Squats are Painful

wheezybreezy

Hello! So, I've been doing pretty well with SL (aside from finding out I'm doing my rows incorrectly from the previous thread), but the squats are causing me so much pain in my hip flexor area. Like I'm pinching them or something! I'm only squatting 90 lbs right now, so I don't know what the problem is. I tend to lose motivation pretty quickly, but I've stuck with it so far. Thank you!

chubby_checkers

Maybe you need to stretch them before/after squats? I know mine are fairly painful at the start but after my warm up sets, it's not as bad. I googled hip flexor stretches and found a few sites with some ideas:

http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=8_hip_flexor_stretches_and_exercises_for_healthy_hips

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stretching/SM00043&slide=5

http://www.livestrong.com/article/174240-hip-flexor-stretches/

Nataliaho

My hip flexor has given me trouble for years, my physio says its due to my glutes not firing properly. My advice is to stretch really well like chubby_checke said, make sure you do some warm ups to activate your glutes before you start squatting. For me the most effective are the one-legged kettlebell deadlifts with a 5 second pause at the top. Also you might just need to get into the physio and get adjusted. I probably go in every 6-8 weeks to get my hips adjusted and get some dry needling done.

wheezybreezy

Thank you ladies! I'll incorporate the stretches and make sure I'm doing more warm up sets. It started with the squats but got worse when I started riding my bike home from campus. I can't wait to get back into the program though on Monday!

tameko2

My husband has suffered with this REALLY badly - after several months it seems to be a lot better just from pushing through it sometimes and resting other times (if its still hurting after your warmup, you probably need to rest).

There are stretches, as others have mentioned, and I also think you might find that just body-weight squatting (no bar, just you) when you can and before hand will probably help you stretch it out and warm it up a little.

you should also try to get someone to video tape your form for you, there might be something you can adjust to make it easier on yourself (like I find I get much better glute/hamstring activation with my feet considerably wider than a normal person because of hte way I'm built -- my husband is 8 inches taller than me and squats well with a fairly narrow stance, if I squat in the SAME stance my quads end up doing most of the work. (which is not the goal here)

chubby_checkers

you should also try to get someone to video tape your form for you, there might be something you can adjust to make it easier on yourself (like I find I get much better glute/hamstring activation with my feet considerably wider than a normal person because of hte way I'm built -- my husband is 8 inches taller than me and squats well with a fairly narrow stance, if I squat in the SAME stance my quads end up doing most of the work. (which is not the goal here)

I did the wider stance today and it was a lot easier to maintain form and I actually felt my glutes & hams working. I was also able to squat a little lower.

r1ghtpath

i was gonna suggest widening your stance. women have wider hips than guys. and maybe doing one or two with just the bar as a warm up.

squats hurt me but in my shoulders instead. i have shoulder issues, always have. so the position my arm ( right shoulder) has to be in to hold the bar up there causes discomfort :-/

amy1612

I have annoyong issues with my hip flexors too, they get really bad when doing lying down leg raises and such, I usually find just clicking them out helps, but a trick is to get a tennis ball, stand up against a wall, place it between your hip flexor and the wall, then rotate your body.

It KILLS, but is really good for massaging and working them out!