I have my first meet in 9 days and my groin is a little tender. I don’t think it is a pull, maybe just a strain and I don’t have time to go back to the doctor…I have taken the past week off of training, just to stretch it and ice it…And I was thinking about doing the same for the upcoming week, just to make sure that I don’t aggravate it…Does anyone else have any more tips on what I should do?
Stretching could aggravate it. I wouldn’t take a week off training. You can still do low intensity stuff, as well as high intensity weight work like bench presses. I used EMS successfully with my groin. Strengthening is the key to recovering from groin injuries. There was a study in hockey players that suggested that strength, not flexibility, was the limiting factor in preventing groin injuries.
Blinky have you a copy of this study or the reference or anything so i can get a copy of it?
Thanks
Had lots of groin injuries because a) I was a hurdler and that was my trail leg and b) I have alsost an inch differential between my legs the trail leg is longer.
Rest is very important, stay away from stretching and especially stay away from aggrevating this area. I am sure Blinky is right about the strenghening but you always need flexibility as well unless you are a bodybuilder.( and even then I belief the look of muscle is best when the performance is at the highest level)
Try working around the area in anyway you can without using the area. NOt sure what your event is as I will speak to Charlie about this as well but hot and colds have worked extemely well to address a specific area without causing more damage. Shower works best and you need very hot and very cold and try to spend most of the intervals directly on each hip flexor as both sides need to be addressed.
let me know how it goes and if you know how to do a proper hot and cold.
AC
If you use EMS on the area, make sure it’s a very low intensity pulse. Sometimes, when the groin is tight, it’s because of an inflammation of the lymphs. Do a self-exam to see if any of the lymphs are palpable. If so, and water intake is good, gentle massage over them may clear them. Of course, if you’ve been slipping on the water, then get on it!
I had this problem myself sometimes at the end of an intensive phase of training (hey! I’m not making this up. I DID train once upon a time!), and, as soon as the lymphs were cleared, the problem went away.
Nay, I don’t have it but I’m sure you can find it on Pubmed or one of those study sites.
Wide stance squats will do wonders for your groin. They are probably the most valuable tool for solving groing problems.
Yes I just messed up my groin about 5 weeks ago. Still recovering, depends on how bad yours is.
U dont wanna stretch it at the start. U gotta strengthen it. Wide stance squats are good, as are lunges, if you have a rubber band set sumthing up where you can pull the groin inwards and work it that way.
Get massages daily. Get some anti-inflam on it. Hot/cold.
Then u can start running a bit, not to hard though.
Then stretch it out.
It still can feel a bit heavy for a while though, they take ages to “fully heal”
Try to find out as soon as possible what has caused the problem. One of my sprinters had re occuring groin/hip flexor problems. Located the problem to a tight Sacro Iliac joint. One thing for certain take your time to rehab properly and stay away from hard accelerations e.g. block work until you build up the strength in the injured area. Good luck
Great site by the way guys, I’m a new member and findin the posts interesting, must sort myself out one of those logos.
These are the two articles that investigated the association of strength and groin injury.
Tyler, TF; Nicholas, SJ; Campbell, RJ; McHugh, MP. The Association of Hip Strength and Flexibility With the Incidence of Adductor Muscle Strains in Professional Ice Hockey Players. Am J Sports Med. 2001: 29(2): 124-128.
Tyler, TF; Nicholas, SJ, Campbell, RJ, Donellan, S; and McHugh, MP. The Effectiveness of a Preseason Exercise Program to Prevent Adductor Muscle Strains in Professional Ice Hockey Players. Am J Sports Med. 2002: 30(5): 680-683.
Another article that displays 4 case studies where the SI joint was the cause of the groin injury, as mentioned by PhilG
Brumm, LF; Carrier, DP; Nogle, SE; Johnson, SM. Looking Beyond the Soft Tissue: Illustrative Case Studies of Groin Injuries… Athletic Therapy Today. 2001: 6 (4): 24-27.
Thanks Chris.
I’ll take a look at those studies.
I’m trying to look at the role of strength in hernia prevention, the studies will be some help.
There have been a few general ones done in soccer and I’ve never read much in hockey.
I’ll need to understand hockey game/player requirements a little first though to help interpret the results/findings.
Those studies have nothing to do with hernias. They solely look at strains of the hip adductors.
I actually did a research project on groin injuries this semester. I covered injury rates and risk factors. As well, I covered various pathologies ranging from strains, stress fractures, pelvic dysfunctions, abdominal wall abnormalities, neurological, and a little bit on prevention and rehabilitation.
If you have any more questions ask away. I have plenty of articles to refer to if I don’t have the answer on the top of my mind.
True - the whole term ‘Groin injuries’ covers such a wide term.
As your aware - many grass-field sports inguinal hernias are quite common. A surgeon I know has put this down to solely ‘weak core’ or lack of core work, but I suspect other factors are at play and that much of this is poor flexibility and poor adductor strength.
I would expect perhaps in ice-hockey occurance would be much greater than grass sports?
I’d be very interested in reading any papers you put together Chris.
The papers on injury rate in various sports I reviewed rarely mentioned the occurance of abdominal-groin injuries. They used the term “groin injury” to describe muscle strain of the adductors. In soccer groin injuries made up a very high % of total injuries. I believe, partially due to a lack of upperbody injuries, which are very common in rugby and hockey.
In the papers investigating injury outside of adductor strain there was very little talk about a stereotypical hernia which created a bulge with increase intra-abdominal pressure. The term sports hernia was very common, however I felt it did not adequately describe the plethora of pathologies that can occur in that area. The ‘classical sports hernia’, as I labeled it in my presentation, is a disruption of the inguinal canal with no palpable hernia. I believe if it is palpable it would just be considered a inguinal hernia.
The other abdominal-groin injuries I came across were tearing of the rectus abdominus near its insertion at the pubic symphysis, tearing of the external oblique aponeurosis with the ilioinguinal nerve being affected, loose inguinal ligament or pelvic floor. Terms for these, depending on the article ranged from hockey groin syndrome to athletic pugalgia and a few others which I don’t recall right now.
The factors that were given by the authors were related to increased strength of modern day athletes causing increased forces transmitted through the core than seen in previous athletic generations. I believe one or two mentioned inadequate conditioning of the abdominal musculature as a possibility. As well, in relation to hockey, one author suspected the increased stiffness of skates and sticks where increasing the stress hockey players were placing on their abdomens.
Let me know what specific topics you want and I’ll send you the papers I have covering them.