A few months ago I made the mistake to see a functional rehab mobility guru, who was amazed at how tight my glutes and hamstrings were even though I can easily any time of the day get into a full squat position. He had me do a heap of mobility/stretching work and a number of one leg one arm “functional exercises”. My hip was a tiny bit tender from squatting all year (even though the highest weight I did was 185lb) but he had me do Romanian deadlifts with just the bar supersetted with a heap of hamstring and glute stretches, this combo of stretches and especially Romanian deadlifts really started aggravating my hip but I persisted for a 3-4 weeks and eventually had to stop as walking up a slight hill would hurt my hip and I could feel my left hamstring tighter than ever before.
I took two weeks off and it almost completely went away so I started squatting 3 times a week 3 sets of 10 nice and slow reps started on 60lb and now Im up to 140lb after 5 weeks. My technique now is a little bit more upright because if I lean more forward the hip does not like it. I don’t feel any pain during the squats but that night or next day or sometimes the day after my hip aches slightly, nothing too bad but it just wont go away completely. Should I take 3 weeks off then start light again? I basically now squat every second day and I go up 2.5 kg each session, the squat session feels great especially as I warm up and Im loving getting stronger but the hip ache reminds me every day that something is not right there. Do I need to get stronger? Do I need more time off? Or do I need to squat less often? (but this does not work as well for gaining strength. I cant deadlift as even a bodyweight hip hinge movement will cause pain as soon as my hands get near my knees (this is nowhere near as painful as 8 weeks ago though)
How old are you?
Has this issue happened before?
Where are you experiencing hip symptoms?
Overall, this sounds like a load management issue. I wouldn’t advise drastically changing technique in the beginning stages unless absolutely necessary. Instead I recommend altering volume and/or intensity as an initial step and then assess how things progress. Also, although it seems intuitive to avoid movements that you expect to have symptoms with - this can actually perpetuate the chronicity of symptoms unnecessarily. The expectation shouldn’t be to exercise without symptoms but rather with a tolerable level of symptoms (individualistic).
You would likely benefit from a consult with us so we can help guide the path back to your goals: Contact Us | Barbell Medicine.
Thanks Michael, I will add deadlifts with a broom stick to begin with and purchase a 10kg barbell to progress from there. As for the squats well they don’t hurt during the movement and to be honest I can tolerate the aches that follow as its been 6 weeks now and Im enjoying getting stronger too much. Im just hopeful it goes away eventually Im use to training without so many aches and pains as then I actually feel healthy in my every day life and not like a cripple.
The pain is on my left hip right on the side in the joint (not hip flexor), the pain comes and goes throughout the day if I rotate myself while my foot is planted and kind of twist at the joint that can bring on a sharp pain but nothing severe. Overall the ache on a scale of 1-10 during the day varies at 0.5-2 out of 10 but this is enough to annoy the hell out of me that its not 100% healthy and I kind nurse it and try hard not to put pressure on it.
Im 37 years old, roughly 8 years ago I first experienced this when I was doing ass to grass squats so I modified the movement back then to box squats and the pain went away. Then 4 years later I did a cycle of trap bar deadlifts and built up from the bar to 315lb in the space of 4 months and when I finished the cycle took a few days off and the hip started hurting but after another 2 weeks off of no training it went away. Anyway currently I plan to squat for another 4-5 weeks break my 2018 squat PB and then deload which will hopefully make this hip pain go away. My volume at the moment is 15 bodyweight squats, then 10 reps with the bar then 10 reps with 70lb then 10 reps with 110lb and finally my top set of 10-12 reps at the moment thats with 150lb. This is done every second day. So in 4-5 weeks Ill take a week off and then reduce the frequency to 3 times a week and Ill go back to 5 sets of 5 (less overall reps) and reduce weight down to 90-100 lb and start building back up, plus add the broom deadlifts what do you think?
It’s difficult to give individualistic advice without a consult but being conscientious of loading is a step in the right direction. I think adding back in movements that you’ve been avoiding is also a good idea. Keep us posted. Also, time off is likely not the answer in these situations but rather we need to regulate load and fatigue. We did a recent podcast on this topic you may find beneficial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V43mSQEjZY8&t=928s.
If you aren’t using RPE to guide the path then I highly recommend adding this variable into your program rather than trying to consistently add weight each week. Also - given your current priority is to hit a PR, there may be a need to accept what you are experiencing for the time being (although this may not be the best option - always another time to train and hit PRs if we are focused on longevity of training). Finally, if you are noticing increased symptoms the day after training, then it is likely you aren’t tolerating loading well.
Thank you so much Michael, just yesterday I decreased the total reps of the squat session from 55 to 35 and today I had no pain so fingers crossed it stays that way tomorrow. I will use RPE from now on and prioritize longevity in training over gunning for a PR at this stage. Thank you again I really appreciate your advice, I’m really enjoying the barbell medicine podcasts including the one you linked. Thank you.