Pain in Front of Hip When Squatting/Video

Bigger Stronger Leaner Injuries and Rehab
1

Ok, so I am doing the Stronglifts 5x5 program. Never did much squatting back in the day. I am 32, good health. Infantry in the US Army. Currently in Afghanistan. Alot of squats in the program. Now, I am getting a pain in the front of the hips, the exact same as this guy in this short video he made. Same location of pain, deep in front of hip, comes in at right at about 10 to 15 degress before parallel, and below in the squat.

In the beginning, I believe I was squatting too narrow for my hips(what I thought was shoulder width). A soldier here that does power lifting said I needed a wider stance, and was causing a hip impingement possibly. Well, I went to the squat rack that day,made a wider stance, and the pain lessened.

Extra notes: While laying on my back, and bend knee,and pull thigh to chest to stretch hamstring(lying hamstring stretch), the pain is also in hip when the leg is closes to my stomach/chest region.(simulating bottom of squat)
If I lift my leg to same position WITHOUT USING HANDS for more stretch, but just use my own muscles in my leg, and lift to chest as far as possible, there is not as much pain.
If you do this, you will notice that if you pull knee straight back to nipple, you can only go so far, and if you swing your knee toward your shoulder, it can come back farther.
My thoughts on this is that since I am pulling with my hands for more stretch, I am causing the impingement type activity in the hip. Just as when I was squatting too narrow.

When I squat, I go parallel, but to the point where hip is below patella(the crease where you your leg and hips meet), know what I mean. As mentioned in Rippetoes book(Starting Strength).

Im sure my form is ok, alot of people have looked at it.
In the video, at around 1:24, he describes his pain. This is not me in the video, and not my video.

2

i think that you probably want to activate the stabilizers round the back of your hip. they help pull the femur back and hold it in the socket. partly it is about neural activation (conscious effort).

x band walks.

step ups onto a high step (making sure to use your front leg to pull yourself up).

pistols (assisted if you need to)

you gotta step up / pistol really deep to get the stabilizers working. at least, i needed to…

3

I will give those a try. I also added updates to my first post…Notes:

4

im having the same problem. Ive been doing open clams and rockers and they seem to help some. You will want to focus on glute activation when doing the squats.

You may have posture issues that are contributing to your pain. Is you pelvis anteriorally rotated? Do you have excesive lordosis?

5

No excessive lordosis.

6

The Agile 8

7

Had very similar issue. Foam rolling IT band and adductors (as well as possible, as this is awkward) and stretching pretty much fixed it. The stretches were from Mobility WOD. The Agile 8 mentioned above would probably work great.

8

This is odd but i laid off back squatting for a few weeks and was doing alot of KB swings, hip thrusts, reverse lunges, alot of stuff involving the hip being hyperextended and i was getting some pretty bad irritation in the area you described (mainly just on my right leg)

This week i started back squatting again, not doing quite as much hip extended movements , and my anterior hip at this point isnt really bugging me now. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not.

Probably would be smart to have a basic weekly training template that i know is good, and then make single adjustments at a time so i know if something is actually helping/hurting me or not.

9

You may want to look at your overall hip mobility and possibly a stretch or release method for the psoas (it’s a muscle under the abdominals right in the area he describes his pain).

10

Allright, so, I was squatting too narrow for my hips. I have taken a wider stance. Incorporated some box squats in the beginning, which allowed me to continue with out the pain. The pain is now gone. The box squats also helped me learn to feel hip drive, and keep tension on my hamstrings. Should have done them a while back.

11

[quote]DozerSoldier wrote:
Allright, so, I was squatting too narrow for my hips. . [/quote]

… squatting narrower than ‘hip width?’

What kind of width you talkin ?

12

I had this type of pain when beginning to squat regularly a while back(oly style).It only became obvious while squatting though,it didnt affect my day to day life.
I noticed I was unnecessarily tensing my hip flexors on the descent of the squat and not allowing my knees to travel out far enough.Fixed this and voila pain gone