Groin strain/ when to apply the Starr rehab

[tdood]

Hi coach, not new to the forum..

Male, 30, 5'11'', 265 lbs and chubby, intermediate programming, current 1rm: squat 495, dead 570, press 215, bench 305

I strained my groin squatting last monday.
I was not warmed up properly and was coming out of the hole on my first rep of a 3x5 at 375 and felt it pop right in the middle of the muscle, clearly heard it, my knee kicked out to the side and my groin hurt like hell. I got the rep up, racked it and was done for the day. It hurt pretty bad and I couldn't squat my bodyweight.

Now, it hurt, but I could tell that it wasn't catastrophic, and I was fairly confident the integrity of the muscle was good enough to work it out with a little weight despite the pain. There is no bruising.

So 2 days later I worked up to 300 for 5 with a narrow stance. It hurt, but not alarmingly so and sometimes things hurt.
3 days after that I worked up to 375 for 5 with a wider stance.. again, it hurts, but I can deal.

My inclination is to keep working back to heavy weight at a pace I can tolerate. I'm hoping to get back to 420x5 by friday.

My question is, should I have applied the Starr rehab, or is that just for if there is bruising?

I'm concerned I am setting myself up for further injury by not doing that style of rehab and just working back up at a tolerable rate.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I think you're doing it right. Without being there I can't tell what it might be other than a belly tear, but I doubt you heard it pop, really. These things often feel like a pop so clearly that the mind fills in the sound. If there's no blood, it was a small tear. Keep training on it and be careful about running it back up too fast.