Daily Mobility Exercises by Dr. Kelly Starrett Forums General My Left Hip is Impinged. Should I stop deadlifting?

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    • #71275
      AvatarAlex Daubon
      Participant

      Hello Experts,

      My left hip is impinged. I feel it in the anterior hip, right at the crease in the front of the leg where the hip flexor is. I notice it at the end range, for instance when I go to tie my left shoe.

      I perform the hip capsule mobilization where you put your bodyweight on one knee on the floor and scour around, as well as the mobilizations where you flex and extend the leg/hamstring. I notice an immediate, significant reduction in my hip impingement, however it does not completely go away.

      Should I stop deadlifting for the next few weeks and not add resistance to any movement pattern that involves hinging at the hip? Should I instead focus on mobilizing the hip until its default state is that of non-impingement?

      Thank You! I would greatly appreciate any feedback.

    • #75791
      AvatarNathan Richer
      Participant

      if it bugs you, how about pulling off blocks for a while until you’ve mobilized enough to remove the problem? just lift the bar up far enough to not feel the problem?

    • #75814
      AvatarKatie Hemphill
      Participant

      Hey Baldr,

      I would definitely recommend avoiding painful ranges of motion. Pulling off the blocks, as David said, is one way you can reduce range so that you can still train.
      The posterior hip capsule mob is a good place to start, but since you’re noticing only temporary relief that restriction isn’t the complete picture. What’s likely happening is that your femur is sitting and moving a bit forward in the hip socket. This can happen if you’ve spent a lot of time mobilizing into extension without really needing to. (Any background in dance?) Part of this might involve the capsule restriction, as you’ve discovered, but can also be a motor control problem involving your psoas and deep butt muscles.
      Here’s something to try, as a general movement fix (hopefully it will help you out):
      1) Prepare for the movement that causes you pain (just do a Romanian Deadlift without a bar or anything)
      2) Before you move, concentrate on trying to pull your left thigh very slightly into your hip (nothing should move). This is a very fine and obscure feeling, and may take a lot of tinkering.
      3) Maintain that feeling as you slowly attempt your hip hinge. Did it improve your pain?
      If you do succeed in doing this, you’ll have to practice hard to integrate it into your normal movements. It’s going to take a tremendous amount of focus at first during every rep. Practice the hell out of it while warming up for those block deadlifts, and try to apply it while working with weight too. Slowly increase your range of motion as you are able to pain-free, and only try to load deeper positions when you are very confident (add weight very slowly).
      Now go get hinging!
      There may be more to this, but hopefully this will offer you some relief. Remember, there should be no pain.
    • #75825
      AvatarKatie Hemphill
      Participant

      Ooooh, so I should also mention that I’ve been dealing with this kind of impingement for a few weeks as well. There is a progression of exercises you can follow to start learning to control your psoas during movement, but a good starting point is the Quadruped Rock-Back.

      Start on your hands and knees with a neutral back position (if you don’t know how to set that up, learning that is your first step). Slowly rock back, attempting to pull yourself into position (the active psoas part). Move in and out of whatever pain free range you have (avoid painful movement or pinching). Adding band distraction backwards on the affected side is a great idea.
      Generic prescription: 3×15
      If nothing else, it will just start teaching you how to feel and contain movement in your hips, so you understand the current limits of your ROM. At best it will help integrate normal femoral head position back into your hip flexion (a start, at least).
    • #75830
      AvatarChristina Kosmowski
      Participant

      Yea i am struggling with the same thing and since I don’t have blocks I rack pull but same thing, I think it has helped me !

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