Inside Leg Tension From Squats

During and after squatting, I sometimes feel some tension in the inside of my right leg (only). It is not pain, but I can just feel the strain. Why might I be feeling this? Form? Stance? Is this normal?

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Depth! My adductors get crazy sore after squatting deep.

Why you feel it on one side could mean from nothing to normal imbalance to nerve root impingement to a hip shift. I’d hazard a guess to the nothing end of the spectrum, but post a video from the back of you want us to check.

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The inside leg muscles are the Adductors. They squeeze your knees together, and they also extend your hips.

It sounds like that right side is doing some extra Hip Extension instead of Knee Extension. Or a motion like a “Sumo Squat” or sit back style, hip dominant move, with less quad involvement.

I had this going on on my right side for years and it was no big deal. More recently I had it happening on the left side and soon even walking became painful.

So keep an eye on it.

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Will do gentlemen. Thanks for introducing me to the adductors. I did not know what those were prior to this.

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@TrainForPain Here is a video from the back.

@TrainForPain I have other reps on video if you need to see another one.

Thanks! If you have anything straight from behind or even another rep, it might help. Your left knee appears to come in just a slight bit more than the right as you start to drive out of the hole, but nothing disastrous. You obviously purposefully drive your knees out on the concentric, so that’s a win. I don’t really see anything problematic at all here, although I’m not the form police some are. I would recommend squatting facing away from the mirror, because I think it tends to mess folks up, but you look really solid to me.

Closer to the groin, or mid thigh?

Is it more often on low reps, high reps (before nearing failure), or doesn’t matter?

@RT_Nomad Closer to the groin. I can’t distinguish based on reps, but I typically feel it most after I’m done with reps. Again not a dull or sharp pain, just tension or something akin to that.

I recently tried adductor stretches before squatting and it felt better after but that is an n of 1 and potentially coincidental.

I had something similar. My approach was to use neoprene thigh sleeves. And pulled them as high as I could to my groin area. I used one on each leg because the added support might cause an imbalance had I only worn it on the injured thigh. They were not extremely tight, but just a nice snug fit. Maybe the warmth added some protection. I don’t know, but I liked the results.

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Sorry it took awhile but here is my first rep on that set. I don’t have a different angle sorry.

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That looks great to me and I’m sure @RT_Nomad is on point. I use neoprene on my elbows and knees and it helps a ton

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Right on! I appreciate it guys!

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I often get this adductor “discomfort” following a heavy or high rep workout when I have squatted with a straight / power bar.

Switching to an SSB or Camber Bar seems to help me avoid making the “pain” worse until I recover, but yet still get in another squat session in the week if I want to. I have had this adductor get so tight on both legs where I feel as though I am risking pulling a muscle if I continue the workout squatting or deadlifting.

Don’t really know why this is, probably a form issue, but it seems to work switching to a different bar and warming up for a lot more sets with smaller jumps on weight.

I may have to check out Nomad’s idea though as that sounds better than what I am doing.

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