Hey BBM Crew,
First off I want to say thanks for all the great content and programs, they have really helped me come a long way with my lifting journey. I am posting this hoping for some insight into an issue I have been having with my right hip which I injured a couple years ago and recently has given me some minor setbacks. I’m going to keep lifting regardless of the issue, i’d just like to understand it better.
Initial injury: Two years ago I was squatting about 390lbs as a max and had set out to start a new program. I was warming up (and at the time had the bad habit of broken elevator-ing my squats. I felt something shift during a ramp up set at 275, but no immediate pain, so I lifted on and did my programmed AMRAP at 315lbs, my right hip started hurting during the end of that set. Cut to about 2am that night and I was woken up by intense pain in my hip and lower back, this pain persisted and for the next few days it would take me 10-15min of intense pain in the morning before I could put weight on my right leg, my hip hurt constantly and was much worse in the mornings before I got it moving. I knew motion is lotion, so as soon as was feeling better (about two weeks later, walking no longer being an issue and I could air squat) I decided to get back to it. I warmed up slow and took it from there. This time I felt fine with the bar, 135, and 185. When I got into the hole with 225 on my back I was hit with immediate sharp pain and was in the same situation, only worse pain. I wrote off squatting and about three weeks later tried to at least get some deadlift work in when I was feeling okay and focus on that for a while. That didn’t go great and as soon I put 60% or so on the bar my right leg and hip just wouldn’t cooperate, like all strength had left that side of my body, followed by moderate pain. So I took even longer off and started rehabbing myself with my only lower body lift being front squats (these were well tolerated at lighter loads). I slowly worked my front squat up to where it had never been before over 6 months, slowly reintroduced dead lifts, and then slowly began to low bar back squat again. I never looked into a structural cause of the issue as I had been down that route with a minor meniscus tear (imaging, consults, “use it less”) and had no interest in wasting my time for someone to tell me its not bad enough for surgery, so deal with it…
Since that initial injury/rehab things have been going great. I completed the strength 1.0 this past February and hit a back squat of 465lb on test day with a few pounds left in the tank. I ran hypertrophy 2.0 after that and am now running strength 2.0. I had a tweak of this hip while doing my 5-3-0 tempo squats on day 3 of week 5. I was on my 3rd rep of 295lbs and left something shift in my hip joint during the decent. It didn’t hurt and I finished the workout. The shift felt like something structural moving within the hip joint. The morning after I had some pain reoccur, but luckily not nearly as bad as my past episodes. In an effort not to make it worse I immediately began taking longer warm ups and feeling things out, I had hip pain during my paused deadlifts the next day, but was able to keep weights close to what I would have expected with no tweak, when I started my stiff leg deadlfits I immediately felt it flare up and stopped for the day. Again the morning after it flared up. I took a 4 day weekend off lifting I then completed week 6 with lower than programmed weight and skipping all volume lower body work. This small deload seems to have worked and I was able to squat week 6 at programmed weights on the comp lifts with no pain. I skipped the beltless squats on day 2 (day 3 is tomorrow). My plan is to run week 7 twice, full bore the second time, and continue the program from there. Do you think this will adversely affect my outcomes from the program? DOMS are much worse this week, but I expected that with the deload during an already programmed low stress week.
I was hoping you guys might have some insight into the cause of this hip pain as I believe the issue to be a combination of a structural issue and maybe some acute loading/stress issues. I believe this might help me avoid further issues, that and I’m curious. I know you guys probably can’t give me concrete answers, especially over a forum. But your speculation would be appreciated! More details specific to the hip and nature of the pain below.
I’m confident that this isn’t just a soft tissue sensitization issue as since the initial injury my hip has developed a “pop”. My hip will get stiff and when I flex my glutes hard it pops (kind of like cracking a knuckle), and then usually loosens up with no pain or further issues. When the hips pain is there, it is acute in my glute right where it meets the sacrum at the posterior gluteal line, and radiates to the front of my hip and hip abductor. I also got minor pain in my lower back, but nothing radiating down my leg. When I tweaked it recently I believe I may have taken a too narrow stance and possibly impinged by hip. Any insight or advise would be greatly appreciated! I see a 500lb squat on the horizon and if there’s anything I can do to keep the hip healthy (warm up or assistance exercises) i’ll jump right on it! Even if there is a structural issue I won’t be dissuaded from lifting, I’d just like to better understand my situation.
Thanks in advance!