Groin injury, too late for Starr rehab?

[Mizypt]

Something like eight months ago I pulled my left adductor (inner thigh, groin) while squatting, the pain wasn't too bad and I continued squatting. The injury was never a problem as long as I was properly warmed up, and I finished SS and started TM. Light pain remained when the adductor was stretched while cold, but work sets while squatting was never a problem.

Recently when squatting volume (not sure if the DL somehow contributed) the pain gradually returned and now it hurts when walking after I've been sitting for a while (cold that is). I assume scar tissue was formed the last time, and now I re-injured it.

Now I'm wondering if Starr protocol will be sufficient, which is for "new" injuries. It seems like I re-injured it, so I'm guessing it should work? Or does this seem as an inflammatory situation?

Current TM setup:
Mon
Squat 5x5
BP 5x5
RDL 3x8
Chins 3xF

Wed
Squat 2x5
Press 3x5
Curl 3x8

Fri
Squat 1x3
BP 1x3
DL 1x3
(Planning on changing to 5x1 soon.)

Intensity weights:
Squat 369 lbs
BP 261 lbs
DL 400 lbs

Programming thoughts: Keep TM as it is except squats, and squat everyday 3x25 at light weights, with small increments (as described here: http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wi...r_Muscle_Pulls). Should I stop DL and RDL, in case it constitutes as a "too heavy load"?

Thoughts are very much appreciated.

[Mizypt]

Still going on as planned, I don't believe it's getting any/much better. It seems to be the same as usual; on the first or second set there's some small discomfort, but after that it's good.
I'll keep going and see what happens.

I guess it could be tendonitis?

[veryhrm]

Where is the pain? If it's tendon related it'll be right up where it attaches to bones whereas a muscle tear would tend to be more in the middle of the muscle. Also, muscle tears, in my experience, tend to be fairly sharp kind of pain whereas the tendon stuff builds up. So if it goes away after the warmup i'm thinking more muscle than tendon. I'd keep going for a while and try to even exaggerate the depth to stretch that guy out. After your Squat sets once it's warmed up maybe even do some stretches that make it hurt a little.

As to the DLs... do they hurt ?

[Mizypt]

The pain is further down, and it's indeed sharp. I've been afraid to stretch in case it's tendon related, but I'll add some stretches and perhaps some foam rolling. But you're saying to keep doing Starr protocol and add some stretches?

Regarding the DL, I didn't DL last Friday, but last time I believe it hurt a little, but not add much as squats. I might DL next Friday to see how it feels. Rdl doesn't hurt, but then it starts higher.

Does stretching usually work for muscle tears? You'd think it'd make it worse?

[veryhrm]

The point of Starr Rehab, as i've read it anyway, is that it gets the blood flowing and it moves the muscle through its normal contractile range. This provides the proper stimulation so that the healing process goes through the remodeling necessary to have good working muscle cells in there as opposed to stopping w/ disorganized scar tissue.

If stretching just do it to the point of a little discomfort in the area. This isn't the time to be working on your splits, unless you had that kind of range previously. OTOH, except in the cases of major tears (like people blowing out their biceps) that require surgery to sew the parts of the muscle back together you don't need to totally baby it either (like you would a broken bone in the beginning). It'll tell you in no uncertain terms if you're pissing it off too much. Again, that's the rationale under Starr protocol.

[rasmusDoh]

I've been having some pain in my right groin too lately. It's not really a sharp pain and it's not during squatting.
It's more like my right groin is very sore the day and days after squatting.

I'm thinking i might not be warming up properly. How do you warm up for squatting?
I walk in to the gym, go to the squat rack and start squatting my 2 sets with only the bar. Then do 3 warmup sets before my heavy set (i do Callador's 4x4 program).
For example yesterday i was gonna squat 130 kg x 2 and 102.5 kg 4x4+. To warm up for that i did 2 sets only bar, 1 set 60kg, 1 set 80kg and 1 single with 100kg.

I'm considering starting to do some light 15-20 rep sets (probably 2 sets) on the adductor machine (good girl one) before going to the squat rack.
Anyone got experience with something like that?

Also someone on some thread i found suggested doing some heavy adductor machine sets after squatting to further strengthen your adductors??

[Mizypt]

The point of Starr Rehab... If stretching just do it to the point of a little discomfort in the area. This isn't the time to be working on your splits, unless you had that kind of range previously. OTOH, except in the cases of major tears (like people blowing out their biceps) that require surgery to sew the parts of the muscle back together you don't need to totally baby it either (like you would a broken bone in the beginning). It'll tell you in no uncertain terms if you're pissing it off too much. Again, that's the rationale under Starr protocol.

Not babying it is probably a good idea, I tried some thorough stretching today and yesterday, and my groin is feeling better (as in like before I made it worse). I'll keep at it.

I'm thinking i might not be warming up properly. How do you warm up for squatting?
I walk in to the gym, go to the squat rack and start squatting my 2 sets with only the bar. Then do 3 warmup sets before my heavy set (i do Callador's 4x4 program).
For example yesterday i was gonna squat 130 kg x 2 and 102.5 kg 4x4+. To warm up for that i did 2 sets only bar, 1 set 60kg, 1 set 80kg and 1 single with 100kg.

I'd add some overall body warm-up like bicycling or rowing to get your body heat up. Also consider some dynamic warm-up after rowing, something like leg swings forwards and outwards. This is what my volume day squat warm-up look like:
20x5x2
60x5
90x3
100x2
120x1
130x5x5
You might want to lower the amount of reps if you're only doing 2 work reps, but I'd do at least 60x5, it's at that set I usually feel properly stretched out.

Also someone on some thread i found suggested doing some heavy adductor machine sets after squatting to further strengthen your adductors??

As long as you keep your knees out your adductors should get all the work they need, at least at these "low" weights. Just keep forcing them out on your way up.

[rasmusDoh]

I do lift 60x5 as my second warm-up set. 80kg was 3 reps i think. So main difference from your warmup is the pretty heavy last warm-up single at 120.

Problem is that i have a hard time keeping my knees out properly. I try to cue myself to do it, but on those near-max weights i find it very difficult

[Mizypt]

I did some heavy DLs today, and I can confirm that they don't hurt.
My injury however isn't getting much better, it's still the same thing: hurts during warm up, feels fine during work sets.

I'm going to a chiropractor this Wednesday, I'll ask him about this as well.

[Mizypt]

For future reference.

Chiro didn't have much to say about it, except that it wasn't back related.
Starr rehab didn't work, at all.
Foam rolling and stretching my groin helped a little.

After foam rolling all over the place I finally found a spot which hurt a lot, which turned out to be somewhere in between my groin and hamstring. I foam rolled and stretched this part for a couple of days, and yesterday I squatted (with proper depth, width and bounce) without any pain whatsoever! I'll continue foam rolling and stretching this area twice a day.