Do you have groin pain? The most common causes are hip impingement, tendinitis, or both. Hip impingement can sometimes be severe, especially if it’s accompanied by labral injury. Tendonitis can be very difficult to heal.
Some chiropractors, PTs, and osteopaths know how to ease the hip back into place – but ask first, because many do not! Click here to schedule with me.
If muscles (a tendon is part of a muscle) are the issue, and stretching causes pain or doesn’t help them lengthen, seeing a bodyworker like me can be beneficial. I can also help you find a stretching strategy that works for you.
If you have pain in the groin or hip joint, read these instructions to distinguish a muscle problem from a joint problem. Alternatively, you can obtain the instructions from the video linked below.
1. Lie on your back and use your hands to pull your knee up to your chest as far as it can go. Be sure to support the leg completely with your hands so you are not using hip muscles at all.
2. Now, take the bent leg across your body toward the other hip joint. Don’t let your pelvis roll off the ground.
3. Now take the bent leg halfway in between, so that your bent leg is going toward the opposite shoulder. Stay on your back.
4. If you’re fully supporting your leg with your arms, and those movements cause a pinching sensation on the inside of the hip fold, chances are your hip is out of alignment, and your labrum may be stressed or injured.
Next, here are three methods to check for muscle strain or tendonitis.
First, you’ll check the hip flexor:
1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat.
2. Without using your hands, slowly lift the bent knee on the painful side, keeping your ankle relaxed, until the knee is at a 90° angle to your trunk.
3. If that triggers your groin pain, you probably have a strain in the main hip flexor (psoas), a muscle that lies deep in the belly.
For the superficial hip flexors (the front muscles at the top of the thigh):
1. Stand up. Perform a deep lunge with the injured leg behind you, keeping your knee on the ground.
2. See if this creates the pain. If so, there may be tendonitis in your superficial hip flexors — the top of the thigh muscles.
3. If you experience discomfort in the front of your thigh but don’t have groin pain, the muscle tissue is likely tight.
Last, check the adductor muscles on the inner thigh. These muscles draw your knees toward each other.
1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat.
2. Take your bent legs out to the side with the feet rolling out, but still touching, or close to touching.
3. If that gesture creates your pain, you may have your answer. If not, bring your thighs toward each other with excruciating slowness to the point where the movement is not smooth. Feel for the pain in your groin, which will also implicate the adductors.
4. If you feel distress lower down in the inner thigh, you need to stretch the muscles in that area.
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