I had the absolute worst workout in my entire life yesterday. I'm doing starting strength which is a 3x a week full body workout. I did my warmup squats as usual, but my inner thighs felt really tight (this is a flexibility problem for me, and I'm working on it).

As I started adding weight to get to my working sets, the discomfort increased. I put on my working set weight, did one rep and about fell over. It wasn't exactly pain, but felt like a DOMS soreness times 100. I tried to pull off 15 pounds, and I was able to squeak out a few reps with less than stellar form.

All night last night I had the pain, but today its almost gone.. The book says not to stretch before, just a light warmup for 5 minutes, then about 5 warmup sets.

Any ideas how to proceed? Per the protocol, I'm lowering the weight but I don't think that was the problem. Most likely its that I'm doing proper squats for the first time in 6 years, but I've never felt anything like this...

As I started adding weight to get to my working sets, the discomfort increased. I put on my working set weight, did one rep and about fell over. It wasn't exactly pain, but felt like a DOMS soreness times 100. I tried to pull off 15 pounds, and I was able to squeak out a few reps with less than stellar form.

All night last night I had the pain, but today its almost gone.. The book says not to stretch before, just a light warmup for 5 minutes, then about 5 warmup sets.

Any ideas how to proceed? Per the protocol, I'm lowering the weight but I don't think that was the problem. Most likely its that I'm doing proper squats for the first time in 6 years, but I've never felt anything like this...

Definitely do not stretch before your workout.

See how your next workout goes. Sounds like you got hit with nasty muscle fatigue because you're out of practice.

We should never stretch at all before lifting? Does the warm up sets count as our stretching?

We should never stretch at all before lifting? Does the warm up sets count as our stretching?

You should never stretch before lifting, with maybe one exception - it might be good to stretch the hip flexors before squatting. I have actually tried that and it was no use to me. But the current thinking is that stretching before lifting is no good and only bad. In fact the many benefits of stretching which have been believed in for years essentially all failed when put to controlled trials. So there is no scientific evidence supporting any stretching. But a lot of people still like stretching, so if you're going to stretch, make sure it's not until the end of your workout. Stretching increases the chance of injury and weakens muscles so you don't want to do it before your lifting. (Yeah I know it's the opposite of what we all thought for many years but that's the way it's come out).

Warm up sets do not count as stretching. Warming up is, as far as I can tell, still thought to be good, and there is evidence supporting it.

The stretching question has been covered here at JSF in a couple threads, where lots of evidence was posted, etc. You can search on it to find them. But the short answer is that anything you can get from stretching you can more safely get from resistance exercise. For example instead of doing hamstring stretches (which most people do wrong anyway) you can just skip the hamstring stretches and do RDLs instead.

For example instead of doing hamstring stretches (which most people do wrong anyway) you can just skip the hamstring stretches and do RDLs instead.

Yep...just skip the barbell curls for squats and you'll be just fine. :tucool:

Well, it's still there. My wife (nurse) thinks its the adductor, based on where I told her it hurt. When I did martial arts we did a stretch called the butterfly (sitting, feet together, push knees to the floor) - this is the same muscle, and I realized I've always had problems with it's ROM.

Anything, besides more squats, i can do to get this thing stretched? I'm thinking it might be more anatomical - I was in martial arts for years and never got the flexibility I wanted.

Well, it's still there. My wife (nurse) thinks its the adductor, based on where I told her it hurt. When I did martial arts we did a stretch called the butterfly (sitting, feet together, push knees to the floor) - this is the same muscle, and I realized I've always had problems with it's ROM.

Anything, besides more squats, i can do to get this thing stretched? I'm thinking it might be more anatomical - I was in martial arts for years and never got the flexibility I wanted.

Well, it's still there. My wife (nurse) thinks its the adductor, based on where I told her it hurt. When I did martial arts we did a stretch called the butterfly (sitting, feet together, push knees to the floor) - this is the same muscle, and I realized I've always had problems with it's ROM.

Anything, besides more squats, i can do to get this thing stretched? I'm thinking it might be more anatomical - I was in martial arts for years and never got the flexibility I wanted.

Well, it's still there. My wife (nurse) thinks its the adductor, based on where I told her it hurt. When I did martial arts we did a stretch called the butterfly (sitting, feet together, push knees to the floor) - this is the same muscle, and I realized I've always had problems with it's ROM.

Anything, besides more squats, i can do to get this thing stretched? I'm thinking it might be more anatomical - I was in martial arts for years and never got the flexibility I wanted.

You should never stretch before lifting, with maybe one exception - it might be good to stretch the hip flexors before squatting. I have actually tried that and it was no use to me. But the current thinking is that stretching before lifting is no good and only bad. In fact the many benefits of stretching which have been believed in for years essentially all failed when put to controlled trials. So there is no scientific evidence supporting any stretching. But a lot of people still like stretching, so if you're going to stretch, make sure it's not until the end of your workout. Stretching increases the chance of injury and weakens muscles so you don't want to do it before your lifting. (Yeah I know it's the opposite of what we all thought for many years but that's the way it's come out).

Warm up sets do not count as stretching. Warming up is, as far as I can tell, still thought to be good, and there is evidence supporting it.

The stretching question has been covered here at JSF in a couple threads, where lots of evidence was posted, etc. You can search on it to find them. But the short answer is that anything you can get from stretching you can more safely get from resistance exercise. For example instead of doing hamstring stretches (which most people do wrong anyway) you can just skip the hamstring stretches and do RDLs instead.


I personally find ham stretching before and in between squat sets helps a lot with getting the requisite flexibility to execute good form.

Welp, thank goodness the pain is gone. I think it was a combination of flexibility issues and some minor points of form. I dropped the bar lower on my shoulders (the low bar squat) and kept a steeper back angle than I had been - focused on keeping the weight over the middle of my feet and pushing with the butt.

What a difference - I added 10 pounds to my working set because my warmups felt good.

Now if I can just figure out the power clean.