So for the past several years I've had hip pain that comes and goes, and have always had pretty limited hip joint mobility and struggled to squat with a wide stance or pull sumo. In my effort to get the most out of my squat suit, I've tried to squat with a wider stance over the past year or so since it's better mechanically, but my joint pain has only gotten worse, and my squat has been in the dumps. 

After this past meet, (and regularly having to listen to my hips sound like a garbage disposal every time I externally rotated them) I talked with Dr. Ryan Smith (who I travel to for treatment in Columbus when I can) and he suggested getting an MRI....

I've never had an MRI before, but I knew that a closed MRI can be claustrophobia-inducing, so I mentally prepared myself for that. What I didn't prepare for, was it to be 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.. I had to get both my hips done, so they told me they would do one hip then take a break and pull me out to see if I needed anything. But they did not, and went through the entire hour long test straight. When I got out of the machine my Barney-themed gown (someone had to be messing with me) was literally soaked in sweat..

MRI Joe

Lesson learned for next time: Ask for an open MRI, and hit the emergency button to come out if the temperature is bad so it doesn't look like you pissed yourself.

Now that we're past that, here's how the actual results to the MRI show is going on with my hips:
  • Bony proliferative changes of the femoral head-neck junctions bilaterally suggestive of cam type deformities.
  • Small tears in both labrums (anterior-superior).
  • Low grade irregularity of the superior right acetabular cartilage.
  • Subcortical cysts along the anterior left femoral head.
  • Indistinctness and thickening of the ligamentum teres bilaterally suggestive of prior injury.

...Some of these were things that Doc (Dr. Ryan) had suspected based on my pain and difficulty with certain ranges of motion. Needless to say, trying to squat in a wide stance with an overly arched/sitting back position and my shins vertical does not bode well with the above issues going on in my hips.

In the past month since returning to squatting post-Arnold I've been following a lot of advice from EliteFTS Columnist and Physical Therapist Dani Overcash, and have been working on keeping better neutral spine position that doesn't put as much stress on my hips and adductors. Since squatting closer stance in olympic shoes doesn't give me nearly as much pain as squatting wide, I've been doing that over the past several weeks. After meeting with Doc this week, he said that it sounds like I'm doing the smart thing and we set up an appointment with an Orthopedic Surgeon in Columbus who specializes in Femoral Impingement and Cam Deformities in the hip. His concern is that if the cysts and other bone problems keep damaging other tissue that it could lead to arthritis.

Joe Squat

Soooooo... long story short I'm avoiding things that cause extra pain (I've gotten used to a low amount of pain throughout the day the past few years), and adjusting my training to work around and improve my joint restrictions. I'm really weak at close stance raw squatting right now (I haven't done it in ages), but it does feel a lot better on my hips. Using raw weights (with no knee wraps) also is forcing me to stay lighter, which is removing that extra load that the gear allows me to put on my joints (and beat them up even worse). On one hand these issues aren't good, but at the same time I'm glad I caught them now and am working on making progress moving forward.

I'm confident figuring out these things now will allow me to take my squat to where I know it should be over the course of this year.

To be continued...