Groin has been hurt since November 2009. Hurt it over time, but it finally ‘went’ when I was squatting. It never ‘popped’ was just very ‘strained’ and when I went down for a rep I knew there was no way I would get back up without hurting it real bad. Dumped the bar and haven’t been right since.
I stayed off it for 2-3 months as it hurt real bad. Have been doing light squats and deadlifts for the past 3-4 months. Still tender, but not agonizing.
Any help/advice is appreciated.
I have a strain in the same area, but I only feel the pain when I do lunges. I can squat/deadlift without pain. Not sure if it’s the same muscle, but I’d be interested to hear what anyone says other then the same old RICE method that every doctor will tell you for every injury…
I used to strain my groin all summer every year from running and playing sports. I started doing Cossack Squats this winter and my groin has been much better this year and its also helped a lot of my other lifts
Great exercise. Really helps out the hips and builds a lot of strength.
I had a strain in my hamstring/glute area awhile ago. It definitely popped but didn’t bruise.
I rehabbed using the ‘Starr Rehab’ protocol that Rippetoe recommends. It involves finding a movement that aggravates it, then doing that movement with a light weight/high reps. Next day, you add a small amount of weight and do it again, continue for 14 days straight, then you start titrating down reps and increasing the weight.
I did it for something like 21 days straight, then took some days off, and continued to work back up slowly.
I was back to full strength within 2 months. It is still tight though and I am extra careful about warming up, static stretching post workout, and getting my mobility work in. I do start to get nervous when I am in PR territory.
The movement is supposed to cause some pain and the key is learning to differentiate between rehab pain and injury pain. The metric I used is it if feel better after the workout, then it is rehab pain. The work is supposed to work the muscle through full range of motion getting blood into it and preventing the formation of scar tissue leading to an increased likelihood of a future
Example using squats…
Day 1: Barx20x3
Day 2: 55x20x3
…
Day X: 135x20x3
Day X+1: 155x15x3
Day X+2: 185x10x3
Day X+Y: 225x5x5
I started rehabbing mine with regular squats, but they didn’t hurt the area enough, so I ended up switching to box squats which I felt more in my hamstrings. I think the key there is finding a movement that causes some pain and directly works the injured area.
Check out Rippetoe’s site for his description of it and thats my 2 cents.
Along with what others have recommended, I would start foam rolling your groin as well in conjunction with a good dynamic mobility routine. As far as exercises, add in some dynamic stability drills with an eccentric load. The Cossack squats are good and I’ve done a slight variation of that by doing a full lateral lunge with the moving leg on a slide board and then advanced to adding resistance from a band.
As suggested by others, starting with the light weight and building up will be good for increasing blood flow to the area to advance healing properties, but make sure you are doing some stretching mobility drills to make sure the muscle fibers lay down properly.
Also, with the adductor muscle group (groin), there are other accessory motions the muscles can do and it can help to figure out which adductor muscle is injured to target it the most. For example the adductor longus will assist with hip flexion while the adductor magnus will assist with hip extension.
If the hamstrings are weak and/or being forced to make up for other inactive/lagging muscles (weak, inactive glutes), it is possible for the adductor magnus (along with the IT Band) to attempt to make up for the hamstring by assisting more with hip extension and placing an overbearing load on the adductor magnus, causing injury. The same can be stated in for the adductor longus and hip flexors.
Also, without getting to much into the science of it all, muscular and fascial adhesions can develop between closely lying muscles, especially when they are involved with similar motions. You will often find adhesions built up between the adductor magnus and the semimembranosus (and part of the semitendinosus). These can be addressed with self myofascial release or by a professional soft tissue therapist (ART, Graston, etc).
To summarize, if you haven’t already:
Hope this helps.
-LH
Thanks for all the advice. I’m going to prioritize this.
Would ice/heat help? I tried this a few months ago and did 1/2 hour ice followed by 1/2 hour heat…it seemed to help a bit, but I kept it up for about 14 days before giving up on it…to be honest an hour spent doing this for 2 weeks and not much improvement was a bit depressing.
[quote]sen say wrote:
Thanks for all the advice. I’m going to prioritize this.
Would ice/heat help? I tried this a few months ago and did 1/2 hour ice followed by 1/2 hour heat…it seemed to help a bit, but I kept it up for about 14 days before giving up on it…to be honest an hour spent doing this for 2 weeks and not much improvement was a bit depressing.[/quote]
Hiya Sen Say!
You might look on
which has some comments about a pulled adductor that hurt all the way up to the groin. This is also a type of “sports hernia”. Maybe some of the stuff I have outlined there will help.
– jj
[quote]sen say wrote:
Thanks for all the advice. I’m going to prioritize this.
Would ice/heat help? I tried this a few months ago and did 1/2 hour ice followed by 1/2 hour heat…it seemed to help a bit, but I kept it up for about 14 days before giving up on it…to be honest an hour spent doing this for 2 weeks and not much improvement was a bit depressing.[/quote]
If you are going to apply ice and heat, my recommendations are to heat prior to workouts or activity for 10-20 minutes and ice afterwards for 15-20 minutes. When it comes to increasing tissue temperature, a good warmup (bike, dynamic mobility, etc) will increase issue temperature better than just a hot pack. Not saying a hot pack is worthless - the heat can provide a relaxing effect to the muscle and decrease some spasming that may be occurring.
Hey…I finally figured out it wasn’t lifting, but playing soccer without being warmed up that hurt my groin. I’d been pain free and deadlifting/squatting with more frequency/greater weight, when I spend 20 minutes shooting a soccer ball into a net about 40 yards away…groin hurt like hell the next day.
Just one more reason to stay off The Pitch!
Soccer and hockey will definitely do that. Glad to hear you’re doing better, sen say 