Thigh pain after squats: is it good or bad? | powerliftingtechnique.com (2023)

While soreness after squatting is to be expected, muscle soreness could indicate that there are some issues with your technique, which we'll detail later in this article.

But first, let's answer the question...

Why do your hamstrings hurt after squats?Hamstrings can become sore after a squat workout for three reasons: (1) DOMS (delayed muscle soreness), (2) fatigue, or (3) injury. Reviewing your squatting technique, the amount of work/volume you put in during your workout, and understanding the context of your other workouts can help you identify the reason for your muscle soreness.

Why do your hamstrings hurt after squats?

If you have sore hamstrings after a squat, it's due to one or more of the following:

• You have Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)

• you have an injury

• Your hamstrings are just tired

While the first two are important to consider, having sore hamstrings for the third reason (fatigue) could indicate muscle weakness or poor technique. I'll go into more detail on this below.

DOMS

That oneAmerican College of Sports Medicineprovides a great definition of DOMS:

“Any type of activity that places unknown stress on the muscles can lead to delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). This type of pain differs from acute pain, which is pain that develops during actual activity. Delayed muscle soreness usually begins to develop 12 to 24 hours after exercising and can produce the worst soreness 24 to 72 hours after exercising. 🇧🇷

Simply put, DOMS is just the feeling that your muscles are repairing and recovering from the training you put them through.

That's it.

It used to be thought that this was caused by the lactic acid flooding your muscles during exercise, but this has now been disproved. DOMS is simply the feeling of a muscle being used after a workout.

So if your last squat workout included something that could be defined as an "unknown load," setting ACSM opened the door for DOMS to join the party.

But don't confuse the term "unknown load" with just defining the weight of the load.

Of course, you can add more weight to bring your weight to something your body isn't used to, but you can also do this by increasing the reps in each set, the total number of sets you do, increasing or even changing the dynamics of the exercise, such as slowing down and exaggerating the lifts to keep your muscles engaged longer (i.e.,squat time).

The final element to consider is your current state.

While you may have lifted this load before for the same reps and sets, if you're away from it for more than a few weeks, this load can become absolutely "unaccustomed" to your circumstances.

Generally, the worst cases of DOMS occur in those who have never lifted weights before or those who have returned after a significant break. check my articlehow to get back up after a breakto minimize DOMS.

But what about the hamstrings specifically?

Well, your hamstrings are part of your legs, and your legs do most of the work when you squat.

While your quadriceps are the main muscle we think of when we squat (which is especially activated at the bottom of the squat), your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back work to bring your hips up and forward as you finish each rep.

Read my full article onMuscles used in squatslearn more.

So the more squats you do later in the day, the more you're working your hamstrings, even though the exercise is a secondary muscle group. And that means they can get sore.

wounds

Here is my disclaimer: I am not a doctor or medical professional. If you think you are injured, seek help from a licensed professional.

I can tell you that if you've had an injury, you probably felt it suddenly and most likely during training.

While DOMS sets in a day or two after exercise (hence the “delayed onset” part of the acronym), pain from an injury comes on suddenly or even immediately.

Think about your squat workout...

At any point during exercise, did you feel sudden pain in your thigh muscles?

Did the pain make it difficult or impossible to continue the exercises after the break?

If that's the case, you've likely suffered an injury and should seek medical advice.

fatigue

Your pain could stem from the fact that you are relying on your hamstrings more than necessary when squatting and simply training them more than is necessary or ideal for squatting.

If you look at how the hamstrings work in the squat, they're just there as a secondary hip extensor to bring the hips forward for standing, orblock, the squat.

Your glutes are the main hip extensors, so even then your hamstrings really shouldn't be doing that much work.

If your hamstrings hurt after squatting, it could mean your glutes are weak and you're relying on other muscle groups (like your hamstrings) to do the work you want your glutes to do.

Even if your squatting technique is wrong (i.e. you areleaning too far forward), you may be using your hamstrings more than necessary and therefore putting unnecessary stress on them, making them worse than expected (I'll discuss this in more detail below).

In any of these cases, you are not experiencing DOMS when training your hamstrings, and you are certainly not injured, just relying on your hamstrings to do more than your body needs to train squats.

Check out our other sore muscle guides:

• Quadriceps hurt after squats: is this good or bad?
• Thigh pain after deadlift: is it good or bad?
• Muscle Soreness After Deadlifts: Is It Good or Bad?
• Butt pain after deadlift: is it good or bad?

Technique to implement if you want to reduce hamstring pain caused by squatting

Now you might not be freaked out by the news that your hamstrings are being overhauled, but it might have you checking your form and seeing what you can do to improve your technique. I bet you will find more benefits than just reducing hamstring pain.

form validation

Make a video of your side squat technique. Adjust the camera so that it's roughly between your knees and hips so you can see straight from the side while monitoring your form.

In an ideal squat, you begin the movement by bending your knees and pushing your hips back to get them out of the way and allow you to squat. As you stand up, your hips move forward again to align with your knees and torso, bringing you back to an upright position.

When you think about your squats, don't just think about moving the barbell/your body up and down, but also think about what's moving forward and what's moving backward.

Now, as you look at your squat, notice how much your hips pull back on the way down.

Pushing them back too far leaves more range of motion that they have to cover to get back up when you want to stand up straight. Your hamstrings are part of the muscle group responsible for bringing your hips back, so this could be a clear indicator that you're using them too much.

Second, look at your torso and the extent to which your chest flexes forward as you descend.

One way your body tries to bring your torso back is to bring your hips back. So if you fall forward in the squat and manage to straighten it out, another possibility could be that you are putting more strain on your hamstrings while squatting.

Which squat variations can still make your hamstrings sore?

There are two squat variations that can hit the hamstrings the hardest:

• Good Morning

• good morning squat

It's not a long list, I know.

But my advice is to avoid these variations in your workout if you want to reduce the muscle soreness that squatting causes.

Remember, one of the reasons you get sore hamstrings when squatting is not because they are weak and you need to work your hamstrings harder.

It's probably because your glutes are a little weaker and your hamstrings are compensating for this weaker muscle group.

What to Do When Your Hamstrings Hurt After Squats (6 Things to Consider)

Here are my 6 tips if you want to reduce hamstring muscle pain:

• Activate your glutes
• Foam roller on hamstrings
• Avoid the "Good Morning Squat"
• Build stronger glutes
• distribute your volume
• Adjust your training frequency

Activate your glutes

Given that the glutes are the other muscle group that must be working to lock in your squats, focus on activating your glutes. You can do this by doing glute-specific exercises, such as B. a single leg glute bridge.

You can use these warm-ups to create that mind-muscle connection to make sure your glutes don't get lazy when you start squatting.

read my wholeSquat warm-up routine.

Foam roller on hamstrings

On the other hand, you can use foam to wrap your hamstrings to relax them.

By engaging your glutes with the advice above and then relaxing your hamstrings, you can keep the workload on the right muscle group (the glutes) to avoid the fatigue and soreness you're feeling.

My recommendation is to spend 1-2 minutes stretching your hamstrings with a foam roller or lacrosse ball.

Avoid the "Good Morning Squat"

Performing a technically correct squat requires your hips and barbell to move in unison.

Some people will struggle with their form, making their squats seem like more of a good morning. Your hips will rise faster than the bottom position bar and your torso will be parallel to the floor.

Since the good morning squat overuses the hamstrings, by avoiding or correcting this flaw in your technique, you can reduce the amount of stress and strain placed on the hamstrings.

If you are facing this problem then I strongly recommend you to read my articleHow to correct the squat good morning.

Build stronger glutes

Not only should you set aside time before your squat workout to make sure your glutes are engaged, but you can (and should) strengthen them yourself.

After your main squat work or during another lower-body workout, make time to do a dedicated glute workout.

The glute exercises that will directly help strengthen your squats are:

• Deadlifts romenos (RDLs)
• hip thrusts
• block trains
• high box squat

I've written complete instructions on each of these exercises, so be sure to read them.

With stronger glutes, they do the work you need to do when you squat, so your hamstrings don't have to pick up the slack and have to do more than they should.

distribute your volume

When we talk about the "unknown weight" and how it can cause pain, you have to remember that one way to increase that weight is to add more sets and reps.

If you think this is the cause of your pain, try spreading it out over more sets instead of trying to do sets with more reps.

These higher rep sets are usually linked to more muscle soreness, so try to address these unless your program specifically calls for high rep sets.

For example, instead of starting with 3 sets of 5 reps in week 1 and progressing to 6, 7, and 8 reps in subsequent weeks, try increasing sets to 4 sets of 5 reps, 5 sets of 5 reps, and 6 sets of 6 reps. repetitions.

Adjust your training frequency

Another way to spread your work out is to train squats into more than a single workout.

The idea here is to do the same amount of work in the training week but in 2-3 workouts instead of 1 workout.

Fewer squats in a single day can reduce overall muscle soreness because the hamstrings don't get as tired after a workout. Taking a rest day between squat workouts allows your hamstrings to fully recover before starting your next workout.

This only works if you have the opportunity to exercise several times a week, but if you can, I highly recommend giving it a try to see if it can reduce your overall thigh pain from squatting.

learn more abouthow many times a week should you squat.

Recap: Hamstring Pain After Squats

Here's a quick checklist to go through:

• What kind of pain is it?Check out this resource to determine if you have DOMS, an injury, or just extra hamstring fatigue.

• Was the pain intentional?Have you focused on a squat variation or accessory that puts more emphasis on the hamstrings?

• Check your technique.Check out our breakdown of his technique above, watch the video and honestly determine if your form needs fixing.

• Stay mobile.If nothing else, just keep moving. Your hamstrings will benefit from the blood flow and heat from activity and mobility, even if you're just running or doing low-intensity lower-body exercise.

Can you still train when your hamstrings hurt from squatting?

As long as you aren't injured, you can continue training your hamstrings after a squat session that left them more sore than usual.

But I advise you to be careful with training each muscle if it already hurts. Take extra time to warm up and stretch. Remember that your sore muscle may not have full strength capacity. So adjust your load and intensity so you don't overwhelm your current circumstances.

Just because you can reach a certain weight when rested doesn't mean you can do the same a few days later when you're sore. Adjust accordingly and you should still get a great workout.

What to read next:

• Thigh pain after squats: is it good or bad?

About the author

Adam Gardner is a proud resident of Utah, where he lives with his wife and two children. He has competed in weightlifting in the USPA and APF since 2016. For the past three years, he and his wife, Merrili, have been training entry-level weightlifters to learn the fundamentals of weightlifting and compete in their first weightlifting competitions.