When my knee rotates away from my body in a squatting position(such as getting in position to sumo deadlift) or when I’m sitting, my hip seems to “pop” as the top of my thigh bone gets past a 45 degree angle to my torso. It is almaost like the joint is snapping into place. It is not currently painful but I do not want problems down the road. I am just curious to see if anyone else has experienced this problem and what they have done about it. Could it be a muscle imbalance? Lack of flexability, if so where? I regularly stretch(hamstrings, quads, hips)could it be the illopital(spelling?)band? Any information would be helpful.
T, you are not alone! I have a similar condition. I suspect that mine is a remnant from a severe back injury (suffered eleven years ago). As of the last few
months, the condition has normalized, for the most part. Specifically, it’s a combination of “piriformis syndrome” and chronically tight front hip flexors. When I sit for a prolonged period of time and then get up, or when I bend forward to pick something up, there is often a loud snapping or popping sound in either the gluteus medius or the front hip flexor.
As far as training goes, the condition has manifested itself in a different way. For a while I had to give up squatting. I did so because when I went below parallel, even with a modest weight, the right hip (in THE REAR this time) would seem to “shift a bit,” accompanied by a small clicking or popping noise. What sucked was that for several days after squatting I would feel a shifting and clicking in my hip, near the sits bone
while walking or performing “non” gym activities… There was no real pain mind you, but just a creepy feeling that something was indeed not right.
Once my hip stabilized, the most important thing for me was to once again begin introducing power movements into my routine, movements that didn’t cause my hip to pop. The first power-oriented exercises I was able to perform were Sumo’s and good-mornings, followed by SLDL’s and Romanian DL’s. FINALLY, two full years later, I am now able to squat “wide and deep,” with NO POPPING!
The moral of the story is simple: WHEN TRAINING, DON’T FORCE YOUR BODY TO DO ANYTHING IT DOESN’T WANT TO DO! This will inevitably lead to a blown groin, a strained rotator cuff, or at worst an INJUURED hip! You must first strengthen the affected area; once that has become stable, you can then resume training
as usual - Trust me on this one… I have screwed up in in ALL of the above, more than I would like to admit!
“If you don’t take care of your body, then where will you live!?” - Joey Z.
JoeyZ gave some good advice. Unless you get it evaluated there’s no way of really knowing what it is. Having said that I’ve experienced what sounds like a similar problem myself and known quite a few others who have gone through the same thing. Mine was caused by lots of martial arts kicking training on top of heavy leg training twice a week. The problem subsided as soon as I backed off on volume and used more of an organized warm-up and stretching protocol.
Thank you for your advice. Since the post I have done further research. There is actually something called popping hip syndrome. It can be caused by tight iliotibial bands. Since my gym has an indoor track I use it for most of my warming-up and cardio. The track is 16 laps to a mile, which means a lot of turning. According to certain sources the hip/spine rotation this causes can lead to tight iliotibial bands. I sometimes notice that the hip that pops more often is different depending on the direction I used on the track the previous day or days. I have heard of other people who received chronic problems from small indoor tracks but, I did not think I was going at a fast enough pace to cause problems.I also have noticed when lying on my back to stretch my hamstings, when my leg is straight up in the air it seems to be pulled slightly away from my body and is hard to keep straight. I have been stretching my piriformis extensively for a while now because I initialy thought that was the problem. The legs keep seeming like there be tugged off center. In the meantime I will warmup differently, avoid the track for a while, and stretch the IT bands/hip flexors. Your thoughts on whether or not this could be the problem are greatly appreciated.
T, stretch your hams emphasising different stances (i.e narrow and as wide as your groin muscles allow). Stretch your medial hip rotators. Place right ankle over top of left knee in a standing position, then squat down very gently till you feel a deep stretch in the groin and glutes. For hip flexors and lateral hip rotators, lie down, laterally rotate left leg (open groin), medially rotate right leg (close the groin) all with bent knees. You are stretching the right thigh in this position. Hope I’ve explained them well enough for you to understand.
Thanks ptonline, I appreciate the information I will implement these stretches in my program.