Looking for a bit of advice on some front and lateral hip pain that occurs mostly at rest (days after training, when trying to sleep, sitting in a chair etc.) with a somewhat periodic pathology. Seem to mitigate whenever I stand up and do some walking about. I’m not sure if any specific exercise started it (squats, hip thrusts or deadlifts) or if I somehow injured myself or my hip, but about 4-5 weeks ago I noticed quite a lot of tightness in the adductor/groin region and pain when during any flexion of the left leg/hip. Even lying leg raises or any form of hip involving exercise provoked stiffness and a feeling of obstruction inside the front of the hip. This has somewhat resided today with the pain mainly being on the side of the left leg (tingling, like a nerve irritation perhaps) and in the front of the left hip (stabbing pain that comes, but resides quickly).
During training the pain is actually not that dominant right now. Hip exercises can still produce some tightness on the outer left hip, but I don’t feel any stabbing or “dangerous” pain during squats, RDL’s or lunges. Been running almost pain-free 1-2 times per week for 2 weeks now as well and that does not seem to provoke it, so I’m a kinda at a loss here. For now I will try to keep the load tolerable, accept some pain during training and incorporate tempo squats for leg loading, though regular medium RPE squats seem fine as well. Also added banded squats to my warmup routine.
I’ve been by a physiotherapist that believed it was a tight left hip flexor and suggested that I should do daily gluteus medius exercises for proper glute activation. I’ve done as told, but these do not seem to improve the sensory disturbances or pain I feel. I’m thinking of booking an appointment at the doctor in near future and possibly an orthopedic if he thinks it needs further evaluation, but really wanted to hear your suggestions on training and what to do about it. Thanks!
More info: 28 year’s old, been doing barbell training 2 years, 2-3 times a week.
Hey @cml sorry to hear about the recent onset of hip symptoms. It sounds like you have the right mindset in your second paragraph with adjusting loading to tolerance and keep moving forward. We’d be happy to consult with you to help guide this path and create a gameplan for implementing programming.
I likely wouldn’t agree with the physiotherapists narrative based on a “tight” hip flexor as this is a rather ambiguous explanation. Not so sure I’d advise “glute medius” activation exercises either. But with a consult we could dive deeper into your current experience and how to implement programming with tolerable symptoms with which to build from.
I don’t recommend seeking out orthopedic consult at this time based on the information you’ve provided but ultimately that’s up to you.