If you are experiencing tenderness along the inner side of your thighs or in your groin area, you may have strained your groin. It is a distinct feeling of pain when you close your legs, when you lift your knee, or when you walk or run. You may even see bruising in your groin area. Anytime you have these pains, one or more of them, it is critical to consider whether it might be a groin strain, also known as an adductor strain.

What Are Adductor Muscles?

The adductor longus muscle is a hip adductor muscle located in the inner thigh. It controls your thigh bone’s ability to bring your legs together and back out again.

The adductor longus muscle is triangular in shape and runs from your pubis down along the inner thigh, attached to the femur bone. Your adductor muscles pull your legs toward the middle when you walk to help you maintain your balance. These muscles can become torn or overstretched, usually, as a result of quick sudden movements, like you might use in soccer, rugby or in fitness training.

A groin pull, as an adductor strain is commonly known, can result in difficulty walking, pain when you extend your legs, and pain when you try to sit down.

Strain

A muscle strain is an injury to your muscle or tendon. A minor strain may only be a slight overstretch, calling for rest and ice, while a more severe strain, in which partial or complete tears of the muscles take place, may require surgical repair.

Causes of Adductor Strain

Adductor strains are most common among athletes, both professional and recreational. It can happen while kicking, turning quickly, or even while running, skating, or jumping. Needing to change direction quickly can also be a major contributor.

The most common athletes to get groin strains are typically involved in:

  • Soccer
  • Ice Hockey
  • Basketball
  • Football
  • Rugby
  • Skating
  • Tennis
  • Martial arts

Note that each of these sports require fast, sudden movements that can call for quick turns, particularly changes in movement that call for your muscles to both lengthen and contract at the same time, which places an enormous amount of stress on your muscle, potentially leading to overstretch or tear.

Other causes of adductor strain include:

  • Falling
  • Lifting heavy objects
  • Resistance training
  • Previous groin strain (your muscle is already weak from a previous injury)

Especially when engaging in the above activities, when you have weak, cold, or less flexible muscles, you are at risk of a groin strain. Even professional athletes who return to practice after months off from training are at risk for overstretching or tearing out of shape adductors.

Management and Rehabilitation for Strain

The most important thing you can do if you suspect groin strain is to stop exercising those muscles immediately. Any exacerbation of the muscle can lead to greater tearing, potentially putting you at risk for surgery.

When you pull a muscle, it becomes inflamed, which means redness and swelling. Thus, the first steps are to calm down the inflammation.

Initial treatment for adductor strain is the rest, to apply ice and compression, and to elevate the muscles (R.I.C.E). You can also, of course, take anti-inflammatory drugs like Voltaren or Ibuprofen.

Diagnosis

You should consult with your doctor if the pain does not go away within a few days or the if the pain is acute. Your doctor will diagnose your strain as either Grade 1, Grade 2, or Grade 3.

Grade 1: This means you have strained the adductor muscle to a minimal degree, causing damage to only a small number of fibres, causing localised pain, but not causing loss of strength in your muscles.

Grade 2: Grade 2 is a little more serious; you have a significant number of fibres that have been torn, and you can see swelling. You are likely experiencing significant pain as well as loss of movement and strength.

Grade 3: The highest grade of a strain means a complete rupture of the muscles. Your muscle may have totally separated from the bone.

For each of these diagnoses, the treatment, management, and rehabilitation are different.

In general, a Grade 1 strain simply calls for rest and management at home, usually for 2 to 3 weeks. The key is to pay attention to your pain, stop exercising anytime you have pain, and listen to your body. You can build up to exercising once again when the pain stops.

Exercises to build your adductor muscles up again include:

  • Hip adductor stretch
  • Hamstring wall stretch
  • Straight leg raises
  • Resisted hip flexion

For Grade 2 strains, you will likely need some physiotherapy to help not only heal but build those muscles back up. Because you have torn such a large percentage of your muscle fibres, you will need extensive treatment from a variety of approaches that include physical therapy, muscle massage, heating and stretching, and electrotherapy. You will want a trained professional by your side over the next weeks and months as you nurse your muscles back to full strength.

Grade 3 strains will likely involve surgery and take several months to recover. During that time, you will want a physiotherapist working on your recovery and rehabilitation with you to ensure you get back to full strength.

Physiotherapy

A physiotherapist, or a physical therapist, will work with you to manage your pain, improve your balance and mobility, and help you regain motor function.

The best physiotherapists cover all four types of physiotherapy, so you can get all of your healing and strengthening done in one supportive place.

Soft Tissue Manipulation Also known as manual therapy, your physiotherapist employs various touch techniques that manipulate and mobilise your affected muscles. This manual therapy can and should include joint mobilisation at different speeds, depths, and amplitudes to restore normal movement.

Strengthening and Stretching A good physiotherapist will know which exercises to show you and work on while also applying heat to the adductor muscles, which softens them and allows them to stretch without tearing. You should also have access to specialised programs that help you improve your total strength as it relates to your adductor muscles.

Dry Needling and Taping Finally, your physiotherapist should have knowledge of dry needling and acupuncture resources as well as the benefits of taping, both for pain reduction and the promotion of the body’s natural healing process.

In the end, a thorough physio will draw on the full range of treatments to help you heal and recover fully. Your therapists should also educate you on what to do, and what not to do, at home, as well as how to prevent future strains.

Prevention of Strain

Obviously, nothing is one hundred percent preventable. Accidents happen, and sometimes they cannot be avoided. That is why they are called accidents.

Still, you can do your best to prevent strains of all your muscles by taking a few simple precautions.

Always warm up before engaging in intense exercise. Do light stretches, walk at a moderate pace, and gain full range of motion with ease before rushing onto the field or gym floor.

Keep to the same amount of exercise. If you do not typically engage in an intense exercise like soccer, think twice before jumping into a game. Your muscles may not be ready for it. If you plan to begin a regular soccer game or hockey practice, build your way up through regular cardio and stretching.

Remember, professional athletes usually train throughout the year for a reason. They know that engaging in activities that will tax their muscles is dangerous without preparation. Follow their example.

Contact Enrich Physio Today

Enrich Physio is proud to offer the entire range of support for our clients at our centres. We look at the body as a whole, which provides the support and therapy you need not only for your strained muscles but for a bright, strain-free future. We approach your recovery from all angles, employing as many strategies as necessary for full recovery and restoration of normal function.

We believe that a fully healed person can enjoy exercise and activities again, get back to doing the things you love, potentially performing even better than before, and feel stronger and more empowered to aim even higher.

We want to get you back to your full strength, and we use evidence-based science to get you there. From manual therapy to electrotherapy, our therapists will work with you throughout the duration of your recovery to help you return to living life to the full!