I can't seem to get past hip pain - any suggestions?

Hi everyone,

I am 31 years old and have competed once in powerlifting and would like to more in the future. Unfortunately, since June 2016, I have had recurring hip pain that I can never seem to escape. The pain is hard to describe - it mostly presents itself like a sharp pain in the actual hip joint. Sometimes I can also “recreate” the pain if I cross the leg with the painful hip at a right angle over the other leg. Interestingly, I have had it in both hips but never at the same time. It mostly seems aggravated by moves where my leg is bent and then I am generating force into the floor, so mu squatting and deadlifting abilities become limited when I have the pain.

I have tried periods of taking intensity way down and slowly building back up or switching out exercises and coming back, but it seems once I get up to around a certain intensity on squat or deadlift in terms of weight used, I can never make progress beyond that point without feeling pain again. I feel like I have a fairly good understanding of BBM principles as they pertain to pain, but somehow I just cannot progress in my lifts without the same pain coming back.

Are there any tips you can recommend for getting to a point where I can make progress without being limited by this pain and what to do in a particular program when pain really limits ability? I greatly appreciate any input!

Hi there,

It sounds like you’ve made some good attempts at self-managing this situation based on the general information we put out. However, at this point there aren’t any other “general tips” we can provide, and we would have a hard time giving individualized advice without much more information, as discussed in this post: https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/forums/pain-and-rehab-q-a-with-dr-derek-miles-and-dr-michael-ray/21562-pain-rehab-consults-w-dr-ray-dr-miles?p=44721#post44721

At this point we’d recommend a consultation with one of our coaches for further guidance.