Hip Strain

Hi Jordan and Austin,

After just listening to one of your latest podcast related to pain I thought I would write in because I would like to begin at least some low impact training tomorrow but want to make sure it’s appropriate. I had some “hip pain” when squatting maybe 3 weeks ago (which I have had before, I’ve been olympic weightlifting for 3 years now) and tried to sort of push through it during a few heavy squat sets. The next day the pain had increased (although not intolerable; it felt like an impingement in my psoas/illacus) so I ended up going to visit my PCP who mentioned I might have just strained it slightly and not to worry. I ended up taking time away from training and just doing yoga for 5 days because I thought it might be related to long periods of sitting during my final school semester and I thought maybe stretching would help. On that Wednesday which was <1 week ago I had ART therapy done on my hips/quads by a chiropractor then Thursday went for a long walk and in the afternoon I suddenly could no longer lift my left leg. It felt almost as if my groin/hip flexor would seize if I tried to move my leg in any direction severely limiting my mobility. I was then limping and having difficulty doing any sort of movement on that leg, any movement was painful. I revisited my PCP who prescribed a heavy dose of NSAIDS (800mg 3x’s daily) to which have helped immensely and I almost have full range back but am still slightly limping and can feel a small amount of pain if I move my hip/leg in certain directions. I am set to start PT Monday but do not want to take a long time away from training since I am realizing (by all of your awesome info) that it isn’t necessarily always indicated for positive treatment outcomes. I also was not giving a specific Dx so was wondering if these symptoms sound like anything specific? It’s important to note that 2 years ago I also experienced some intolerable SI joint pain on the same side and was unable to train for an extended period of time due to lack of a diagnosis, but then suddenly months later it sort of cleared itself up (not sure if this is related in any way).

Anyways sorry for the long message, just hoping more information would be helpful.

Thank you in advance!
Jennifer

Hi Jennifer,

I’m sorry to say that I don’t have a good explanation for what you might be experiencing.

For most acute musculoskeletal issues, we tend to emphasize a focus on the prognosis rather than the diagnosis, as “diagnosing” one specific structure in a location versus another rarely changes what we do about it; additionally, the overwhelming majority of these sorts of things tend to improve (which it seems has been your experience so far). So, to the extent that you have improved, I would try to find a way to train it. Based on your current description, my first move would probably be to try hopping on a leg press to see how that feels.

Good luck!