Hamstring Tendon "Gliding" on Deadlifts, Squats, Hamstring curl

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
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Hi y’all,

Just joined the forum after listening for several months on Youtube.

For background, I am “hypermobile” and used to sublux both shoulders & knees while growing up. I could basically do jump ropes with just my shoulders. I haven’t really had any subluxations in the past 6 years, but I’ve had close calls, most of which came from overreaching on my tennis swing. I also got surgery for a labral tear after months of pain from swim & waterpolo back in highschool. I don’t not stretch because I’ve really never felt the “stretch” that most people do in any thing.

Back in college, I used to be very active with my training. 5-7 gym sessions a week were the norm, and I’d lift fairly heavy compound lifts. After I graduated (2 years ago), I haven’t been nearly as consistent due to the lack of gym accessibility & work schedule, but I’ve been keeping a consistent 1-3x/week. My program in college was primarily hypertrophy focused PPL, with nearly 20-40sets per muscle, per week (2+ hrs gym time). For the last year or so, I created a more well-rounded routine, focusing on 2 main lifts a day and accessory lifts after.

For example, I’ll do:

  • 3 sets of Front Squats
  • 3 sets Incline Press

The compound lifts I rotate through every day are deadlifts, RDLs, squats, front squats, hip thrusts, incline press, db incline.

I also choose one or two of these with 4 sets: leg presses, leg extension, hip abductor, calf raises, and hamstring curls. Then I’ll switch over to much lighter accessories.

I’d like to consider myself at least somewhat trained, especially since I have to be extra careful to not overextend on lifts due to my shoulders. I do lots of rotator cuff & ankle work. However, for the last few months, I noticed a really weird, gliding feeling on the back of my right hamstring. It feels like my tendon or some tissue pops in and out. It’s not nearly as painful or debilitating as what a shoulder/knee subluxation feels like, but it results in a sharp pain followed by several days of dull pain.

Here are some specific triggers:

  • Very deep squats - only when ATG (somewhat remedies when I widen my stance)
  • Deadlifts - only on the leg press part
  • RDLs - only when bar is near mid-shin/lower
  • Hamstring curls - when my legs are stretched out, also holding/squeezing at the bottom of the contraction causes a dull ache on the tendon’
  • Leg press - deep in the press movement
  • Butterfly stretch - on my bed when using my phone, not really a stretch for me
  • Flexing my right glute muscle - similar feeling to exactly right before the glide

My remedy for the last 2 months was to a) reduce range on all the movements and b) lower weight. This worked great until yesterday where it finally came back at the bottom of my front squat movement. My butt basically touched my heels yesterday (C below) for the first time in weeks, and I noticeably dropped past the restricted range I was using the last 2 months (B in the diagram below). Going all the way down feels more “correct” for me, but I do wonder if my laxity plays a part in that assessment.

My question & overall concern is why this effect is present in multiple lifts, and what it could potentially be. I’ve had to totally remove deadlifts from my programming, and hamstring curls might be next, but I enjoy these movements and feel sad I can’t do them without causing pain. Unlike the squat, I can’t just restrict deadlift & hamstring curl range. Even using 25 lbs on both sides for deadlifts causes the pain. I’m almost certain the most workable answer is to drop weight on all the exercises, but my biggest question is how long should I stay at a “low” weight before I go up? Do I just play it by ear, and drop weight if I feel the pain coming back?

I’m also not 100% sure what the appropriate range for a hypermobile person is on squats, given how I can basically go through the ground. I’ve heard contradicting advice from multiple physical therapists throughout the years, ranging from “go all the way through the motion, including past normal” to “reduce range as much as possible”. I could never really reach a satisfying conclusion on certain movements like shoulder db external rotations, and I wonder if a general rule like restricting range on all movements is the preferred strategy. I’ll definitely ask more regarding this in the future, but for the case at hand, what do you think is a generally “safe” range for a squat given the pain behind my hamstring?

Thanks for the help!

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Howdy,

Thanks for joining the forum. We appreciate it as well as the detailed post. There’s A LOT here.

That said, this question is beyond what we can address via a forum reply and is best suited to a consultation with our pain and rehab team. Should you choose to pursue that, we can be reached
at support@barbellmedicine.com.

I can’t comment on the appropriate ROM for your squat, but I don’t think ATG is best for strength or hypertrophy. I generally coach people out of that, unless they’re an Olympic WL and receive the bar in that position.

Regarding the DL and hamstring curl ROM, you can absolutely reduce it, i.e. rack pulls, partial hamstring curls. I also notice you haven’t tried reducing the tempo, changing the stance (for DL’s to sumo for example), going 1-legged on hamstring curls, and so on.

Regarding the time back to normal training, it should be gradual. A lot of folks rush back to normal training without a bridge from their relatively detrained state. We think that’s a mistake.

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Thanks for the reply Jordan! I’ll definitely reach out via email. In the meantime, since I don’t do olympic weightlifting, I’ll stick to a shallower squat depth as it seemed to help prevent the pain. The suggestion to change stances & reduce ROM via other exercises is one that never crossed my mind, so I’ll give that a try as well. I’ll give the article you linked a read today too.

Again, thanks for the response. :grinning_cat:

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