Ten Minute Tip #22: Squatting with Hip Pain | A modification hierarchy so you don’t have to stop squatting
FEMOROACETABULAR IMPINGEMENT SYNDROME, HIP OSTEOARTHRITIS, AND GENERAL HIP PAIN ARE COMMON REASONS PEOPLE STOP SQUATTING HEAVY. KNOWING HOW TO MODIFY THE BARBELL SQUAT FOR HIP PAIN OF VARIOUS TYPES IS IMPORTANT SO YOU CAN CONTINUE TO TRAIN FOR STRENGTH AND PERFORMANCE DESPITE ISSUES YOU HAVE WITH YOUR HIPS.
HIP PAIN WITH SQUATS CAN BE IRRITATED BY A VARIETY OF THINGS:
Position in the hole
How your joints are timing
Relative load on the bar
Bar position on the back
Torso and hip position throughout the movement
There is almost always a way you can continue to train your barbell back squat through an episode of acute or chronic hip even if you’re using lighter weight or a squat variation.
In this podcast episode we discuss what to look for and how to adjust your squat if you’re experiencing pain while squatting in order to continue to train.
Resources:
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Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:00:03] Welcome back to the Progressive Rehab & Strength podcast. We are here. I'm Dr... We are here. Who am I?
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:00:26] You're there.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:00:26] I'm there.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:00:27] You're here. Whatever.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:00:29] All right. Well, welcome back to the Progressive Rehab & Strength podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Rori Alter, clinical coach here at Progressive Rehab & Strength, with my lovely co-host, as usual, Dr. Alyssa Haveson, also a clinical coach here at Progressive Rehab & Strength. And in this ten-minute tip, we will try and very quickly give you the rundown of figuring out your stance, position, and things that might contribute to your hip pain in the squat. And then some variations, like if you can't figure it out with stance and execution adjustments, some variations that can help you continue to train the squat without hip pain. This is a very near and dear topic to my heart. I don't know where this episode is falling in the order of events here, but this is coming in the hip month, so it's coming, oh it's coming before my story about my hip, my battle with hip injuries, or just the battle with my hips because I've got some interesting hips. So we'll talk about that in the next, I guess, Saturday episode after this one. But this is a near and dear topic to my heart. Super passionate about it, so I'm happy to be here in hip month with all of you.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:01:45] And you know, I love treating the hip. I've managed to continue to train and all that good stuff over the last 13 years without having surgery and all that stuff. So super passionate about it. But what we're going to do in this ten-minute tip is talk to you about continuing to squat with hip pain. So let me get my timer started. Da da da da da. Timer. Ten minutes. All right, folks, here we go. Ten minutes on the clock. Alyssa. And, you know, if we've already, you know, at nauseum throughout this podcast series or whatever, we've talked about load management when we've got injuries. So we're already past at this point when we're talking about the things in this episode, we're already past, you know, looking at lower loads, um, changing the frequency, that kind of stuff. So if you've exhausted load management as an option and you're still having symptoms with your squat or, you know, we do have to tie in technique with load management. So first, we will talk about the kind of technical adjustments to the squat. So as a clinician and coach, what are some things we're looking at in our assessment and our modification of the squat? When someone is experiencing some type of hip pain, it doesn't matter where the hip pain is because everyone's hip pain responds differently to the same type of thing. There are different types of squat and hip pain, and you can do the same thing and relieve someone's squat pain, but don't relieve it with another person. So what do we do?
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:03:21] So there are a few main things, not only things but main things that will be considered. Um, and that's going to be joint synchrony. Stance and foot position, which I'm using two different terms for a reason. So like, toe-out-angle and then, like, how wide your feet are and then the bottom position, but let's talk about the first two first because they're going to affect the bottom position of the squat. So when we talk about joint synchrony, we're talking about keeping the joints in sync as they move. So with the squat, we want to see the hips and the knees bend simultaneously as the squat begins. We want to see the knees track forward from the time they bend and the hips move back simultaneously.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:04:07] At the same rate.