Help! Hurt my hip flexor...

JenHuedy

So, I felt a pull in my left hip flexor when I was at the bottom of a squat on my last set on Sunday. Finished up the set OK, then finished up the workout with no problems. It started feeling sore later in the day so I iced and foam rolled that night. Monday was a rest day and I iced and stretched several times and walked on the treadmill (that seemed to keep it from stiffening up).

By Tuesday, my usual morning run felt fine, and could do body weight squats. But when I did my Wednesday SL workout I was OK with just the bar, but I couldn't squat with any weight on the bar. Finished the rest of the workout OK - even deadlifts.

Thursday, again, run was fine and could body weight squat. But today, Friday, squats are just as bad, possibly even worse. Should I continue by just avoiding squatting for awhile? Or do you guys think a total rest, even from non-painful activities, would help it heal faster?

fanncy0626

Can't advise. But I would ask my dr.

klove808

This is a site wit some great info just for personal knowledge on training and possible injuries/etc. .... Search squats. breakingmuscle.com.

But doc might be in order. R.I.C.E. And massage are my initial go tos for minor injuries.

canadianlbs

"hip flexors" could be a couple of different muscles (afaik), and hip pain often also 'refers' into the groin area [sez the woman whose rheumatologist just never could accept that she'd already told me that seventeen times]. so if it keeps being a concern then someone with the ability to diagnose more specifically would probably be a safe thing. assuming you can afford it, of course.

i'll mention though that i was getting pain right at that front-of-hip crease too at the bottom part of my squats. it's early for me to be sure, but i am feeling hugely hopeful that the cure is for me to make sure i'm really, REALLY using my glutes as i cross parallel. like, seriously using them. not just to come up but also to control myself as i finish the last part of my descent. i'd become very lazy about it and i think the smaller muscles in that area were having to take up a lot of the slack. so lately i've been focusing on making sure i feel the fabric of my pants actually shift against my skin as i engage those muscles down in the hole and they move on their own.

i'm still squatting very timidly with just bw or the bar, but so far it's helped me enormously, so i thought i would mention it.

JenHuedy

canadianlbs wrote: »

"hip flexors" could be a couple of different muscles (afaik), and hip pain often also 'refers' into the groin area [sez the woman whose rheumatologist just never could accept that she'd already told me that seventeen times]. so if it keeps being a concern then someone with the ability to diagnose more specifically would probably be a safe thing. assuming you can afford it, of course.

i'll mention though that i was getting pain right at that front-of-hip crease too at the bottom part of my squats. it's early for me to be sure, but i am feeling hugely hopeful that the cure is for me to make sure i'm really, REALLY using my glutes as i cross parallel. like, seriously using them. not just to come up but also to control myself as i finish the last part of my descent. i'd become very lazy about it and i think the smaller muscles in that area were having to take up a lot of the slack. so lately i've been focusing on making sure i feel the fabric of my pants actually shift against my skin as i engage those muscles down in the hole and they move on their own.

i'm still squatting very timidly with just bw or the bar, but so far it's helped me enormously, so i thought i would mention it.

Thanks for sharing your experience! I have still been doing SL, just stopping the squats when I hit a warmup weight that was painful. Today I was playing around with my stance and found a narrower stance helped immensely. I'm almost positive it was for the same reason you mentioned - glutes. I can feel them engage much more with the narrower stance.
I haven't made a doctor appt because it has been improving, just slowly. But I might make an appointment with a physical therapist to see what they have to say so I don't re-injure.

canadianlbs

canadianlbs wrote: »

engage those muscles down in the hole

i kind of wish now that i hadn't used quite these words. but oh well. you sort of know what i meant, right? and we can just pretend that i didn't just call them back out yet again and draw attention to them.

NO GIGGLING.