What the hell happened to my adductor?

[Sean Stangl]

Hi Rip. I have a mystery on my hands and was hoping you might have some insight. A long-time painful adductor is pain-free following an intense, local burning sensation during squats on TM volume day. I don't know what the burning sensation was.

I'm 24, 5'6, 185lbs, now squatting 420 5x5, 465 1x5. Mid-December, on the fourth set of 485 5x1 (recommended by KSC), there was an equipment failure: one of the clamps was a dud; plates slid when they shouldn't have, and I squatted the weight using mostly my right side. That pinched a nerve in my spine, causing me to take several weeks off moving in general. Around that time, probably from the same cause, I also developed a minor pain in my right adductor that could be worked around.

Once the spine was fine, I started back on linear progression from 385, ending at 460 3x5 last Monday. Each training day involved slightly more adductor pain, primarily during warmup (maxes involved adrenaline, I guess). It got pretty bad. Even walking became somewhat painful. The muscle belly did not hurt from poking, and there was no external damage visible -- the pain was only during contraction.

Today I did 420 5x5 for a TM volume day. I noticed during warmup that I was going a bit forward with the knees to avoid the painful region, and I figured that if I'm going to squat, I might as well use good form, pain be damned. The first work set was pretty painful.

The first rep of the second set, right at the bottom, caused a humongous fire to shoot through my adductor. It felt extremely hot, a very strong burning sensation, and engulfed the full muscle belly. Because I'm stubborn, I completed the remaining 4 reps, with no additional pain and good form. After I racked the bar, I realized that I could also walk pain-free. The burning sensation went away quickly afterward, and since then I've been great. I was worried that maybe I pulled the muscle and am not using it whatsoever, but I tested the adductor on the kegelcizer isolation machine, and I can lift a decent amount of weight with zero pain -- but it does still hurt if I try to do a rep too quickly. There is no bruising.

So what in the hell happened there? What was that burning sensation? Am I in the clear?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I don't know. Maybe you broke an adhesion.