I have a maddening annoying unusual soreness that won’t seem to go away. It seems to be centered specifically in my vastus medialis on both legs. There was no acute injury. I have run through SSLP on a few occasions and have never encountered this before. There was no acute injury. It seemed to come on in November of this year. On Nov 5 I was doing sets of 5 with 265lbs( which I have done many times before, it was heavy but not PR weight) On the 5th rep of the 2nd set, I felt a groin pull. This has happened before and I have used the Starr rehab (light weights, high volume) successfully before. I waited 3 days and started gradually working back up in weight. The groin pain gradually faded but it seemed as though my quads, specifically my vastus medialis in both legs were sore constantly. It took 6 weeks to get back to 260lbs which I could not complete 3x5 because of the pain in my legs. We were then locked down for month because of Covid. During that time I did goblet squats with a 40lb dumbells for sets of 10-12. The soreness alleviated somewhat but never went away entirely. I can best describe it like severe DOMS present for any type of quad dependent movement, all day, every day. Jan 23rd lockdown ended and I started LP again, on Mar 1st I failed 270lbs because my quads are just too sore to concentrate on squatting. I have tried foam rolling, stretching, heat and cold and NSAIDS( which I have to be careful with because of stomach issues) and nothing really makes a difference. When I foam roll I can feel the knotted, painful areas in the vastus medialis. The rolling is exquisite agony lol, but it doesn’t seem to have a lasting effect. Since March 7th I haven’t squatted at all as an experiment.
In summation: male 43, 210lbs , sleep and diet could be better , posted form videos back in the day on SS and received praise for form so I don’t think it’s a form issue. Any advice or suggestions appreciated.
Sorry to hear about this issue. From reading your story, it sounds like you have tried several strategies from the SS perspective, but I’m not getting the sense that you have checked out much of our content relating to pain and injury rehab. I’d recommend starting with these two resources:
If you’ve read the article, I guess I’m a bit surprised that your approach to rehab involved going back to an LP, foam rolling, stretching, and concerns about technique, since none of those are what we would recommend for general rehabilitation programming.
Having now read the article and watched the vid few times I feel as though I can be a bit more concise
the pain /ache is in both vastus medialis, there was no acute injury
The pain is present in any sort of movement requiring quads, most noticeably squats
I can move through the full range of motion but the ache/soreness is present even with bodyweight squats
I have been able to force myself to work through the pain (indeed it feels better once warmed up) However, the DOMS- like ache in the vastus medialis is noticeable afterwards in any sort of quad dependent movement. For example, standing up from a low stool.
I have tried reducing the weight and upping the reps and running LP again. This has obviously had less than ideal results. Due to the Covid lockdown I experimented with goblet squats and higher reps. This too didn’t seem to help.
According to the article I could reduce the range of motion, substitute exercises or try some tempo changes (3-0-3) I am open to trying anything at this point.
I just find it more odd than anything else. It’s like muscle pain that acts like tendon pain if that makes sense? It would be like having persistent pain in only my rhomboids from pressing or something. Just something I have never encountered before.
Based on your description, my first moves here would indeed be to temporarily substitute alternative movements (for example, a leg extension, leg press, box squat, split squat/lunge/lateral lunge), use higher reps (e.g., sets of 12-15), and use a controlled tempo (e.g., 3-0-3 or 6-0-0), starting at relatively low volume, with 2-3 exposures per week on non-consecutive days. Then modify iteratively based on your response.
If you continue to struggle with improvement with this strategy, the next step we’d recommend would be a consultation with one of our rehab coaches.
Just finished a week of doing bodyweight tempo squats (303) 15 reps Mon-wed- fri and my legs feel better! The soreness was noticeably reduced after the second workout. Less so after today’s.
What is this sorcery? lol What is the mechanism by which slowing the tempo would make the soreness feel better?
For next week, would squatting the bar be too much of a jump?