Hip joint issues

[Venom111]

I was squatting about a month ago and did something to my hip joint where the the femur moves in the hip. I was squatting with a wide stance and on the way up I kind of over stressed the area and my right leg bowed out a bit further than normal. The week after it happened the pain was still there when doing squats, so I cut squatting out of my leg workout and did more on the leg press (there is no pain at all on the leg press). Just last week the pain wasn't as bad doing squats and could lift almost as much as I could without this injury but after the workout the pain started to show itself again. The pain seems evident when I squat or when I try to drive my leg inwards toward the other one, It's hard to explain but I especially feel it when I get into bed and have to rotate my leg inwards when its extended.

Any advice on what I have done and how to expedite the rehabilitation process would be much appreciated. At the moment I'm thinking of skipping squats and utilizing the leg press for the next few weeks, is this wise? Thank you.

[KD735]

the hip is a very very complicated area. There can be almost 10 different things going on that are causing the pain that you are talking about. From the sound of it, I personally would be most suspicious of a labral injury, or partial tendon tear in your adductors. Eventhough you need an MRI...here's the big dilemma....even an MRI can often not tell you what is going on in there. So what you need even more than an MRI is a very good sports doc...not just any orthopod, but someone who has a lot of experience dealing with sports related hip injuries. Trust me man, these are no joke. You hear about A-Rod's hip? There's a guy who was seen by some of my colleagues--many of the best guys in the field--ultimately he got referred to an expert (Phillipon). It's a tricky area of the body.

You probably heard about sports hernias. They are a diagnosis of exclusion though...in other words, when the workup and treatment for all the other injuries gives you no relief, you get the diagnosis of sports hernia. Surgery is the only treatment for these; likewise for a labral tear. The other stuff should eventually resolve after a month or two....but when it continues to linger on after several months....the chances of it being one of those two things goes up dramatically.

Try to get yourself in to see a good sports doc, and keep your fingers crossed that it's not a labral tear or a sports hernia.

[Venom111]

Thanks for the info KD735, was wondering when I'd get a reply. I definitely don't wont to aggravate it any more. Just to point out, I have been squatting relatively wide leading up to this mishap, and I suspect that's the root of the problem. My heels sit roughly 1 1/2 times my shoulder width and toes are pointed out. I have yet to experiment and potentially adopt a narrower stance, but I believe this will take a lot of the strain off the area..

I don't by any means want to appear ignorant to your suggestions (trust me I'm very grateful) but for the time being I'm going to just stop the squatting and give my joints a rest and see if that heals things. I say this because the pain has subsided since I stopped squatting, but is still there when I force my leg into awkward positions. If I still feel a sharp pain after a month or so then I will be a little worried, and will go to see a sports doc.

On a side note, I'd be interested to hear if there's a correlation to stance and hip related injuries while squatting.

[KD735]

good point. in fact, a narrow stance will lend itself to a higher chance of labral injury, whereas a wide stance has a higher chance of adductor strain/tearing associated with it.

it just has to do with the mechanics of the muscles, anatomic structures and the forces involved. For you, the problem with squats (but also the reason why they are such a greata exercise) is that you are co-contracting so many muscles at the same time in order to stabilize yourself throughout the range of motion. a closed chain exercises. On the flipside, leg presses allow almost isolated contraction of targeted muscle groups (assuming that you maintain slow, steady, perfect form)...hence the open chain.

Open vs closed chain exercises is a whole other topic, but getting back to the squat stance...going narrow may help you out...but only so much, since whether you try to or not, you will still be firing your adductors.

make sure you try the rest, ice and NSAID approach while you're waiting for this to get better, and try to avoid the squats until the pain has resolved. (If it doesn't, then we're back to where we started above).