Advice for quad injury

lucygoesrawr

My husband injured his quad/hip flexor in December and it's taking a long time to heal. He's bulking and lifts three times a week - injured himself during squats, and can't do them now, or deadlifts, due to the injury. He has been doing warm up sets with the bar and occasionally with a small amount of weight, to try and maintain his flexibility.

It has gotten a lot better, but he tried to do a work set of squats today and had pain afterwards. He has taken some ibuprofen in case doing the squats inflamed it. He did also initially take ibuprofen for two weeks but it seemed excessive to take it for longer than that. And no... he didn't use ice at any point, because he's stubborn.

I'm having a hard time convincing him to see a doctor, and he's getting really despondent about it (understandably, really) - so I was wondering if anyone has had such an injury and suggestions about what would help?

DopeItUp

I've managed to injure both hip flexors (separate incidents, about a year apart). It sucks. In both cases I took about a month off from anything involving hip flexors (IE: squats). Then I started at the bottom. I started by squatting very light (135x5) and then just added a small amount of weight over time (5lbs/week sometimes or 10lbs/month other times, depending on how I felt). It took about a year to reach my previous squat PRs without any pain. It's been about a year and a half and I'm pain-free and I've bested my squat PR by about 65lbs now.

Depending on the nature of the injury it could be better/worse. You're 13 years younger than me and I assume he's around the same age so recovery will probably be faster. But don't go crazy, re-injuring is a huge set-back (I did that the first time I got injured, it set me back months). Add small amounts of weight/reps after a sufficient rest period.

No amount of anything ever seemed to help, other than slow progression over a long period of time.

giantrobot_powerlifting

I have a completely different injury presently (left shoulder) and after a month of pain and not performing exercises which aggravate it, I finally went three weeks ago to see a physical therapist about it. I had a pretty food feeling as to what kind of exercises she would have me do, but the deep tissue massage and the other things she does has really helped me a lot. Woke up this morning with a pain level about a 2 or 3. I'm still presently in deload mode on the bench press, but last weekend I was finally able to OHP again. I'm 43 and until returning to the gym last March I have never sustained an injury from the gym.

So that's my advice, layoff and ice, see a PT, do the therapy and be patient. And like Dope said, start humble. Your husband is not making any gains lifting injured anyway.

And have him read this thread.

There's no shame in seeing a PT, it's actually quite an interesting experience (I'm always asking questions about what she is doing and I'm learning new things) and you get quite a workout while you are there too.

AglaeaC

Physiotherapist.

lucygoesrawr

Sorry, only just looked back at this. Thanks for all the advice.

I think he's reluctant to try and get referred (NHS - can't go straight threre) for physio as it can take a month or two before you get an appointment here. But he has agreed to mention it to the doctor as he has an appointment about a different issue anyway.

Yes, slow and cautious sounds good. DopeItUp - did you just ignore the pain and squat, then, after a while? How do you know how much is 'normal' (so to speak) and not a warning sign?

I think he's quite upset that he has lost so much progress. When he tried to do a work set he had to deload by about 60% total. He sees it as several months of work just wasted

Maybe I'll have a go at giving him a massage myself. Probably won't do much good, but at least it's something

ninerbuff

lucygoesrawr wrote: »

My husband injured his quad/hip flexor in December and it's taking a long time to heal. He's bulking and lifts three times a week - injured himself during squats, and can't do them now, or deadlifts, due to the injury. He has been doing warm up sets with the bar and occasionally with a small amount of weight, to try and maintain his flexibility.

It has gotten a lot better, but he tried to do a work set of squats today and had pain afterwards. He has taken some ibuprofen in case doing the squats inflamed it. He did also initially take ibuprofen for two weeks but it seemed excessive to take it for longer than that. And no... he didn't use ice at any point, because he's stubborn.

I'm having a hard time convincing him to see a doctor, and he's getting really despondent about it (understandably, really) - so I was wondering if anyone has had such an injury and suggestions about what would help?

Only an assessment will give an accurate idea of what extent of damage may have happened. Personally I would go to an orthopedist (who deals in sports injuries if possible).

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

lucygoesrawr

ninerbuff wrote: »

Only an assessment will give an accurate idea of what extent of damage may have happened. Personally I would go to an orthopedist (who deals in sports injuries if possible).

Well, he went to see the doctor. They just told him to take ibuprofen for three weeks more. We don't really have the option of just going to an orthopedist here, it's more a matter of what the doctor considers necessary.