Adductor Discomfort/Pain - what the heck should i do?

[confuzzl3don3]

I posted this over at my newly started SS log, but i thought posting it over here would be more useful. All advice welcome.

Posted yesterday:

"I ran into some groin pain after last week's monday session. It's now seemed to have manifested into running down the middle of thigh primarily higher up near the hips. I've tried massaging it with a tennis ball and all that but it's starting to become a nuisance. Might be interfering slightly with my lifts."

Posted today:

"Ok the pain in my left leg seems to have flared up again after yesterday's session. I think i've isolated it more as adductor pain rather than quad as its mainly near the groin region. I think the pain was just radiating slightly or that my quads may have also been slightly compromised that i felt it down the middle of my leg as well.

So i get some discomfort/pain when i squat down (even without), but the funny thing is that as i continue squatting more, the pain seems to go away. The discomfort mainly arises when i reach near the bottom of the squat (maybe about the level of a half squat).

Do i need to lay off squatting heavy until this shit heals up again, sigh.... Would it be possible to get away with using deads as a substitute so ie. warming up with squats sort of like the Starr rehab protocol and then switching over to do 3x5 relatively heavy deadlifts since they don't hit the adductors as much? Or would that not be conducive to recovery or would be too taxing on my back or what?

The funny thing is that i can squat through the discomfort/pain, but if quite definitely puts me off from putting 100% effort into my squats because of it."

PS. I just did some searching around because i know how common adductor injuries are. I remember how Ripp recommended in SS to shift to a narrower stance with the toes less angled out accordingly to allow the adductors to heal. I tried that with some air squats just then and it does feel less painful. Should i squat this way and slowly re-widen my stance and angle out my toes more and hope that the pain pisses off, instead of my deadlift idea?

Also read some testimonials of people getting weight lifting shoes that somehow helped to alleviate the pain. Scratching my head about that one, but if it's true i'll definitely consider getting myself some instead of my Chucks.

[bamzi]

I suspect it's a tendonitis issue if the pain goes away the more you squat.

I've battled with this problem.

A few things that seem to have helped:

- taking a magnesium supplement. It relaxes the muscles and supposedly helps remove the calcification in the tendon scar tissue. I'm taking twice the recommended dosage (you'll know you're taking too much if you start getting "loose stools").

- foam rolling/massaging with some kind of cylindrical object. Breaks up the scar tissue and helps the damaged tendon fibres to heal in better alignment. I also froze some water in a cylindrical drink bottle and rolled on it. The ice gets more blood flowing into the damaged area.

- defranco agile 8 routine before workouts.

- I stopped trying to shove my knees out in the bottom of the squat. After reviewing my videos I realised that my knees were actually going out wider than my feet. I don't think that's an issue for you though, judging from your videos.

Hope some of that helps.

[confuzzl3don3]

I've always wondered about the whole foam rolling/massaging thing. Is the aim to do it on the site when it is relaxed or stretched or what? And do you like press down on the area and hold it? Or just continually knead that area like you're making a pizza dough base?

[bamzi]

Oh yeah, I should have mentioned too that I kept squatting, but did a massive deload. Went back to an empty bar and worked back up from there in 10kg jumps, then 5kg when I hit 70 or 80kg.

I'm probably about 90% healed now; just a minor inconvenience that I can ignore.

[bamzi]

I've always wondered about the whole foam rolling/massaging thing. Is the aim to do it on the site when it is relaxed or stretched or what? And do you like press down on the area and hold it? Or just continually knead that area like you're making a pizza dough base?

For the adductor, you lie face down, one leg straight, the other leg at 90 degrees with the knee bent. Then you wedge the cylinder in the groin and roll on it so that the cylinder moves from your groin to the middle of your thigh. You just keep rolling back and forth until the tears of pain stop rolling down your face and it actually starts to feel kinda "good". Find the most painful spots and hold still over them. The pain guides you. Keep rolling til it stops hurting.

[confuzzl3don3]

I'm assuming the straight leg is the one that you roll it up and down? Or is it the bent one.

[bamzi]

Oops, sorry, meant the bent one. Straight one would be hitting the quad. There's a picture of it here, down the page a little bit http://www.defrancostraining.com/ask...tml#question04.

[Carlos Daniel]

I have had (or maybe still have a bit of it) some adductor problems lately. At the time I was squatting 260 lbs and I tried doing some olympic squats (high-bar, narrow stance) with 225 which felt quite easy and didn't bother my adductor very much. Next week I ended up squatting with a stance that was a little bit more narrow than my usual on low bar, since the one before that I didn't even try squatting because of adductor bothering me again. Some vitamin I and a week later, I kept with the slightly narrower stance and it's gone.

[confuzzl3don3]

So are you going to permanently adopt this slightly narrower stance?

[Carlos Daniel]

So are you going to permanently adopt this slightly narrower stance?

Well, they thing is I found out I was using a stance that might (or might not) have been too wide, which might have caused the problem in the first place. But anyway, after it's 100% gone I might try a little wider, a litte narrower every now and then, just because.

But you could really give olympic squats a shot for a week. I found them to be rather fun and your hamstring strength will still be there when you go back to low bar. I found it a particularly fun experience if you have lifting shoes and do them with quite a bit of bounce.

Hope I helped in some way.