Hip hip hooray OR it's hip to be square

July 3, 2008 10:24 AM

Why is squatting causing pain in my hips?

I'm 23 years old, 6', and weigh 150 lbs. I've been following the stronglifts 5x5 strength training program for 6 weeks or so. This entails performing 5 sets of 5 reps of squats 3 times a week, adding 5 lbs. each time. In my last workout I squatted 130 lbs.

When I started squatting my legs and glutes would be really sore afterwards. For the last couple of workouts I haven't felt that soreness so much, but I've developed a lot of pain of a different sort in my hip joints. I feel it most of the time, but especially when I try to rotate my leg by pointing my knee outward. When I squat I feel a sharp pain in my hips right around when I hit parallel, which tends to keep me from squatting as low as I should be.

I've watched lots of videos and read lots of descriptions of proper squat technique and I've been doing my best to follow it. So what am I doing wrong, what should I do now, and how do I prevent this in the future?

posted by ludwig_van to sports, hobbies, & recreation (10 comments total)

This happens. It's your body getting used to a stretch it hasn't had in a while. Try doing a third world squat - literally going down on your feet until your butt is nearly touching the ground and your arms are over your knees - look it up. see if you can hold that for like five minutes. it's work if you haven't done it. but it will stretch out the muscles.
posted by parmanparman at 11:07 AM on July 3, 2008

Are you talking about your outer hip or your inner hip? I have problems with hip pain on the inside of my legs if my toes are pointing to far out. It was a bit of a problem doing oly lifts because my flexibility was bad and couldn't get very deep without splaying my toes out.

Try doing some deep unweighted squates (or just the bar) and vary your foot position a couple of times. You should try to find a sweet spot that allows for decent depth with a minimum of hip discomfort.
posted by PantsOfSCIENCE at 11:12 AM on July 3, 2008

parmanparman: So your opinion is that this isn't necessarily indicative that my technique is bad? Do you think I should skip the squat in my next workout or stick with the program?

PantsofScience: I would say it's my outer hip. Although doing some unweighted squats right now I find that the angle of my toes and width of my stance greatly affects the level of discomfort. The wider my stance and the more my toes point out, the more it hurts.
posted by ludwig_van at 11:24 AM on July 3, 2008

I think parmanparman pretty much has it. Your hip flexors/stabilizing musculature is probably playing catchup to the big muscles. Add more wide stretches to your warmup and concentrate on your form. (Make sure your legs are box-squat style wide.) Everything should catchup and you continue upping weight. That'd be my bet.
posted by PantsOfSCIENCE at 11:39 AM on July 3, 2008

Have you tried front squats? They are (obviously) similar to back squats but since your back is more upright, they might stress your hips less while still allowing you to squat below parallel. The fellow who runs stronglifts does front squats almost exclusively now, I believe he has an article on the site about why he prefers front squats to back squats.

I have a problem when I back squat that at the bottom my tailbone 'tucks in' causing my lower back to round. This is due to a tightness in my hips. So I have switched to front squats temporarily to stretch my hips while still performing a type of squat with proper form. I plan to switch back to back squats once my hips are flexible enough.

This might be an option that works for you as well.
posted by Caius Marcius at 11:50 AM on July 3, 2008

Whoops. I meant "Make sure your legs are not box-square style wide". Sorry.
posted by PantsOfSCIENCE at 11:56 AM on July 3, 2008

Thanks for the advice. I'll squat again tomorrow and see how it feels.
posted by ludwig_van at 5:32 PM on July 3, 2008

Well I adjusted my stance somewhat and squatted 5x5 with 135 lbs. today. It didn't hurt as much during my workout, but I still felt like I wasn't going as deep as I should've, and it hurts like hell now. I think I'll skip the squat for one workout and come back at 135 next week. Any other advice would be appreciated.
posted by ludwig_van at 1:28 PM on July 4, 2008

I am about your age, though considerably heavier, and I had this exact same problem a bit after I first started doing squats, and I feel for you, it really sucked. I ended up taking 2-3 weeks off from squatting, just because it was so painful and I didn't know what else to do. After talking to my doctor and confirming that nothing was actually wrong with my joints, I started doing unweighted squats in my room while messing with my stance. I eventually found that I was standing far too wide. Standing wider enabled me to go deeper at first, because I didn't have the flexibility to get down all the way, but the side effect was that I was rotating my legs about my hips, which causes the pain. Once I had done the exercise enough to build up that flexibility, I was able to take a much narrower stance, still doing an ass-to-grass squat, but now without hip pain. Even though I took a few weeks off, when I came back I made much better progress on my squats, just because I finally started getting my form right. By the way, I've read that your knees should be aligned with your toes throughout the squat, and that your toes should be pointed slightly outward, so keep an eye on that as well.

Good luck!
posted by !Jim at 10:49 PM on July 4, 2008

Lowering the weight, adjusting your stance, and going for perfect form (like what you describe here) is good.

Study up on squat mechanics. Here's a mefi link to SquatRx. I can't check if the youtube videos are up since I'm at work, but I'm sure they are.

I sometimes get hip pain when I squat heavy and lean the weight on my hips and knees. I remedy this in a few different ways:
- I lighten the bar a little
- I box squat about 1-2in below parallel. If you don't know the by-the-book definition of parallel, it's when the top of your knee is in line with the crease of your hip, not simply when the top of your thigh is flat.
- I use chains or bands to make the bottom end of the squat lighter. And lastly,

*** I do very deep kettlebell swings with heavy bells. ***

The kettlebell swings, done right, will really give you good hip flexibility over time. They'll also strengthen everything in that region, primarily the glutes/hams/quads, which will give you a much stronger and more flexible bottom end squat.

Correct kettlebell swing form:
- No upper body power:
1) let the bell swing through and behind your butt, letting your butt sink down nice and deep.
2) your hamstrings and calves should meet or almost meet, ideally.
3) then, power it out and up with your legs and hips - the only thing moving the kettlebell should be your big, explosive humping motion.
4) flat, tensed back. no flexion or extension: kettlebell swings are not a deadlift.

Let me know if this stuff helps. You can sometimes tell that the pain is in your muscles and tendons - it occurs only at some parts of the motion when they are extended or contracted in a certain way, etc. If it feels at any point like the pain is directly in your joint, please see a good doctor.
posted by crunch buttsteak at 12:50 PM on July 7, 2008