Injury from out of the blue! | Other | Forum

I did a pretty tough routine yesterday, but it wasn't heavy weight.  I felt nothing out of the ordinary, and I felt good about my form, but this morning I woke up with my left, extreme, upper leg aching in the front.  I had to walk with a limp.  Then the pain moved towards my groin area and got worse.  Later, riding in a car, it moved to the outer, extreme upper leg and it began hurting even when I relaxed it.

It's a few hours later now, and it seems to be getting better, but I still have a limp.  I don't even know what muscle I've pulled or if it's actually the hip joint itself.  Thirteen years ago I pulled the groin area  pretty bad picking up something too heavy at work, but I've never had a pull that moved around on me like this one.

I've got this belief that, for some reason, my body is postured where most of the strain is put on the front of my legs in any lower body work, even deadlifts, and I have problems trying to stimulate my glutes and leg biceps where my real strength should be.  This injury, and the fact that the front of my legs, especially at the top, are much more developed than the back, help support this theory.

I need to find some exercises to fix this imbalance, but I can't find anything to isolate my back side.  I thought deadlifts would help over squats, but I think it's only putting even more strain on my quads, hip flexers, and what ever else is in the front and insides of my legs to move weight. 

It's evening now and the pain has quit moving, but it did seem to move around for a few hours (maybe what they call reflective pain).  It's staying mostly in the center front of my extreme upper left leg and radiating inward towards my inner/upper leg.  Sitting in a dining chair or office chair with my lower and upper leg perpendicular seems to be the most comfortable.

Last time I got this, it was something stupid.  I  picked up the heavy end of a forklift attachment for moving carpet and attached it onto the forklift by myself (kind of a max sumo deadlift with no warmup).  It was a two-man lift.  Since I kept my back straight, most of the strain was on the groin area.  I didn't feel the pain till that night.

This time, I did three sets of 10-rep, dumbell deadlifts in good form, and didn't feel the pull till the next day.  Other than this injury, I'm not even sore from the workout. 

I think I just overworked this area with too many reps, or maybe I unknowingly shifted to put more weight to my stronger side some time in the routine.  I really already know this, but deadlifts usually work best with lower reps, because it's so hard to maintain form when I start getting winded.  I just liked the form I can maintain with  the dumbells; It was the heaviest in the gym; and I wanted to do enough reps to be instense.  Of course, I could have done sets of 8 with less rest period, but it's too late to stop an injury now.

There is also the possibility that my toe stance on my left foot did not line up with my knee and upper leg, and therefore put a strain on my upper leg when I came to the full upright position and pulled my hips forward.

Of course it may not have been deadlifts, but it's the only thing I did strenuous in the last two days.

So yea… strained my right pec yesterday evening helping a client…. was fun….

Naw, it's not, it's more of a minor strain, but it's a pain in the ass since i have to demonstrate exercises all day long.

Is it your groin or your hip flexor.  Seems more flexor (more prone to injury anyways) if you cant pick up your leg well.  Recovery is tough with them though.

ROFL… yea it blows greg.  That IS your your abductor(s).  I actually hurt mine about 7 years ago in high school.  It's a bitch to stretch them, so it's tough.  If I stretch my hamstring the right direction it cramps occasionally.  I can't even do a seated leg curl because the direction of tension instantly causes a cramp in my left hip (same area).  It's gotten better but it hurt for about 2-3 days originally.  Then it just got irritated from time to time.  Now it rarely bothers me, but I've really gotten used to my limitations in such a way where it doesn't bother me much.  I've discovered a way on my own to stretch it, but it's hard to explain, I'll go into detail about it later if you would like.  But, you'll be fine.  Just go easy on it for a couple weeks. 

I'm still tentative of both–so called–hip flexors, but I'm still lifting.  I felt the right one pulling just a little after the workout today, but I felt  more in the right glute. 

The left hip was the one with the mysterious injury that suddenly went away.  I did leg presses; lunges; front squats; and straight-leg deadlifts.

I quit doing back squats for a while.  I had been doing them faithfully four about four months straight.  I started out with just the bar with only a couple of sets at fifteen reps each.  I added twenty pounds per week until I got to the point where I couldn't do any more weight at twelve reps (about 160).  I then went to more of a mass or power routine, with more weight, more sets, but only about 5-8 reps.  I've never been able to really move up in weight with squats.  My plan was to start real light with higher reps and maybe this would be something to blast past 200 lbs.  With squats, if I can do one correctly, I can do five.

Also, I've quit bringing my hips forward on front squats and on deadlifts at the end of the movement.  I'm hoping this will take some stress off my abductors.  I've noticed the last few months that my toes have moved outward in my natural stance and walk.  I think I may need to correct this by strengthening my adductor muscles.  My book has a couple of exercises for that.

Try doing some HEAVY seated ham curls and leet me know if your left hip cramps up….