I’m a 33 year old male (5’10 185) and I’ve been barbell training since July when I started SSLP. About a 5-6 weeks into my first foray with low bar back squatting my left groin/hip became quite painful. I was told by a PT buddy mine that there might be some hip labral issues - he did a hip ROM test, laying me supine with bent knee toward chest and internally rotated hip. Whether or not that test is true indicator or not, I exhibited a bit of pain during the test and we both decided I needed to modify until pain subsided. For appx 10-12 days I modified from low bar to box squat at parallel to low bar with small weight plates under my heels (which for whatever reason allowed me to squat pain free) and then finally back to low bar. Deadlifting was giving me some issues as well I modified to high grip trap bar for a session or two and then back to conventional deadlifting.
More history - I have sciatica flare ups (never real serious, just slight discomfort in piriformis region and some weird sensations down side of leg)
My current training has consisted of running the Bridge 3.1 the last 8 weeks. A few weeks I started getting some discomfort in my groin again (it’s a dull pain that gives me a “tight” sensation on my adductors). When I first became symptomatic I would continue training as the pain would subside as the training session went on. Slowly but surely the pain became more persistent. The pain has progressed from getting better as the session went on to just bothering me after the workout to bothering me after a set and now this week I started giving me issues after each rep. I get more pain in the eccentric phase of the squat and immediately following a deadlift set, after I complete the last rep and get up and take a few steps it bothers me
Due the pain sensations today (last day of the Bridge 3.1), I did not complete my heavy singles (stopped at 90% of my 1@8)and did not do subsequent back off sets. Did some high bar pause squats at a lighter weight than prescribed and followed up with some leg press. Both those variations were tolerable.
The inside, along with the front and back, of hip kind of feels “stuck”. In the past I may have felt this very b briefly and I could pop it and it goes “clunk” and then boom resolves itself. Again, only giving that info to further the description.
My goal was to redo the Bridge 3.1 but the way my hip is tolerating training I need to modify exercise. I was going to try to high bar and box squat for squat variations and trap bar for deadlift variation and do some leg press accessory work. My question is if I can perform those exercise pain free should I try to mimic the intensity and volume of what the Bridge 3.1 Week 1 prescribes or stay lighter with 8-12 rep ranges?
Thoughts on my gameplan and what the potential injury that I have
I forgot to mention my sciatica issues on the left side are popping up right now as well, started up about a week ago. Pain near piriformis radiating down side upper and makes it way to outer part of calf. I’m not too worried about this as I have dealt with it in past a - typically if I try to ignore it and not piss it off too much it tends to resolve itself.
With backing off my heavy single and no back off sets on my deadlift session last week, my hip is gradually feeling much better
During my squat session this morning I played with stances and styles. Low back with a closer stance was tolerable. I did the workout as prescribed. I was able to do everything but i knew as intensity of the sets increased I my hip would start slowly giving a little issue but nothing like last week. So I did everything but my last set of @9. So it seems like intensity right now may be a culprit. Thanks to you guys I didn’t have a ton of apprehension or fear heading into the squat session - just tricked my mind into “hey we’re just gonna play around with some new stances and/or squat variations and see what happens, it’ll be fun. Now let’s put some weight on and just see what happens”
Overall, it sounds like you are on the right track with modifying training.
“My question is if I can perform those exercise pain free should I try to mimic the intensity and volume of what the Bridge 3.1 Week 1 prescribes or stay lighter with 8-12 rep ranges?”
My recommendation is to adjust intensity first (external load on bar or drop RPE to tolerance). The premise doesn’t need to be train pain free but rather train with tolerable symptoms (not feeling debilitated afterwards). If you are able to adjust loading and continue with tolerable symptoms while training then I wouldn’t make any further alterations but if things don’t continue to trend up then I’d start adjusting ranges of motion and potentially exercise selection. Keep us posted.
Thanks for the response. No worries on the delay, I assume you’re not paying your mortgage giving out free responses on message board
Update for anyone following this thread
Did my prescribed workout (Bridge 3.1 Week 2) on Monday. Went narrow with my stance and felt fine. If I tried widening my stance a bit, I could fell my groin start to get pretty uncomfortable and knew I would pay for it the next day if I continued with wider stance. The next day, my groin was a 2 or 3 out 10 on pain/tolerability but am not sure if it’s due to intensity from Monday’s sesh of playing with my stance.
Wednesday, my groin was still bothering me but went on ahead my programming. 2ct pause squat were pretty uncomfortable at the beginning but slowly got better as the sets went on. PR’d on my 5@8.5 and felt fine.
Everything is feeling good - however, the only thing that really pisses off my groin (its a very specific place that feel like it’s deep in my hip socket) is when I externally rotate my feet too much on squat and deadlift. If I go more than 5 degrees or so (completely non scientific measurement) on squat and more than neutral on deadlift. It’s weird, I’m completely but the moment I have too much external rotation I immediately feel it.
Guess, continue training like I am and not doing anything to aggravate the groin until whatever it is thats bothering my hip resolves itself.
