Pulled Groin Muscle

What Is A Pulled Groin Muscle?

If you have a groin muscle pull, then you either just 'tweaked' it, or you have a little injury.

Just A Tweak:

If you just tweaked it, then you are dealing with a dynamic where the nervous system is clamping the muscle (or little parts of the muscle) down TIGHT, and kicking out lots of PAIN ENHANCING CHEMICAL with a Process of Inflammation. For a variety of reason, your nevous system is VERY worried about that structure, and it's trying to protect it.

Unfortunately, that makes things tighter and tighter and more painful and more worrisome to the nervous system. This is likely why you tweaked your structure in the first place.

** Point being, you don't have to have an injury to have pain. **

Minor Tear:

It's possible that you have a -minor- tear in the tendon itself or surrounding connective tissue. Anything less than than 5% of a tendon being torn is considered a muscle 'pull'.

It's still an injury, but it's small. The nervous system still does the protective measures as described above.

As long as there is too much tension (muscle and connective tissue tightness pulling on the damaged structure) you'll have pain and increasing pain. You don't want to stretch a torn structure, because you are literally pulling it apart.

But you DO want to soften up and lengthen all the structures involved. Take off the tension, and the pain goes away and the tear can heal much better and faster.

You might not have Tendonitis of a groin muscle, but you DO have a Tendonitis -dynamic-. Over time and use, muscles get tighter and tighter and connective tissue shrinkwraps.

This means that there is (slowly) constantly increasing irritation to the structures, and that there is too much tension on the tendons constantly, and the tighter a muscle is, the less able it is to do it's job, which is to absorb force.

So you're running around or whatever, and your muscle isn't able to absorb force, but that force has to go somewhere. Hello pulled groin muscle.

Whether your pulled groin muscle is really a tweak or a tiny tear, Mostly you'll hear that you should use the R.I.C.E. method.

I'm not a fan. It's too slow, and it's not the best tool for the job.

Rest isn't going to fix anything. It won't reverse the -cause-.

Ice packs, while not horrible, just aren't the most effective option.

1. Reduce new irritation. Don't stretch or run, etc.

2. Get a frozen water bottle. Use it as a grinding tool. Rub where it hurts, and rub the entire length of the adductors, each of them.

3. Do 5-10 minutes at a time, repeatedly throughout the day. The more motivated you are to reduce your pain quickly, the more often you'll do it.

(Yes, there are other things I could tell you to do, but if you just focus on this one, it's really all you need.)

Reduce the tightness. Make the ecology of the area healthier (circulation and relaxed tissue, basically). This will calm the nervous system, allow the muscle to work more appropriately, and help any tear heal more optimally.

Does this seem really simple? It is. It's just a matter of time and effort you put into the self care.





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