Hey guys, herniated a disc last November, and I’m almost free of sciatica and moving pretty well, can touch my toes sometimes etc. However, my hip flexion is restricted around 90 degrees. I feel a pinching, constricted sensation in the crease of my hip when i bend it to 90 degrees, or pull it past that. This is also my limitation on squat depth, it is almost like my leg is jamming into my hip.
Trying to really get my hip mobility extremely good by the time rugby season starts up again so I can be pain free. also trying to get my Over Head squat with arms and legs together to rock bottom, this restriction is whats stopping me (with legs wider I can go all the way down). Is it tight psoas? I was thinking just hanging out for a while in a close feet close grip OHS with light weight might help me fix that. Thanks for any help
P.S. my hips both also pop when I bring my leg up to around 90 degrees
I think I understand the question, and obviously this is just a suggestion…but sounds like either anterior hip capsule adhesions or femoral nerve entrapment, which can be related to the previous DH. Typically one would work on opening up the anterior hip capsule and lengthen the hip flexors.
hmm. I looked at both of those and they seem to relate to the hip going into extension. I don’t really have that much trouble going into extension, at least compared with flexion.
Can you give me any resources on mobilizing the joint capsule?
i had some trouble with my hip (but it sounds like it is different from yours??) where i would get a weird stabbing kind of pain at the front of my femur. felt like the head of the femur was ramming into the front of the pelvis socket. would hurt to raise my leg.
i think (after much help from here) it was anterior femoral glide syndrome. maybe congenital. or maybe a congenital component (have had clicky hips from childhood). it was definitely aggravated by my doing a whole heap of quad / psoas stretching, though, because i thought the psoas was tight and needed to be stretched out.
what fixed things up for me (and my hips now feel 100% like they never have before) was stopping with the quad / psoas stretches (except lunges or stretches that also involve glute activation). not sure why… but glute activation seems to help the head of the femur stabilize properly in the socket so it doesn’t hurt.
also working on internal rotation. bit hard to describe. sitting. knees up and feet flat on the floor. rotate the knees in and the ankles out. gradually… i can get both knees touching each other resting on the ground with my ankles close in by my glutes. can wiggle into good lumbar curve, too. not sure why but it seems to help pack the joint in a good way and my squats (external rotation / leg raise) has never felt better.
Those two problems I mentioned will create a positive with hip flexion and adduction, and can be related to AFGS. Opening the HC is much different than a PS stretch. As the other poster mentioned PS stretching can aggravate the AFGS, where as manual AHC Manipulation will bring relief. The only problem is that with a previous disc injury it is not recommended you do on your own. If the PS stretching is not working then most likely AFGS is an underlying issue.
Could be femoral anterior glide syndrome. I had this pain very badly on my right hip, to the point where I couldn’t bodyweight squat, or stretch my hip flexors without pain. Read these articles… basically stop aggravating the hip for now, and in the meantime, work on glute activation work (clams, bowler squats, x-band walks, side-lying leg raise [i.e. abduction], single-leg bridge, glute bridge, etc). Then work in very light stretching once you feel the pain going away. Be sure to keep up with your soft tissue work.