Wide Squatting and Glute Pain

Whenever I squat as low as possible with my feet more than shoulder-width, it causes pain in my glutes right around the hip joint as I approach the bottom position. This even happens with just my bodyweight. I’ve begun to think that this is actually a result of poor hip mobility (especially in the frontal plane) but I have absolutely no way of knowing.

Does anyone have any advice or experience related to this issue?
Thanks

stretch alot, ice and use a baseball to roll around the area of pain and a decent circumfrance around that, back pain can be cause by glute stiffness and vice versa. narrow your stance and if you have to dont squat so low

I recently started to do a lot of glute myofacial release on a softball. Hopefully this will help my mobility a bit.
As for glute pain a result of back stiffness - I prefer my hips to move in the squat as opposed to my back =]

It sounds like a wide stance may be something I have to work up to. I’m actually “re-learning” the squat right now (I had to stop training my squat heavy because of a lot of form issues that resulted from teaching myself to squat - trying to fix those). I would like to eventually be able to squat with a full range of motion, however.

The pain kind of feels like a strong stretch on my hip abductors - hopefully being more specific might help.

[quote]KurtMondaugen wrote:
I prefer my hips to move in the squat as opposed to my back =]

.[/quote]

good luck not getting your back involved.

[quote]KurtMondaugen wrote:
Whenever I squat as low as possible with my feet more than shoulder-width, it causes pain in my glutes right around the hip joint as I approach the bottom position. This even happens with just my bodyweight. I’ve begun to think that this is actually a result of poor hip mobility (especially in the frontal plane) but I have absolutely no way of knowing.

Does anyone have any advice or experience related to this issue?
Thanks[/quote]

if its the side of the glute as opposed to the rear its a tight piriformis. i have some of the same issue. lots of mobility work, cressey’s stuff, and foam rolling. de franco has a vid of using a baseball on the piriformis.

[quote]seth.ewan wrote:

if its the side of the glute as opposed to the rear its a tight piriformis. i have some of the same issue. lots of mobility work, cressey’s stuff, and foam rolling. de franco has a vid of using a baseball on the piriformis. [/quote]

Thanks, incredibly helpful info.

I’ve seen the video, and started doing those a few weeks ago on a softball. They definitely hurt a lot more than rolling a softball under my ass should, so I tend to think that I might have had a lot of adhesion going on.

Speaking of Cressey, do you have any opinion if Magnificent Mobility is worth the cost? I’d imagine it’s probably a lot more comprehensive than scattered information on the internet, and hip mobility is a significant problem for me right now.

[quote]dez6485 wrote:
KurtMondaugen wrote:
I prefer my hips to move in the squat as opposed to my back =]

.

good luck not getting your back involved.
[/quote]

Thanks, that was really helpful…

Honestly though, if I’m not getting sufficient mobility from my hips, then it’s going to force me compensate with mobility from the lumbar region, causing lower back rounding.

Does that sound desirable to you?

Didn’t think so.

I own MM and I can def. testify for the content. If you have the funds, his Athlete DVD series with Robertson is also great - as is most of Nick Tuminello’s DVD’s.

[quote]KurtMondaugen wrote:
dez6485 wrote:
KurtMondaugen wrote:
I prefer my hips to move in the squat as opposed to my back =]

.

good luck not getting your back involved.

Thanks, that was really helpful…

Honestly though, if I’m not getting sufficient mobility from my hips, then it’s going to force me compensate with mobility from the lumbar region, causing lower back rounding.

Does that sound desirable to you?

Didn’t think so.[/quote]

point was, youre not going to be able to squat very well without leaning forward a little as you come down, and therefore extending your back as you return up. it shouldnt turn into a good morning, but your back will be involved, regardless of what your preference in the matter is.

yea, thought so.

[quote]AlexKay wrote:
I own MM and I can def. testify for the content. If you have the funds, his Athlete DVD series with Robertson is also great - as is most of Nick Tuminello’s DVD’s.[/quote]

Thanks for the input. I’ll definitely have to give MM a good look. I doubt I can afford Building the Efficient Athlete.

Just to clarify, when someone is squatting and they lean forward, they should not be rounding the back. The movement should be occurring at the hips.

[quote]KurtMondaugen wrote:
AlexKay wrote:
I own MM and I can def. testify for the content. If you have the funds, his Athlete DVD series with Robertson is also great - as is most of Nick Tuminello’s DVD’s.

Thanks for the input. I’ll definitely have to give MM a good look. I doubt I can afford Building the Efficient Athlete.[/quote]

I moved my squat fairly wide last spring and found it tough to get deep at first. I bought E.C.'s Maximum strength book and now use it primarily for the mobility stuff. It has most of the MM exercises but they are written down and described. I do a lot of lower body and hip warm up before I train and I found it helpful to have it in book format for reference.

[quote]ouroboro_s wrote:
KurtMondaugen wrote:
AlexKay wrote:
I own MM and I can def. testify for the content. If you have the funds, his Athlete DVD series with Robertson is also great - as is most of Nick Tuminello’s DVD’s.

Thanks for the input. I’ll definitely have to give MM a good look. I doubt I can afford Building the Efficient Athlete.

I moved my squat fairly wide last spring and found it tough to get deep at first. I bought E.C.'s Maximum strength book and now use it primarily for the mobility stuff. It has most of the MM exercises but they are written down and described. I do a lot of lower body and hip warm up before I train and I found it helpful to have it in book format for reference.[/quote]

Thanks for sharing that info. I’d actually really prefer a book format to a DVD, so I’ll have to check out maximum strength.
Do you happen to know if the information in the book is a lot more in-depth than the material that’s online? I’m already incorporating a large amount of mobility drills that are in MM, and while I might not be doing things exactly optimally, I’m very quick to rationalize not buying something, because I’m a total miser.

[quote]Krollmonster wrote:
Just to clarify, when someone is squatting and they lean forward, they should not be rounding the back. The movement should be occurring at the hips.[/quote]

Thanks for clarifying. I thought the entire vertebral column is “leaned” forward, not flexion in individual vertebrae as Dez seemed to be suggesting. So it makes sense that the origin of this movement is the hips.

It would seem like spinal flexion would just reduce the force transfer between the lower body and the bar.