Pulled a muscle while doing squats

[JEDI]

apparently i've been doing squats wrong. i thought my legs were level when i squatted. nope.

the thought came to me to see how my side profile looks when i squat. so i turned sideways
and squatted w/o the bar. wow.. surprised what i saw in the mirror. i was doing like a 3/4 squat.

so i decided to go lower on my squats.

uggg.. my hip flexors(?) and lower back are aching. it's a dull pain.

so anything i can do about it besides advil and take a week off from the gym?

 

[Zivic]

apparently i've been doing squats wrong. i thought my legs were level when i squatted. nope.

the thought came to me to see how my side profile looks when i squat. so i turned sideways
and squatted w/o the bar. wow.. surprised what i saw in the mirror. i was doing like a 3/4 squat.

so i decided to go lower on my squats.

uggg.. my hip flexors(?) and lower back are aching. it's a dull pain.

so anything i can do about it besides advil and take a week off from the gym?

stay moderately active... don't just sit. if it doesn't go away get better, go get a massage.

as far as the squats go, sometimes it's harder to go through the movement without the bar and weights. better off recording your sets.

 

[JEDI]

stay moderately active... don't just sit. if it doesn't go away get better, go get a massage.

as far as the squats go, sometimes it's harder to go through the movement without the bar and weights. better off recording your sets.

so treadmill/eliptical and situps?

 

[Koing]

Did you do dynamic stretches before training? People should do dynamic stretches before training.

Koing

 

[blackdogdeek]

Did you use the same weight on the full squats that you were using on the 3/4 squats?

 

[JEDI]

Did you do dynamic stretches before training? People should do dynamic stretches before training.

Koing

stretched hamstring, quads, calf muscles

 

[JEDI]

Did you use the same weight on the full squats that you were using on the 3/4 squats?

yeah. 4 days later, i'm still hurting. WTF?!

 

[blackdogdeek]

yeah. 4 days later, i'm still hurting. WTF?!

Well, going to a full squat is almost a new exercise for you. I don't think you should expect to instantly be able to go to a full squat with a weight that you were 3/4 squatting. I would think doing so would risk injury.

IANAD, but my suggestion would be to lower the weight if you're full squatting and wait until you are comfortable with that motion before upping the weight back to what you were doing with 3/4 squatting.

 

[darkxshade]

Does it feel like an injury or just soreness from having to actually do a real squat? It took a while for my hip to recover the first time I went low too. Walking and sitting wasn't fun.

Anyway, see a sports doc if it persists.

Squats are no joke, and like you I also didn't have good squat flexibility. So I made it a point to make sure my body is adequately adjusted before doing my sets. And what I do now is my first/warmup set(135lbs for me), I would squat down and hold the bottom position for half a minute and come back up for 3-5 reps. The following warmup sets I focused on going down and up at a good pace. The goal was to get my hips stretched and primed for the bottom position at the higher weights and the movements involved. After I started doing that for my squats, I never had much of an issue with my hips other than just general soreness from a good lift.

edit: holding a squat in a bottom position I think is a great technique IMO. While holding position, I focused/practiced on keeping my heels fully planted while keeping my back upright and my breathing controlled. It has worked wonders on my form and has helped me with squatting deeper. Those 30 secs holding is a workout in its own right.

 

[JEDI]

Does it feel like an injury or just soreness from having to actually do a real squat? It took a while for my hip to recover the first time I went low too. Walking and sitting wasn't fun.

yeah.. the pain is in the hips. (lower back is fine now.)

how long did it take u to recover? it's been 4 days now and still sore

 

[Sid59]

Can you provide/find a picture of the area that hurts? I had something that sounds pretty similar to what you're describing and pulled up a picture/list of leg muscles and it was the iliotibial band. As other said, dynamic stretching, foam roll .. etc helped.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BKc53kadC1g/UGL3SRHH3VI/AAAAAAAAAEs/qM2-ZBQBp_c/s1600/Iliotibial+Band.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliotibial_band_syndrome

 

[darkxshade]

yeah.. the pain is in the hips. (lower back is fine now.)

how long did it take u to recover? it's been 4 days now and still sore

I don't remember how many days exactly but I don't think I've ever been sore for any kind of workout for more than a week.

 

[TallBill]

Stretch every day! I just got back into regular squatting and my whole body is still getting used to it.

 

[JEDI]

Can you provide/find a picture of the area that hurts? I had something that sounds pretty similar to what you're describing and pulled up a picture/list of leg muscles and it was the iliotibial band. As other said, dynamic stretching, foam roll .. etc helped.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BKc53kadC1g/UGL3SRHH3VI/AAAAAAAAAEs/qM2-ZBQBp_c/s1600/Iliotibial+Band.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliotibial_band_syndrome

it's not the legs. it's the hips, left and right side. but i cant exactly pinpoint it

 

[KIAman]

Have you ever pulled a muscle before? Are you sure it is a pulled muscle rather than fatigue from working out those muscles for the first time?

When I first started working out and doing squats, I swear I had sore something every week. First it was my knees (it was a struggle to run much less walk), to my glutes (struggle to stand up strait) to my inner thighs to my outer hips. This continued on for 2 months. I almost quit because I didn't think working out was worth all the pain I was in.

To help alleviate the soreness, I started foam rolling (even more PAIN!!!!) and doing lots of stretching at least 2 times a day. Also, my wife gave me a massage every night, God bless her soul. These things helped tremendously. The longest soreness was my glutes which lasted a good 2 weeks of me standing strait.

I kept at it and now all of those "sore" places have noticeably extra meat on them and I'm never sore. But let me tell you, when I was sore, I swear I thought I tore, ripped, pulled or really harmed my body. Consider I've never worked out in my life, I just didn't know what "sore" vs real injury felt like.

Consider that.

 

[JEDI]

Have you ever pulled a muscle before? Are you sure it is a pulled muscle rather than fatigue from working out those muscles for the first time?

When I first started working out and doing squats, I swear I had sore something every week. First it was my knees (it was a struggle to run much less walk), to my glutes (struggle to stand up strait) to my inner thighs to my outer hips. This continued on for 2 months. I almost quit because I didn't think working out was worth all the pain I was in.

To help alleviate the soreness, I started foam rolling (even more PAIN!!!!) and doing lots of stretching at least 2 times a day. Also, my wife gave me a massage every night, God bless her soul. These things helped tremendously. The longest soreness was my glutes which lasted a good 2 weeks of me standing strait.

I kept at it and now all of those "sore" places have noticeably extra meat on them and I'm never sore. But let me tell you, when I was sore, I swear I thought I tore, ripped, pulled or really harmed my body. Consider I've never worked out in my life, I just didn't know what "sore" vs real injury felt like.

Consider that.

never thought of that. maybe my hips muscles were just reallly, really sore. never had a sore muscle for 4 days before.

feels better today. going back to the gym and do some proper squats with just the bar and see what happens tommorow.

also, gotta dig that foam roller out of the closet.

 

[JEDI]

got the foam roll out of the closet.

rolled on it: lower back and sides.
didnt feel any sore spots??

 

[KIAman]

got the foam roll out of the closet.

rolled on it: lower back and sides.
didnt feel and sore spots??

You rolled over the areas that were sore but didn't feel it when rolling? When I had sore muscles, it hurt even more rolling over them.

 

[darkxshade]

The best way to tell if you're still sore on squats is to actually squat

Like I said earlier, hold position at the bottom of the squat with a lighter load and you will know if you're still sore. But more importantly, do it as a warmup for your actual sets.