Left Hip Buckling During Squat

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

Hey all,

Wasn’t sure the best place to post this, but I figured powerlifters would be a good start.

When I start piling on weight on the squat, I have this issues where my left hip pulls inward. My waist will tilt slightly diagonally (looking at me from the back) and my left shoulder will drop. I know my legs can handle more weight, but I can’t control or eliminate this degradation in form, so I’m stuck on how much weight I can handle.

My first thought is weak hip abductors on the left side, but I’m not sure this jives with my personal history. I’ve always noticed my ADDuctors are disproportionately weak. For example, when I go water skiing, I have a very difficult time keeping my legs together. I’ve also experienced a minor groin tear when sumo deadlifting in the past.

I doubt it’s related, but just in case, I should also mention I have experienced many sport/work injuries on my left shoulder and arm over the years (broken ulna, multiple subluxations - one of which was pretty severe and I couldn’t lift my arm over my head for months).

I’m relatively short (5’9) with a long torso and very short legs (29" inseam), so I don’t have much difficulty going Ass-To-Grass on squats and prefer to do so. This problem occurs in the hole. If I put on more weight and attempt parallel squats, it will also happen then.

Right now I’m stuck at sets of 175lbs ATG, so we’re not talking super heavy weights here…

If it’s needed, I can probably wrangle up a video of the problem in the next couple days.

Thanks for your help!

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Video. We are about the same proportions you little taller than me though. I notice I have this problem when my legs and glutes are tight. I posted a video up the other day of 405 for 15 where this was happening bad. One thing thing was the tightness and the other I noticed I set up wider than I normally would. So could be as simple as stretching and moving your feet in just a bit. But a video would really help.

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It actually could be related to the shoulder, but without a video I can’t say. When I’ve had shoulder problems, I couldn’t hold the bar correctly or get good tension on my side because of my shoulder so the bar would tilt and I’d compensate by pushing harder with my left lower body.