Glimmer Edition – Starting Strength Weekly Report April 13, 2026

Shamus

Recently when I squat, I have been feeling pain in the outside middle of my right thigh. It was only at the bottom of the squat and didn’t really bother me too much.

As the weight has increased to 405 it became worse. I recently tweaked my back deadlifting and have been working my way back up in weight.

The back is feeling really good now and when I squat and deadlift no issue however my last lot of squats at 350 the pain in my thigh was worse during the squats. After the last set there was pain on the outside front bony part in my hip. It is extremely tender to push on and when I squat down hurts like hell at the bottom. It is also very tender just above the knee on the outside and the mid-thigh. Now it aches on and off without doing anything. My left side has similar pain but only noticeable when I press on the area not during the exercise.

I have looked at some stuff online and reading about Tensor Fasciae Latae tendinitis, seems to fit where the pain is?

Should I treat this much like the back injury NSAIDs and keep training? Should I be stretching it or doing any particular exercise (outside of squatting)? Rolling it is almost unbearable but feels good after?

Any advice appreciated.

Mark Rippetoe

Get a therapist to do an Iliotibial Band Release. It will hurt, but it usually fixes this.

Shamus

Finding a decent one will be the trick …. The first one said the problem is in my foot not my itb at all, after I asked him to do an itb release. Suggested I do light lunges because the left leg isn’t doing enough work.

I will try another and see if I can get a better outcome.

Will light squatting make it worse? I would like to keep squatting to some degree as finding a decent therapist could take some time. I don’t recall reading anywhere that suggests lunges.

Mark Rippetoe

A massage therapist might be easier to work with.

Nockian

I really don’t understand MED ( minimum effective dose).

Take a trainee who has learned to do 3×5 with an empty bar.

The trainee adds two feathers and repeated the three sets-did he produce MED ?

The trainee gathers all the plates in the gym gets under the bar and earns a trip to causality-despite his injuries, did he produce MED ?

Then, learning from his experience with using all the plates, he gets smart and begins to add 5lbs on every new session. He keeps on adding 5lbs until one day he discovers that he cannot complete his last set and only manages 3 reps and fails the 4th. Has he reached MED ? If he adds a further 5lbs the next week and fails the 5th rep of the third set would he still have reached MED ?

Mark Rippetoe

MED is a training variable, and failure is a workout variable. Two different things completely.

Nockian

I’m missing some part of this. In the failure example, would that be a failure to plan the training session appropriately and all things being equal, is that an example of over reaching ?

I’ve recently had the experience where I found I could do less reps on LTE with the same 30Kg weight than the previous week, twice in a row. So I had achieved 12,12,8 then programmed 12,12,9 the following week and ended up with 12,10,8, which degraded the next week to 12,10,6 All other lifts went as planned. So is that over reaching, overtraining, did I fail to produce sufficient stress on the 12,12,8 week ? I’m losing weight at about 0.5lbs a week which clearly plays into it, but every other lift improved, just the LTEs that went bad.

Adam Gottstein

If you can’t eat through it, as you’re obviously on a deficit, can you not reduce either the reps or weight increases? Minimum effective dose would dictate only changing one and observing the results before making another adjustment. You could do 3×10, or maybe 4×9 to keep volume the same. You could reduce to 1kg increases, etc….

Good luck with the weight loss, and keep in mind there is a cost to eating at a deficit, and you may be seeing it here.