Hello docs! Love all you guys put out and find myself turning to Barbell Medicine for all my powerlifting related programming and evidence based knowledge. I am a RT and have referred quite a few Docs I work with to Barbell Medicine.
I am a 43 year old powerlifter. 198 class master 450/295/530 last April. I have had a chronic right hip issue for well over a year. Tight in hip flexors, fluctuating pain right in hip socket itself, radiating pain into my knee and calf at times. I have done a couple of BBmed programs, TSA, RTS, Candito 6 week over the last few years. I took the summer to lean out and hopefully clear up my hip issues. I dialed back volume/intensity, introduced eccentric loading, tempo work, cut out deads for 3 weeks etc. The only thing I found some limited relief from was the break from deads. Squats hurt but I can push through most sessions with 2-4/10 hip pain. That being said I am in pain an hour after I squat. I have been asked more times than I can count, “why are you limping?” despite no self-awareness that I have a limp.
I started the 12 week strength program and a calorie surplus the beginning of September and only got in 2 weeks before my hip was worse than ever. I am very frustrated, I have come to the realization I may not be able to compete this spring as my hip is affecting my day to day life, I have 4 young boys as well, and my hip has limited activities with them.
The only thing I have not tried is a complete break from squats and deads. Do you agree with this approach? 6 weeks off completely from heavy back squats and deads. I expect to detrain and have accepted this. I will do lighter leg work and find exercises I can do with no pain. I do lots of videos, form analysis and have been extremely critical of my technique for several years and cannot find the hip issue to be related to a technique flaw.
Any suggestions on how to approach this? The only “new” approach I feel is left is a complete break from squats and deads, followed by a slow rebuild over volume and intensity. I can’t help feeling I am just beating on this hip and never giving it a chance to heal.
Sorry to hear about the hip issue and the level of functional impairment this is causing you. I’d highly recommend a consultation with us so we can better help with this issue. Contact Us | Barbell Medicine
Overall, I do not recommend cutting out exercises that have been previously provocative. Typically such an approach feeds into a fear avoidance behavior cycle that will perpetuate the issue. I understand the desire to seek out technical flaws to correlate to pain but unfortunately the topic is far more complex usually. I also sympathize with the premise the hip “needs to heal” but honestly if there wasn’t an acute trauma to the area and given the chronicity of the issue, it’s highly likely healing has little to do with the tissue.