Quick squat question

Slasher09

I have recently become more active in my fitness (I wont pretend that I have been lifting weights or doing non-cardio workouts for a while). I have been doing 21 day fix workouts and I noticed that I am having an issue with your basic squat. When I do them, I don't "feel it" in my legs/glutes but in my hip flexors. Its not a pain like bursitis or any sort of injury, just I can feel that I am engaging my hip flexors. I do not get this same feeling when I do wide-leg squats or sumo squats etc. Only the basic legs hip width squats.

I asked my fiance to watch my form as he did a bit of lifting in college, and he couldn't see anything obviously wrong with my form.

I know that I have always had issues with my left hip in particular. It has always popped a lot and anything that involved a lot of flexibility in the hips was difficult (I was a swimmer but would always get disqualified in breaststroke because I couldnt get my hip and legs into proper form). When I do scissor crunches as well, I have to keep my left knee bent otherwise my hip will keep popping.

Does anyone have any tips? Should I just assume do wider-stances on my squats? I don't want to feel like I am coming up with a cop-out for not doing the moves as they are on the workout. I also don't want to end up with an injury due to improper form

Thanks!

knitapeace

Not an expert, but I found that widening my stance, turning my toes out slightly, and pushing my knees outward as I go into the squat really changes where I feel it. That, plus holding for a second or two at the bottom, plus really focusing on THINKING about my glutes and squeezing hard on the way up seems to be helping to focus the movement more in my butt and less in my quads.

robin52077

nothing wrong with widening your stance to feel proper activation. Maybe your stance is really too narrow to begin with and what you think is too wide is really correct.

stealthq

No expert in physiology, but if you don't feel any pain, and there's no popping, grinding, or other weirdness, I don't see why you would modify your stance.

I would imagine that your hip flexors may be overly tight and that's why you feel them engaging in the squat. Why not try rolling them and doing some mobility exercises to loosen them up. See if that helps.

JoRocka

muscles are not the weakest link- joints and tendons are- and if you are doing/have been doing 21 day challenges- no progressive loading- only increasing the range of reps- you might just be having some inflammation/tightness.