Since around September 2021I’ve been experiencing pain in my right adductor that’s been preventing me from barbell squatting at high intensities/volumes. My best squat is 425lbs and the most I’ve been able to work up to without any pain the next day has been one workout where I did a set of 6 or 8 with 225lbs and another workout where I did 3 sets of 8 at 185lbs. If I try to push the volume or intensity in small increments, the symptoms eventually just get worse when I reach a certain volume/intensity. It doesn’t feel like a typical torn or strained muscle. My squat workouts are almost always painless and I don’t feel symptoms until I wake up the next morning and my right adductor feels very sore as if I had just done an intense workout, while my left adductor feels completely fine. I’ve been able to deadlift both sumo and conventional at high intensities and volumes (heavy doubles and triples at RPE 8-9) and even set PRs over the last few months and am continuing to progress on them right now with zero symptoms. I’ve also gone through a phase where I cut out barbell squats and instead did leg press, goblet squats, hack squats and various other machines, as well as single leg work. I did this for about a month and I was able to push hard on these exercises with minimal symptoms. After this phase I tried to slowly re-introduce barbell squats and I thought things were going well. Over a few weeks I progressed from doing sets of 8 with 135 up to sets with 165-185 twice per week. I tried to push up to 205 and 225 for sets of 8 and the symptoms starting coming back again, waking up in the morning only sore in my right adductor. Sometimes I can even feel a sort of lingering tenderness in my right adductor outside the gym from standing or sitting too long. I just want to be able to barbell squat heavy again and I feel like I’m continuously hitting road blocks and I don’t where to go from here. Should I take time off from barbell squats and go back to using machines where I can train productively and try again in a couple months? Or should I keep squats in my training and continue to train at lighter loads and be more patient? I’d appreciate some help on this.
@tcarleo I have a similar issue; I typically feel pain in the right hip, however, it only presents when I am locking out at the top of a squat. Mine has been persistent since July. An indicator movement (for me) is one-legged swing throughs (sagittal plane; hip flexion & extension). The pain ALWAYS shows up when the leg moves rearward/hip extension. Its odd that neither you, nor I have pain while deadlifting (conventional or sumo).
Things I have tried:
work through it/reduce intensity & increase volume. That definitely didn’t help.
stretch the living daylights out of my hip flexors (e.g., couch stretch). ineffectual.
take time away from the movement for a couple weeks. Only made me weaker; pain returned as soon as I returned to training (albeit at a reduced volume and intensity)
Here is what allows me to train without pain (note: when resuming normal squatting, the pain is still there): Front Squatting (likely due to the narrower stance) and Tempo Squatting. See Section 2, Step 1: Pain in Training: What To Do?
Reading elsewhere on the internets, some recommend against excessive hip flexor stretching, as it may not be a weakness or damage to the hip, rather an imbalance in musculature. to that point, I have been doing more glute bridges, glute/ham raises, and RDLs. I have not noticed any improvement over the past three weeks, but time will tell.
EDIT: I found the Copenhagen adductor exercise ( https://www.google.com/search?q=copp…n0kgWtjI7gCw18 ) I may give that a whirl as well.
I’ve also noticed that taking time away from barbell squatting only made me weaker, as well as made me experience symptoms at lighter loads than I did during phases of higher squat frequency/volume. I’ve also noticed I can better tolerate movements with my heels elevated. It also seems like I can tolerate high bar squats better than than low bar squats, although I can’t push either beyond a certain point. I know that BBM does not recommend stretching so I haven’t really given it any thought. As you said, it’s odd to me as well that deadlifts are painless being that the adductors do a significant amount of work in those movements. As far as the Copenhagen adductor exercise, I tried a similar movement with a cable attached to my feet and I didn’t feel like I was getting any benefit from it. I was able to hit the adductors hard with these but there’s just something about barbell squats that continues to give me symptoms. I’m thinking for next few weeks of training I’ll lower my squat frequency from 2x week to 1x week just so I have SOME barbell squatting in my training and throw in some machines with squat-type movement patterns that I know I can tolerate at heavier loads (hack squats, leg press, belt squat, etc.)
This is really weird, because I’ve been having the same pain in the same place as you for the last 10 months. Right adductor. It started soon after I started a new rigorous training program. And like yours, I never (thank goodness) felt mine while working out. Caveat: at the tail end of a hard sprint workout or tennis, I would sometimes start to feel it a bit, but I could still sprint or play at 100% and finish up my session. But with lifting weights? Nothing. Even heavy deadlifting. And then, a few hours later, or in the evening, I’d start to feel it. I’d wake up the next morning and put my socks on, and it would hurt as I bent my leg. Sitting at my desk at work, if I tried to bend my knee toward my head, and move my head toward my knee at the same time, it would hurt pretty badly. When I first started my program, it hurt a lot. In the past, I would have panicked and changed things all up. After reading and listening to a lot of BBM content and attempting to not catastrophize the situation, I became more at ease with what I was experiencing, and I told myself that if it at least wasn’t getting any worse, then I was ok to proceed with my program. And it didn’t get any worse. But it didn’t really get much better either. So I made some changes to my program on the fly as the months went on, and the pain has diminished substantially, almost to the point where it’s not there anymore. Occasionally it still flares up, but to a very low easily tolerable level.
I eventually did 4 things. Certainly 1 of these things, and most likely some combination of these things, has led to substantial diminishment of the pain:
Cut out jumping from my program. Just stopped doing it altogether.
Cut out 2 DL variations. Again, stopped cold turkey.
Inserted more “off” days into each mini-block or cycle of my program.
Stopped doing all the stretching and mobility stuff in my office during breaks throughout the day. I’m thinking that this stuff was actually doing more harm than good, as it was an additional applied stress, albeit a light one.
If I were you, I would try 1 or a combination of these:
Cut out squats. This is probably not a viable option for you, as it sounds like you want to keep doing them.
Cut out some lower body stuff: running, jumping, sports you play, DL variation, squat variation, any other lower body lifts you might be doing like lunges, split squats, etc. As for how much you cut out, you’ll just have to guess the right amount to cut. If you’re squatting and deadlifting, I’d keep running or a sport, and stop all the rest.
Insert more “off” days into each cycle.
Stop any stretching / mobility stuff, if you’re doing it. Or at least don’t overdo it. Cut it way back.
I think #2 and #3 are going to be the big hitters. I’d probably start with #3, and then keep trucking with the rest of your program, and as long as it’s not getting any worse, keep going, and re-assess after 2 months. If improvement not substantial after 2 months, implement #2. That’s what I did. I’d try to make an honest assessment every 2 months after making a major change, until eventually the improvement over the last 2 months was so substantial that I didn’t have to make any further changes. Eventually, I have been able to cut out those “off” days that I had to insert. I have also recently re-inserted 1 of the 2 DL variations, although at a very light load to start with.
FWIW, I no longer compete in power lifting; so chasing numbers or a total isn’t imperative for me. I have been making great progress on my front squat–despite my hip pain on the low bar. I can get away with tempo- or paused squatting, provided I use a narrower stance. However, when I get north of 495 or so, that hip pain creeps back in regardless.
Using a Safety Bar–for whatever reason–I used a narrower stance (similar to a front squat). That and front squatting gave me an adequate stimulus while I recovered in previous cycles. Recently, i jumped back into training with too much volume, frequency, and (likely) intensity. Leg press doesn’t piss it off much either, as well. YMMV
@tcarleo an update you might find useful (or amusing). I deloaded last week and took another run at standard, low-bar back squatting this week. I noticed hip tightness again, however, my right foot was maybe 1cm further back than my left. I adjusted my stance and had considerably less sensitivity. I could still feel tightness, but it was much less.
You may find it helpful to mask a tape line on the floor to ensure your foot position is symmetrical.
Hi there. Sorry to hear about this experience that you are having in your right adductor. I am curious, when you initially starting having symptoms, what volume/intensity were you at when you starting feeling symptoms? What program were you running then? What program are you running now?
It sounds like you initially chose the strategy of pivoting away from the competition squat by introducing some variantion (press, goblet squats, hack squats etc) and initially had a reduction in your symptoms- this was a fine starting point. When you started to re-introduce barbell squats into your program, what RPE scheme were you training at? You mention your sets, reps, and weight- but I don’t see a mention of RPE here. How does RPE inform your load selection for a given movement?
I initially started feeling symptoms several months ago when I started the Strength III template for my 2nd through of it, as I saw good strength gains my first run. I jumped into week 1 without having barbell squatted for many weeks and I woke up the next morning after Day 1 with some pretty bad soreness, especially in the adductors. My left adductor was fine several days later but my right adductor has had this lingering feeling of sensitivity and has not been able to handle the same workload as my left on squats. It has been like that for many months now. After this I ran the hypertrophy 2 template but kept the squat volume and intensity very low, probably not even reaching RPE 5. Even then I would sometimes still feel a weird soreness just in my right adductor. A few days here and there I would push the squat volume and intensity a little higher, still staying around RPE 5 ish and I would wake up the next morning very sore in my right adductor. I continued to deadlift both sumo and conv and still do now because I don’t experience symptoms from those lifts. Yes I did drop barbell squats for about a month and stuck to other leg work like leg press, goblet squats, split squats and symptoms were mostly minimal. I was also able to train at higher RPEs with these lifts. When I re-introduced barbell squats I started very light to ensure that I wouldn’t overdo it. In about a month or so I worked up from sets with 135 on high bar and low bar to sets with 185 and didn’t start to feel symptoms until I reached ~ 205 to 225lbs with sets of 6-8. This is about same weight I was having issues with before I switched barbell squats out. Keep in my mind my best squat is 425 and these sets were at a very low intensity, definitely under RPE 2-3 or so. I probably haven’t pushed past about RPE 3-4 on barbell squats for many months now. As of right now I’m running Strength III again minus the squats.
@tcarleo How is your right adductor pain now? If improved, what specific modification(s) do you think led to the improvement (assuming you made modifications)?
It’s funny you asked because I planned on making another post about this. Unfortunately, I’m still experiencing the same pain. Lately on low bar squats I’ve only been able to tolerate a single around RPE 6 and one back off set of 5, no higher than RPE 5. Deadlifts are still pain free, as well as most other lower body exercises. High bar squats I can push a little harder with the volume and intensity. After a workout my leg feels perfectly fine but when I wake up in the morning, only my right adductor is sore, and it doesn’t necessarily feel like DOMS. I’m still unsure as to what is really going on with it. The muscle still feels strong, as I can sumo and conventional deadlift singes and working sets at RPE 7-9 twice a week, as well as do various leg exercises such as leg press, RDLs, leg extensions, hamstring curls, lunges, etc. It’s literally only squats that cause symptoms, specifically with a barbell.
As far as modifications, I spent about a month off from squats and then revisited them to try and slowly work my way back up. That did not work. Right now Im squatting twice a week, low bar one day and high bar another. I am cautious of how hard I am pushing but still occasionally try to push the RPE a tad bit higher just to see how my body responds. If I were to go in the gym and low bar squats with a single at 255 ~ RPE 1-2 ish, and one back off set of 225x5, I would feel good the next day and probably be able to deadlift just fine. Anything more is pushing it. At this point I’m willing to try anything to get this figured out.
I know these are not what BBM would recommend, but if I were you, I might just consider one of the following at this point:
Staying essentially where you are with low-bar squats, and very very sloooowly trying to work your way up. You can do 255x1 followed by 225x5, pain-free. Next time, 257.5x1 + 225x5. I know that’s boring as all get out, but it may be what you have to do.
Same as above but with high-bar squats. Since you said you can push those harder, jettison low bar, and continue with high bar, very slowly trying to build up.
If you can DL, leg press, RDL, leg extension, hamstring curl, and lunge, all pain-free, that’s plenty for your lower body. Even more so if you run and/or play any sport. Why even mess with squats if they’re causing you this much consternation? You may eventually figure it out, I guess. I guess it’s just a matter of: can you hang with it long enough until the solution materializes? I just feel like at this point, almost 1 year with this pain, the solution should have come to you by now.
There will come a time when you will have to just abandon certain things. As I age, I’ve accepted that certain things will always eventually give me problems, so rather than fight it, I just stop doing those things and focus on all the other myriad challenging and enjoyable things (from a physical training perspective) I can do without problems.
Yes I do run twice a week, nothing crazy just light jogs. Thank you for the help but I respectfully disagree with your assertion that we eventually have to abandon certain movements and exercises based on our age, as would the folks at BBM. I simply enjoy squatting and the sport of powerlifting which is why I continue to squat.