Hey, I started a simple weightlifting routine about 3 months ago. i've been doing Romanian deadlifts, regular deadlifts, standing military presses, bench press, pullups, dumbell rows, upright rows etc...

I've been doing partial squats, and I can do full olympic squats with a board under my heels, I just feel like my hips are very stiff throughout the lower portion of the squat. It feels like my femur bone is running into something, and i simply can't go any further without experiencing some moderate pain.

I've been doing hip stretches, where I try to pull my knees up to chest level, but I still feel like i just can't go any further. It seems like the flexiblity issues aren't really muscular, it just feels like bone against bone:confused:

Anyways, I was just curious if anyone else experienced the same problem as me when they started to squat?

Perhaps I just wasn't built for it? I'm 6' 1" by the way

Thanks a lot:)

Pulling your knees up is not a great hip stretch. You're more likely to get hamstring or glute action than hips.

For stretches, before and after your workouts, just take the empty bar and go to the bottom of your ROM with good form. Then, keeping the back tense and in good position throughout, alternate relaxing and tensing the legs in the bottom position as well as going through the ROM. See if you can't get slightly deeper each session. After a couple weeks, you should be able to squat deeper with better form.

For your pain, I can't really tell you what to do. I'd suggest searching around on t-nation.com, as there are a few coaches there who have written articles about diagnosing inflexibilities, weaknesses, etc. in the lower body and in the squat movement.

I've been doing partial squats, and I can do full olympic squats with a board under my heels, I just feel like my hips are very stiff throughout the lower portion of the squat. It feels like my femur bone is running into something, and i simply can't go any further without experiencing some moderate pain.

So don't go that far.

For stretches, before ... your workouts, just

.... don't.

What the point of lowering yourself down that far?

I try to stay parallel with my squats, and go lower when I do lightweight - high rep stuff.

What the point of lowering yourself down that far?
If he wants to eventually full clean or snatch, he better be able to get that deep.

If he wants to eventually full clean or snatch, he better be able to get that deep.

And since strength increases over a wider range than is trained, he should probably do most of his work at a shallower depth. As usual:

Walter Imahara protects his knees by only training from blocks, never full movements and only performs half squats. Walter is known for his excellent technique and catching the bar at the rock bottom position in competitions. (http://www.qwa.org/articles/emasters.asp)

It seems clear that you don't have to train that deep to catch that deep. There are good kinesiological reasons to expect that partial range of motion training will be successful (it is in so many other aspects of liftng) and given examples such as Imahara (6 time U.S. champion, several times Masters World Champion) it seems that at least for some people it works fine.