Lateral Hip/Femur Pain

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
1

Hello and thanks for your time. I’m experiencing what feels like tendon pain at the hip/femur attachments on the outsides (lateral?) of my hip/femur (bursa?). The pain radiates down the outside of my femurs on both legs to about mid-thigh. I experience this pain during anything from body-weight squats/climbing stairs to my last warm-up set on squats (~275lbs). The pain is uncomfortable, but not excruciating. During my work sets (currently 4x5 @ ~300lbs, low bar) the pain is not noticeable. Is this common and part of normal tendon adaptation? It seems strange that the pain would be present working up to my work sets, but not under the heaviest loads. No pain noticed during DL. If this is normal, I assume slowing my rate of overloading to give my tendons time to catch up would be a good course of action. Is that misguided?

I’m 6’3", ~215, long legs and arms (swimmer’s body, though fatter than a swimmer at this point), wide-ish shoulders, 40 years old. I have been doing progressive overloading for the last 3 months since I got my home gym and have been lifting with the main lifts on and off for a decade.

Thanks again.

2

Hey @user1 - I’m sorry to hear about the hip issue you’ve been dealing with. Based on the description of symptoms you’re experiencing, this very well may be a gluteal tendinopathy or Greater Trochanteric Pain Syndrome, which is just a fancy way of saying lateral hip pain. Either way, management doesn’t really change - modifying loading to tolerable symptoms is the primary approach as outlined HERE. If you haven’t already, Dr. Baraki’s article on Pain in Training: What Do? is also a great resource for practical advice on how to approach these types of scenarios. To your question on slowing your rate of overloading in training, we would need to do a consultation with you to provide individualized advice. You can find our intake paperwork HERE.

I hope that helps and keep up the great work with your training.

-Charlie