“I play football a lot and also work out, but my groin often hurts during training. Two years ago my left groin was strained and I started training a little too early. Now I have a lot of problems with my right groin with training.
I find it very annoying during sports, but also in everyday life.
Do you have tips?”
-Question by Stephen
Mark Chen, physical therapist
You’ve basically already answered your question. You started training too early.
We are bound by the laws of nature when it comes to repairing damage in the musculoskeletal system. This recovery takes place in a number of phases and is time-bound. There are a number of things you can do to optimize recovery, but you can’t speed it up.
You can, however, slow it down.
Seems like this may have happened to you. If you have suffered damage to your muscle fibers, they must fully recover before they can be used again for your previous level of activity. Especially in sports such as football, where the entire lower body is heavily loaded. Starting training too early can cause your weak points to be further irritated. Time to lower the stress you’re putting on it.
Here’s what to do:
Visit a physiotherapist and have your hip and lower body checked. This way you can rule out that there is still damage and have an estimate made for how much you can load it. Often there are also possibilities to relieve parts of your body during activity. Consider, for example, medical tape. These are the brightly colored pieces of tape that you often see nowadays on football players, runners, and even swimmers to support peak effort. This way you may be able to continue training without constantly overloading your groin.
We also have great programs used in professional football for exactly these kinds of challenges.
Reach out for an online consultation and we’ll get you sorted.
Good luck!