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I've been doing StrongLifts for a couple months and making pretty good progress. Before I began the program, I was having a lot of lower leg problems (shin splints and general soreness). It's gotten a lot better (to the point where I can play basketball), but when I started doing warm-up sets of squats, I felt a weird sensation in the back of my right leg (a bone-like joint on the outer part of the right leg, behind the knee).

It wasn't painful, but I became very conscious of the weird sensation every time I went down. If I had really forced it, I think I could have still gotten my work sets in, but I elected to just hold off on squatting for that day.

And before I began squatting, I didn't have any indication that there was anything wrong with my legs. I felt really good and ready to continue making progress, but then I just felt the weird sensation. I've been playing quite a bit of basketball lately, and while I slept a lot over Thanksgiving break, I only got four or five hours of sleep last night. People generally tell me that my form is good, and I've felt fine over the past few weeks, even as the weights began to get challenging. Is this something I should be concerned about, or should I just get a good night's sleep and try again tomorrow or the day after?

diagnosis by anonymous internet folk has pros and cons, so, remember you're the best judge of what's happening to you.

it's ok to stop and rest up.

based on my experience with my own twinges and unique sensations, after several sessions with 'weirdness' I back the weight off and don't think about it too much. If it doesn't change, I stop the movement and rest up for a bit. it's likely to not be there anymore.

it could be adaptation, it could be the beginnings of something else. likely it's adaptation, but remember rest, sleep and patience are your friends. nothing is wrong with slow and steady. if you're doing this for fun, let it stay fun.

I'll bet dollars to doughnuts you have crappy glutes

The advice to stop and rest is good advice. If you've been at it two months a rest might be good, take one or two days off and then resume the A/B schedule. Many aches and pains do go away and never come back.

However, you say you had leg problems before, so maybe there is something wrong. And RobertScott named the number one issue of the 21st century: weak glutes, with attendant poor hip mobility, which causes the knees to take up the slack, which they weren't designed to do, and weird injuries gradually develop.

At any rate, it is possible that powerlifting has revealed an issue you already had, and the most likely candidate in us 21st century men is weak glutes.

Here is an article that discusses hip flexor pain. Although you are not complaining of that specifically, the article gives great form tips on squatting: http://www.ericcressey.com/newsletter150html (If you don't know about Eric Cressey you are in for a treat, he's a genius).

Here is another recent article from T-nation that not only talks about glutes, it also opens with a photograph of musclar female glutes (a side benefit of many t-nation articles). http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_art ... te_monster. Read through and try a lot of the light stuff on off days, and see if it doesn't make you generally feel better.

Glutes and shoulders, those are the big problems.

Thanks for the input. I'll rest a couple days and try the glute activation exercises. I'll also experiment with making an adjustment in squat form next time I try to lift.

"Here is an article that discusses hip flexor pain. Although you are not complaining of that specifically, the article gives great form tips on squatting: http://www.ericcressey.com/newsletter150html (If you don't know about Eric Cressey you are in for a treat, he's a genius)." - Kendowns

Very interesting. I have had some minor hip pain recently, and I wonder if this may be a factor (although I don't think it's my squating form).