Adductor Strain, Groin Tear/Strain, or Hernia?

So odd issue I’ve been having for about a month…quick history: when I was 4 I had an incarcerated hernia on my left. It got repaired and supposedly I can’t have a hernia on that side anymore because of some mesh or something. Anyway…

About 6 weeks ago I slipped on a wet floor and thought I strained my left adductor, and groin, slightly. Everything felt fine a couple weeks later. Then I noticed on the right side of my extreme lower abdomen, near the hip crease, that I was having vague soreness. It kind of built up over the past month, but only when I do certain things, and has spread to the left side now too.

When I sprint, my first warmup jog is excruciating. It feels like something to either side of my groin is tearing or being stabbed and is uncomfortable as fuck. I also notice a painful yanking sensation in both adductors. My next warmup run it’s a little better. By the third the feeling is completely gone on the left, and I get a faint vague soreness on the right side the rest of the session, nothing that slows me down.

The rest of the day there’s a faint soreness on both sides, like a muscle that’s been worked extra hard. Next, when I do certain ab-exercises, like dead bugs, I get the discomfort in my groin, kind of like something is squeezing the fuck out of my balls.

My first inclination was that I had a double hernia. But again, most days I’m fine, if I don’t suddenly start running, or jog for a warmup. I can squat/deadlift/brace my abs/etc. fine without any discomfort. I had an idea one day to try the adductor machine (the one where you sit and squeeze your legs together, i.e. the good girl/ bad girl machine) and sure enough it was awful.

My adductors had that yanking pain in them, the pain and discomfort in my groin was there, everything. Same thing if I’m standing and try to move a plate that’s lying on the gym floor with my foot (so like 25 lbs. plate, put my right foot on the right side of the plate and try to push it to the left)

So now I’m confused as to what this is, and what I should do for it. It’s not exactly a major issue, but I’d prefer to be able to warmup for sprints without shrieking and cursing as I do my warmup jog.

[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
So odd issue I’ve been having for about a month…quick history: when I was 4 I had an incarcerated hernia on my left. It got repaired and supposedly I can’t have a hernia on that side anymore because of some mesh or something. Anyway…

About 6 weeks ago I slipped on a wet floor and thought I strained my left adductor, and groin, slightly. Everything felt fine a couple weeks later. Then I noticed on the right side of my extreme lower abdomen, near the hip crease, that I was having vague soreness. It kind of built up over the past month, but only when I do certain things, and has spread to the left side now too.

When I sprint, my first warmup jog is excruciating. It feels like something to either side of my groin is tearing or being stabbed and is uncomfortable as fuck. I also notice a painful yanking sensation in both adductors. My next warmup run it’s a little better. By the third the feeling is completely gone on the left, and I get a faint vague soreness on the right side the rest of the session, nothing that slows me down.

The rest of the day there’s a faint soreness on both sides, like a muscle that’s been worked extra hard. Next, when I do certain ab-exercises, like dead bugs, I get the discomfort in my groin, kind of like something is squeezing the fuck out of my balls.

My first inclination was that I had a double hernia. But again, most days I’m fine, if I don’t suddenly start running, or jog for a warmup. I can squat/deadlift/brace my abs/etc. fine without any discomfort. I had an idea one day to try the adductor machine (the one where you sit and squeeze your legs together, i.e. the good girl/ bad girl machine) and sure enough it was awful.

My adductors had that yanking pain in them, the pain and discomfort in my groin was there, everything. Same thing if I’m standing and try to move a plate that’s lying on the gym floor with my foot (so like 25 lbs. plate, put my right foot on the right side of the plate and try to push it to the left)

So now I’m confused as to what this is, and what I should do for it. It’s not exactly a major issue, but I’d prefer to be able to warmup for sprints without shrieking and cursing as I do my warmup jog. [/quote]

Correct me if I’m wrong here, but when you slipped approx 6 weeks ago, was it in one of those accidental split movements?

The term groin is vague because there are several muscles in that area, the ones the average meatheads are blissfully unaware of (until they injure it, of course). You’ll never ever never hear a lifter say, “Mother of God - just look at the inferior gemellus on that guy!”

Based on your description of the location, it could be a grade 1 or 2 strain of the pectineus, which is one of the adductors. It’s also involved in hip flexion, which could involve the pain you experience with dead bugs.

Again - it bears repeating that there are several muscles in the region commonly referred to as the groin so it could something other than the pectineus. The issue can be something completely unrelated.

The thing that caught my eye about your post is that the pain which was initially only on the left side has migrated to the right.

A couple of theories here: 1) when you strained the left side, you could have also strained the right and the pain is now manifesting due to whatever it is that you’ve been doing since; 2) the right side may have over compensated for the injured left because it had to do more than its share on your workouts.

As for why the pain subsides as you go deeper into your workouts, there are several mechanisms at work - from the muscular to the neural. I won’t list them as I don’t want to risk the main topic going off on a tangent; however, the take-home is that just because the excruciating pain fades as you warm up is absolutely no guarantee that all is well down there.

Whether you like it or not, the first order of business is to get an in person exam to rule out hernia (just hope that your doc has warm and gentle hands). If you can safely rule this out, proceed by eliminating any other variables. Once you have a reasonable idea of what the issue is, you can then design an intelligent program to get you out of this hole.

[quote]56x11 wrote:

[quote]AccipiterQ wrote:
So odd issue I’ve been having for about a month…quick history: when I was 4 I had an incarcerated hernia on my left. It got repaired and supposedly I can’t have a hernia on that side anymore because of some mesh or something. Anyway…

About 6 weeks ago I slipped on a wet floor and thought I strained my left adductor, and groin, slightly. Everything felt fine a couple weeks later. Then I noticed on the right side of my extreme lower abdomen, near the hip crease, that I was having vague soreness. It kind of built up over the past month, but only when I do certain things, and has spread to the left side now too.

When I sprint, my first warmup jog is excruciating. It feels like something to either side of my groin is tearing or being stabbed and is uncomfortable as fuck. I also notice a painful yanking sensation in both adductors. My next warmup run it’s a little better. By the third the feeling is completely gone on the left, and I get a faint vague soreness on the right side the rest of the session, nothing that slows me down.

The rest of the day there’s a faint soreness on both sides, like a muscle that’s been worked extra hard. Next, when I do certain ab-exercises, like dead bugs, I get the discomfort in my groin, kind of like something is squeezing the fuck out of my balls.

My first inclination was that I had a double hernia. But again, most days I’m fine, if I don’t suddenly start running, or jog for a warmup. I can squat/deadlift/brace my abs/etc. fine without any discomfort. I had an idea one day to try the adductor machine (the one where you sit and squeeze your legs together, i.e. the good girl/ bad girl machine) and sure enough it was awful.

My adductors had that yanking pain in them, the pain and discomfort in my groin was there, everything. Same thing if I’m standing and try to move a plate that’s lying on the gym floor with my foot (so like 25 lbs. plate, put my right foot on the right side of the plate and try to push it to the left)

So now I’m confused as to what this is, and what I should do for it. It’s not exactly a major issue, but I’d prefer to be able to warmup for sprints without shrieking and cursing as I do my warmup jog. [/quote]

Correct me if I’m wrong here, but when you slipped approx 6 weeks ago, was it in one of those accidental split movements?

The term groin is vague because there are several muscles in that area, the ones the average meatheads are blissfully unaware of (until they injure it, of course). You’ll never ever never hear a lifter say, “Mother of God - just look at the inferior gemellus on that guy!”

Based on your description of the location, it could be a grade 1 or 2 strain of the pectineus, which is one of the adductors. It’s also involved in hip flexion, which could involve the pain you experience with dead bugs.

Again - it bears repeating that there are several muscles in the region commonly referred to as the groin so it could something other than the pectineus. The issue can be something completely unrelated.

The thing that caught my eye about your post is that the pain which was initially only on the left side has migrated to the right.

A couple of theories here: 1) when you strained the left side, you could have also strained the right and the pain is now manifesting due to whatever it is that you’ve been doing since; 2) the right side may have over compensated for the injured left because it had to do more than its share on your workouts.

As for why the pain subsides as you go deeper into your workouts, there are several mechanisms at work - from the muscular to the neural. I won’t list them as I don’t want to risk the main topic going off on a tangent; however, the take-home is that just because the excruciating pain fades as you warm up is absolutely no guarantee that all is well down there.

Whether you like it or not, the first order of business is to get an in person exam to rule out hernia (just hope that your doc has warm and gentle hands). If you can safely rule this out, proceed by eliminating any other variables. Once you have a reasonable idea of what the issue is, you can then design an intelligent program to get you out of this hole.
[/quote]

Yeah, it was basically like an accidental split. I was compensating after for a couple weeks, definitely. By groin I mean, extreme lower abdomen, to the left and right of my dong’s base, if that helps narrow it down. Thank you for your post; I may just have to bite the bullet and see a doc.