T Nation

Squat Going Down Hill

#1

Frustrating!! My squat is getting worse. It’s now so painful that I can no longer get through more than one set of working weight.

Pain: very top of groin, where thigh meets the hip. Both sides. It literally feels like it’s a HARD stop, no forcing past it and it’s very painful. Almost like my femur it hitting the bump stops!

Action taken so far: gone to my local chiro who has taken care of me in the past. Added one stretch to my warm up routine. Basically a runners stretch, but instead of on the ground I leave a knee on my bench and basically lunge forward. I’ve done these multiple times a day for a little over a week and it seems worse now than it ever has.

Squats are my favorite lift and it sucks not being able to do them!

Edit: I should also add the feeling does not change with weight. Also, in the hole and coming out of the hole is the worst part, and it feels like my groin is doing ALL the work while my legs laugh at it struggling.

#2

See a Physical Therapist.

Stop doing things that make it hurt. At this point before you can go forward you’re going to have to take a step back. So do that on your terms not on a groin/hip flexor tears terms.

#3

While echoing the above point that you should go see a professional, I am in no way qualified, but I had a very tight, painful hip flexor on my right side, to the extent that I would go down and up lopsided in a squat.

However, reading Starting Strength told me to focus on pushing my knees out at the bottom of the squat, and not had the problem since… something to do with knees out leading to less impingement between femur and pelvis at the bottom. Maybe see if that helps?

#4

I have something similar, it’s pretty much cleared up now but it was causing me some problems not too long ago. Stretching too hard can make it feel worse, the stretches should feel somewhat uncomfortable but not totally agonizing. Some myofascial release work on the area might help, it did for me. If you can roll on a lacrosse ball or something of that sort, a softball would be better since it’s bigger, that could help. Do that before stretching.

One thing I came up with after watching some Kabuki videos with their boomsticks and such is leaning a barbell up in the corner or a power rack, lay on the floor on your side with the affected leg on the ground and put the end of the bar on your adductors (groin muscles). Focus on sore spots, you can add a bit of pressure with your hand as well. It sounds fucked up but it actually works well. This sort of stuff is better to do right before stretching since it will relax the muscle.

If it hurts to squat then don’t squat, the last thing you want to do is make this worse.

#5

Also, tactical frog stretches might help. Again, go easy on them or it can make things worse. There is a video on Chris Duffin’s youtube channel.

#6

Also worth mentioning is that it’s possible you’re not squatting with the ideal stance width, toe flare, and/or how far out you push your knees.

There’s a lot of variation in the way our femurs insert into our hip sockets. Some of us have deep hip sockets, some people’s are further forward on the hip while others have them further out to the side.

Here is an excellent video on the subject:

Granted as others have been saying, I’d take it easy on squats and also be a bit gentler with your stretches. You need to be able to relax into your stretches. Otherwise, your body reflexively tenses up. Stretching/Mobility for the most part is not a ‘no pain, no gain’ moment.

#7

Tried some stuff in the video, I am pretty much already squatting is the most comfortable (aka least painful) stance.

What I really found interesting is my left knee tracks fairly straight over my foot and my right is way off, and there’s no way to “force” it inline. I also noticed that body weight squats with a counterweight looked very jacked up. My torso bends over quite a bit, I have short legs long torso. Bending my knees o can keep my feet flat and take the knee well past my toes but still seems there’s just something off.

#8

Video?

#9

What exactly would you like to see video of? I should be able to get some now.

#10

Let’s see a quick vid of your C-Walk!

#11

Your BB squat and that squat with the counterweight that you say is so jacked up.

If all you can do is one of those, even that would help a lot. I know I’ve thought I had one issue, then posted a vid on these forums to find out that I had other issues.

If a picture is worth a thousand words… well then how many words is a vid worth. :slight_smile:

#12

Ok give me 20 minutes lol

#13

Google search turns up gangrelated dancing… I’m either missing the joke or searching the wrong thing.

#14

@Fletch1986 I forgot I made this 2 weeks ago for a form check.

#15

Few things I noticed from the vid:

You’ve got your right foot slightly more in front of your left. It may just be the way the camera angle is pointing. This isn’t always the case, but sometimes that hints at Hip shift. Chad Wesley Smith has a few vids on fixing things such as that. Maybe look into them. I noticed you mentioned that a change in weight doesn’t help much either, so it could very well be that. It isn’t always bad to have one foot slightly farther than the other, but for some folks it can be.

It kind of looks like You come up off of your heels just a smidge too. Happens to me as well, and it makes my knees all funky and my groin in the top area as well. Maybe just a slightly wider stance can help, and sitting back and opening up a bit more as well.

Of course I could be waaaaaaaay off.

And if anything, maybe just doing some consistent rehab stuff for a while might be the fix.


Just a few suggestions. I’m no expert or anything, and as others have stated, consult a professional if you feel you need to.

#16

I’m going to 2nd the sitting back and opening your hips up and possibly widening the stance just a little. Another benny of doing these things is that you don’t have to squat down as deep to reach parallel.

You might not be as strong when you first do these changes, but if it lets you squat without pain it’ll be stronger in the long run.

#17

Why are you walking the bar out forwards? That makes no sense at all. As for your squat, it looks like you just stop and reverse the movement before you reach parallel. You could try another stretch, hold something in front of you for balance (barbell, doorknob, whatever) and sit down in a full squat for 30 seconds. Repeat 3-5 times, hopefully until you feel more comfortable in that position. Try to relax your muscles while you do this, just keep your back neutral.

And I should mention that this:

I do this regularly, I thought I came up with it myself but I guess not. I do it for my hip flexors, but it does stretch the adductors at the front of the thigh (I can’t remember the right names for them). However, I have noticed that doing this before training doesn’t help at all and has caused some muscle cramps a couple times when I did it before training. Generally speaking, static stretching is not good to do before lifting. Kevin Oak does it, but he’s a special case. Either way, you don’t want to overdo stretching, in terms of intensity (pushing too hard into the stretch) or frequency (once or twice a day should be enough).

#18

I’ve tried walking it out both ways lol, when I posted this video before I got called out on it.

That’s basically as far as I can go. Pain becomes unbearable beyond that.
I will try getting into the bottom position more with no weight and just sitting there, although I feel the same pain without weight this would still help I assume.

I also plan to make an appointment with a physical therapist. Not sure why but I never thought about that.

#19

Hmmmm…

I think I also said you needed to work on learning how to squat before you went too heavy or it could be problematic. Not trying to be an asshole here, just speaking from personal experience.

#20

I’ve gone down in weight… I’m also hear seeking guidance… I thought this is what learning how to squat looks like.

Edit: this is also the same video @ChickenLittle. I haven’t had a real squat session since posting that video 2 weeks ago. I’ve been trying to figure out what’s going from. I’ve been reading, went to my doctor and have been doing his stretches. I’m not letting advice fall on deaf ears, I’m simply looking for MORE solutions.