Recently, I’ve noticed a muscle in my right hip becoming irritated in the bottom position of leg presses. It’s a sharp pain only at the bottom of the leg press and not in the hole of a squat of equal depth.
The pain is located directly over the femur bump on the side of my right hip. It’s also present whether I keep my leg press stance narrow or wide or toes out/in.
Obviously not asking for an internet diagnosis, but anybody experience something similar?
I sometimes have that pain, same as you, not in squats, but in leg presses. For me, it’s tight hips, and REALLY stretching those bad boys out will do the track. Also, doing single leg leg presses is very smart, and has worked. And, stretch your quads in between sets.
How is your glute firing on that side?
I only ask because it is a possibility that the glute is not doing its job or exerting a posterior pull on the femur, allowing it so smoothly move in the joint.
It strikes me as strange though, that you do not experience this with the squat. Then again the mechanics are little bit different and your technique may be also different between the two exercises.
You could try some hip flexor (psoas+rectus femoris) stretches, followed by some glute activation drills to see if that helps.