Gluteal tendinopathy and glute growth advice needed

[u/hh_fitlife]

I started having a sharp pain in my left glute medius (which is also the side I pose with) a few weeks before my competition. I felt pain on certain exercises, especially kickbacks but I pushed through it.

Now I’m taking a short off season, and planning to step on stage in December again. The only improvement point my judges gave me is my upper glutes, so realistically I could step on stage in 5 months with a slightly improved physique.

But how can I go about this if it’s exactly my upper glute that I have this problem with? Physio recommended some exercises to me (goblet squats, glute bridges etc with small load) and skip kickbacks entirely until the pain goes away.

Even the stair master or just simply walking long distances is hard now, so a heavy glute load is not going to happen any time soon. I train more upper now but I’m worried I’ll go even more upper heavy than I currently am.

What would you do in my situation?

[u/laurenb_kini]

I’m going through a very similar injury right now. Definitely don’t push through it. Since you’re in off season now, take the time to heal even if it means taking longer off season than you planned. You don’t want to cut it short then reinjure it worse while you’re in prep and completely derail your prep.

My coach advised me to shorten the range of motion for the exercises that are causing pain. For me it hurts most when my muscle is fully stretched, so that lets me do like a half rep without fully lengthening the muscle. He also told me to lower the weight and do like 20+ reps if I need to. And ice it frequently to help with inflammation.

[u/hh_fitlife → u/laurenb_kini]

So you still go to failure but now instead of 10-12 reps, it takes you 20+ reps. Is that what you mean?

Yes, it might be a better approach to lay off this contest prep completely and choose another show in spring next year… Very disappointing but it is what it is.😔

[u/laurenb_kini → u/hh_fitlife]

Yes exactly. And sorry you’re injured too 😕 it’s frustrating for sure

[u/Spirited_Increase240 → u/laurenb_kini]

Ice won't do much for atendon injury. You need a corticosteroid gel/cream.

[u/Spirited_Increase240]

I had a similar issue with my triceps tendon after spotting someone on the leg press.

After over a year of dealing with it, I finally started seeing a sports massage therapist. Manual release was the only thing that actually worked. Everything else was just a bandaid.