At the Genesis Performance Center, I recently had a personal training client who was having pain in her hip. The pain comes at the top portion of a squat or dead lift movement.

Any time there is a pain in the front of the hip (anterior hip pain), don’t forget to consider “femoral anterior glide syndrome” as a possible cause.
The pain seems to be at the front of the hip joint and does not seem to come from a muscle or ligament.

SOLUTION: Think about how the femur (thigh bone) is made secure in the hip socket. It is held tight and back in the socket by the function of the glute muscles. That means your buttocks have to work well to keep the bone in place.

So, during your warm up, do more glute activation (you can even do these between sets as I instructed my client to do) and during exercises like squats, lunges, or pulls, remember to focus on a contraction of the buttock muscles to keep the femur tight in the socket and avoid it slipping forward and causing pain.

Some glute exercises are show below.

Hip pain is a common problem that gets fixed with as part of our personal training and athletic performance programs! Training with us is not just about being lean and looking good! But you have got to leave feeling better and healthier as well!