Possible Quad Tear/Strain?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Injuries and Rehab
1 
Hi all, it's been a long time since I've posted something here! I've been making some nice steady back squat progress on a modified Rippetoes routine recently. My last session I did 139kg for 3 sets of 5 on back squats, and 2 days ago I was slated to squat 141kg for 3 sets of 5 (finally 3 plates somewhere!). I did 2 sets of 5 just fine, and had gotten through 4 reps on my last set.

On the descent during the 5th rep, I felt something almost tear, I could feel muscle on my quad moving and displacing and heard a rubbing sound through my thigh so I dropped the bar behind me. I was worried I had torn my quad but I could stand up and walk around after, but I am feeling pain when I bend my leg and put weight on it, walking is ok.

Would anyone with experience similar to mine be able to tell me what this is? A pulled muscle? A slight tear? One important piece of info might be that I had a knee sleeve on my left leg and a wrap on my right leg. They’re both the store bought walmart brand, I didn’t have a spare sleeve so I wrapped my other leg but I might’ve done it too tightly, might this be the culprit for what happened to my leg?

I really want to get back to training as soon as possible, but I also don’t want to rush through injury recovery either. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

2

Are there any visual deformations on your thigh? Colour?

3

Nothing to speak of actually, I was expecting a black/purple coloration to happen at the time of the accident but nothing so far.

4

I’m not 100% sure, but with a tear I guess you would see some miscolouring and/or visual deformations. Wait it out, if it doesn’t get better I’d go see a physio or GP.

5

I hurt my quad tendon squatting a while back. For me, the pain was right above the knee where all the quad muscles come together. I saw a couple docs. The specialist said that the tendon normally just tears right away for most people and that if it tears it is very painful and you won’t be able to walk… so it’s likely not a tear. I was diagnosed with a sprain and had to go to PT. The mistake I made was I kept lifting and went to do hill sprints about a week later, reinjuring it (which leads to long term injury).

So, as stated above, you should probably see a doc. You should not squat for 6-8 weeks (docs told me 4-6), just to be careful.