take a few weeks to get back to normal level after a tweak. When I deadlift, I now put extra attention to lower back extension, pulling the bar to the shins, and hinging when lowering while keeping the lower back in extension, and these make everything feel easier, AND my back feels great after the session. I deadlifted with the tweak, and can tell you that the very next morning the pain was gone!
The other thing that's still lingers is a restricted range of motion on the right, when raising my right leg, for example to get undressed.

The numbness is still there, but I'm told it should go a way in a few weeks, so nothing to worry about.

[jensarneson]

Thanks Dr. Baraki,

I adjusted my leg position during the bench, and it's been flaring up significantly less. No more flare ups during morning walks either, so I'm hoping it's on it's way to working itself out.

Unrelated: I'm an academic librarian and I've been spreading the BBM gospel to my colleagues in our BSN, DNP, and emergency medicine programs via the UpToDate article. The response has been really positive. Crazy how surprised people are by the quantity of existing data.

Thanks again,

Jens

[Austin Baraki]

Unrelated: I'm an academic librarian and I've been spreading the BBM gospel to my colleagues in our BSN, DNP, and emergency medicine programs via the UpToDate article. The response has been really positive. Crazy how surprised people are by the quantity of existing data.

Thank you, this is really awesome to hear! We were surprised too