Squating, *kitten* to Grass

FrnkLft
FrnkLft Posts: 1,821 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
My hips, specifically the space in front between the very top of my quad and my hip, is really sore when I try to get down low. Anyone know what this is, and fix it?

Use proper form, toes out, straight back, butt up, knees in line with feet, etc...

Replies

  • Morninglory81
    Morninglory81 Posts: 1,190 Member
    It's your hip flexors. Make sure your lower back is neutral and not rounded. Make sure your butt isn't coming up before your shoulders. It should be a fluid movement. You may want to drop the weight a bit to give these muscles a chance to catch up with your quads, gluts, and hamstrings.
  • fortunateflyer
    fortunateflyer Posts: 23 Member
    Are your hip flexors tight? I warm up my hips before squatting with a set of sumo squats where I squat down, hook my fingers under my toes and use my arms to really shove my knees out, and then stand up while still holding my toes and repeat. It gets my hip flexors and hamstrings ready to rock and roll. If you do this make sure to really sit up tall (chest out) at the bottom of the squat. Also you don't let go of your toes at all during the warmup.

    I also regularly roll out my hip flexors on a lacrosse ball -- basically lie down on my front and put the ball under the hip on one side and enjoy the sweet pain of release. The first time I did this I thought something was going to break it was so painful, but it's really helped keep my hips from tightening up.

    I do oly squats so I really go atg and I never have a problem with my hips.
  • GetSoda
    GetSoda Posts: 1,267 Member
    change things up.
    squatting width
    foot angle. make sure you are pointing your feet OUT. They should be neutral. This is 10-15 degrees out for most people. Going duck footed on purpose hurts your ability to produce torque.

    If you're doing back squats, you really only need to hit/slightly break parallel anyway.
  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
    My hips, specifically the space in front between the very top of my quad and my hip, is really sore when I try to get down low. Anyone know what this is, and fix it?

    Use proper form, toes out, straight back, butt up, knees in line with feet, etc...
    Sore during or after? If you're new to squats its likely that those muscles are just weak if they get sore after. Body weight squats use to do that to me at first.

    If they're sore during then I recommend doing stretches.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    .................If you're doing back squats, you really only need to hit/slightly break parallel anyway.

    ^^^ this. There's not much benefit going *kitten* to grass here.
  • FrnkLft
    FrnkLft Posts: 1,821 Member
    Incidentally I also have some trouble with "butt wink" in the hole, when I'm trying to break parallel. No idea how to fix this, any suggestions?

    butt wink = hips rotate downward = lower back rounding. I totally keep my chest out and straight, it's a mechanical thing at the bottom of the squat, no matter the weight.
  • fortunateflyer
    fortunateflyer Posts: 23 Member
    Are you power or Olympic squatting?

    The way you descend is different for the two (hips back for powerlifting, knees out and sit straight down for oly), and the mistake I made when first learning oly squatting was basically trying to go atg in a power squat. If your hips are too far back and you go down far enough your lower back is going to round. If you're aiming for an Olympic squat you should pretty much be sitting down between your legs. There are some great YouTube videos showing the differences in those two types of squats.

    If you're doing powerlifting squats you don't need to go atg, from my understanding and also as previous commenters said.
  • FrnkLft
    FrnkLft Posts: 1,821 Member
    Lol, I don't know what kind of squatting I'm doing. Tell you what though I was squating again yesterday and my hips feel like ****. Very sore, and not in the DOMS way necessarily. More like tight muscles, and I've been warming up on a bike, stretching, and foam rolling for the past week.

    I push my knees out when I squat, I have my feet at an angle, and my goal is depth while maintaining a neutral back and keeping the bar above my feet. Actually yesterday I doubt I broke parallel since I can't seem to do that without butt wink at the bottom.

    This is what I want to do I guess, but I can't manage it so far: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoZWgTrZLd8

    Meanwhile this jerk makes it look easy lol

    Really, I can get down really low, but avoiding the butt wink is what makes all of this so ****ing tough, super frustrating.

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