I am 31 years old and have been strength training regularly for about 2 years now. About 5 month back, I was doing sets of pin squat and notice numbness and tingling sensation near the right side of my hip that can be felt near my glutes. At the time the pain was really mild so I pay it no mind, and finished my sets without any issue.
2 days later, the pain became so unbearable that I can barely squat/deadlift half the weight of my normal working set. It is now 5 months later and it doesn’t seem to have gotten any better.
The pain is felt worst 4-5 inches from the squat starting position, the same goes for deadlift lockout.
I’ve tried ways to recover by:
Lay off training squat/deadlift for 2 weeks. The hip pain much more manageable on my first squat session after resting 2 weeks, but it comes right back the same on the next session.
Squat with reduced intensity and volume. ( i.e. 1 working set per week with an intensity that the pain can be endured. I try to also linearly add weight every week )
Replaced deadlift with barbell hip thrust ( strangely enough the pain is not felt during hip thrust ).
Doing variations. Still felt the pain doing high bar squat, front squat, deficit deadlift, and block pulls.
All in all, I am quite concerned as I cannot seem to find a strategy that works to gradually get better from this injury that I’ve gotten.
Base on the information above, what would be some recommendations for me to move forward?
Hey James - thanks for the questions. Sorry to hear about your experience. Given this has been ongoing for 5 months with minimal improvement, it is reasonable to seek consultation with a trusted clinician in your area or we’d be happy to remotely consult with you. You can find our intake paperwork HERE. Do you wear a weightlifting belt while training squats and deadlifts? Sometimes folks can over-tighten their belts and reproduce this experience you are describing. If you need guidance on making further training modifications on your own to help with your experience, check out the article - Pain in training: What do?
I do wear a weightlifting belt while training squats and deadlifts, but the pain is not reproducible when it is tighten to the degree that I normally use.
I find the article you link extremely useful - It is apparent to me now that I’ve approached the recovery process too hastily - I was reluctant to reduce external intensity to mitigate the pain. Reps and loads were kept high relative to the example in the article. The part about progression gave me some really good insight on what to expect moving forward.
I will re-evaluate my approach for my recovery process and see how things goes. Thanks for the help, you guys are awesome as always!