Originally Posted by brawlo

FOR ME my issues all broke down to my gluteus medius. The symptoms described were me 100%.

I have come across a sensational masseuse who is a fixer. She doesn't mess about. If you have an issue, she will either fix you, or with her wealth of knowledge, she will know where to point you to get the help you need. I had a constantly recurring back issue. I would keep working up my squat to about BW and forever be hurting my back, but I'd be over it in a week or so so persisted with it. So after one such occasion, I went to her thinking back pain again....can you fix it. She didn't fix it unfortunately on the first try, but she freed up enough of the spasming back muscles that I could literally put my finger on the problem.... my glute med. I had a recurring tear. She told me she could fix it, it would hurt and I would be bruised, but she would fix it. And she did, but I had to do something about strengthening it up otherwise it would forever be a problem.

The glute med is the muscle that does the work when we do something like a side step in football, or any other sport for that matter. As we get older and we no longer run around as much and become one dimensional (forward-back) movers or we take up a one dimensional sport like cycling, the glute med gets very weak. It is a supporter muscle for a lot of heavy lifting work and just persisting with squat or DL won't do the work to strengthen it up enough to work with the other big muscles around it. I now have lunges as part of my gym routine where I hold a KB on one side, throwing off the balance and forcing the med to work hard for stabilisation. I haven't had a problem since. BUT I also don't lift heavy any more, but I do lift a lot and I do a lot of heavy work outside of the gym.

Now I'm not saying that it's the same problem for everyone, but a weak glute med leading to back issues as people get older is a well known issue, and cycling's one dimensional movements will not help it.

Things like yoga and pilates will help you, but if you're a heavy lifter, then you will need to give the glute med some focused attention as yoga and pilates likely won't give it the level of strength needed to support heavy lifting