Please help with Groin Injury Treatment

Please help with Groin Injury Treatment (Full Version)

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NinjuredNinja -> Please help with Groin Injury Treatment (October 11, 2007 8:33:29 PM)
So here's my story... I used to be a gymnast and I could do full side splits and middle splits up to a few inches from the ground (my hips wouldn't allow me to go further...). Due to gymnastics, my pain tolerance is through the roof... something that has proven to be more of a problem than a help over the last few years... Probably about a year ago now, I was at school (nursing school) and I decided that if I couldn't work out, I might as well stretch. As usual, I probably pushed too hard too fast, and strained my groin on both sides as well as my hamstrings (to this day, I feel like an idiot for ruining my body). I got physical therapy for it, but the guy was crazy. I was used to pushing myself hard, but I'd push myself to the limit, he'd get some idea that it somehow wasn't already INSANE enough, and he'd just add more and more exercises to the point that I was doing 1000s of reps over the course of 3 hours. He wore me down to the point I became ill for a week, and I stopped going there because frankly he pissed me off. He didn't have the sense to know when enough as enough, and personally I don't think overtraining a muscle qualifies as physical therapy. So here I am, months and months later... Every time I sit down I feel it in that place right where the tendon connects to the bone. I can feel a depression in the tendon, which makes me feel like crap, and like I will never heal. Every time I try to stretch, no matter HOW slowly and HOW light I go, whether in straddle strech or in the beginnings of side splits, at some point, I just hit "bad pain" like it's tearing again. I am so sick of this and am just desperate to find an answer. If at all possible, I'd like to have my splits back someday, but I don't know what to do for this injury. It should've healed after a freaking year! But here I am... still having pain in the same place, still completely inflexible. Help? :(

Shill -> RE: Please help with Groin Injury Treatment (October 12, 2007 4:32:28 PM)
Ninja, First of all, maybe you shouldnt stretch. You could be ripping free what is trying to heal. Wait, and stretch it to remodel it AFTER it heals. It is possible that you have been undoing the healing by stretching continually. Immobilization is needed to achieve healing at times, and this sounds like one of these times. Your example of the therapist who gave 1000 exercises is something I teach to students, which is "never let your patients become a victim of your creativity". You could return to a different PT for another opinion, You could see your physician, get an MRI to see if your adductors are still torn at their insertion to your pelvis, but beyond what I mentioned above, it is hard to give accurate advice online.

NinjuredNinja -> RE: Please help with Groin Injury Treatment (October 12, 2007 7:16:11 PM)
Thank you :) I think you might've missed the fact that this injury is a year old! Also (I failed to mention this before). I haven't been stretching it. I waited for over 6 months before I even tried to stretch it, and when I did, it felt like it was tearing. I have been to an M.D. and he said "It's just a strain, if it were bad, you'd have had bruising" (which I never recall having, but I'm also someone tends not to bruise, even after some pretty serious injuries). I think we got an MRI, but even though he's one of the best sports medicine doctors in this region, I wasn't super-impressed with his assessment :(. He referred me to that bonehead physical therapist that about killed me. The PT did do some sports massage... Man it hurt, but I put up with the pain because that was what was supposed to help. ...I just don't want to spend $100s and $100s of dollars (which I don't have to spend) if there is something I can do at home to heal myself. I did a little research and it looks like you're supposed to massage toward the groin injury, so last time I was in the shower I sat on the side of the tub, soaped up my leg and massaged it like I saw. There were some pretty significant knots in the middle of my adductor muscles. After about a year of "healing" should I focus on massaging the muscle and trying to realign the fibers?

bonez -> RE: Please help with Groin Injury Treatment (October 12, 2007 9:13:54 PM)
Once you can be sure it is your muscle there are may techniques to help break up adhesions and return muscle function. After a year of compensation your movement pattern and gait should be analyzed to make sure all that is wrong is fixed. You did not say if quick leg movements and lateral leg movements bother you. Is your pain at the groin bothered by coughing or straining? Do you get pain at or near your pubis, is there a hx of back pain especially lower with walkover like positions ?

NinjuredNinja -> RE: Please help with Groin Injury Treatment (October 13, 2007 1:20:05 AM)
If I have any gait disturbances, they are minor. It'd be kind of hard to self-diagnose though. I did a quick front-kick in the air the other day and felt it the next day in my hamstring like I had a small re-tear. Dunno though... I'm not really doing sprints or anything to try and exacerbate it. I do feel pain near the pubis, and lateral movements bother it if I go far enough. I notice it most when I'm just sitting down, then it starts to get inflamed. I've tried just sitting down in my underwear without any tighter jeans or anything, but it still gets inflamed. No history of back pain really. My only problems are in my neck, but that's from constantly reading and studying in nursing school. I've been doing distal-to-proximal massage on my hamstrings and adductors for maybe oh... 10 minutes every time I shower since yesterday. I just sit on the side of the tub and use soap as a lubricant and it seems to be working well. Although there is some generalized inflammation, the muscle is a lot less tense and there are fewer knots. I still have that mild pain though, like it's sloooowwwlllly ripping as I'm sitting here.

bonez -> RE: Please help with Groin Injury Treatment (October 13, 2007 3:01:58 AM)
If you do some review in your nursing anatomy texts you should see that the origin of adductor magnus shares insertion with and behaves like part of the hamstring(extensor). It is also important to know that the different adductors stretch in different positions. An old text on trigger points by Travell has wonderful pictures of the stretch positions. While I doubt that you will stir up too much on your own by massaging, soft tissue work in an injured area done daily can backfire and cause too much inflammation leading to more adhesions. Other proccedures that work in trained hands include dry needling to release tight muscles, myofascial release techniques and other soft tissue manipulations. Treatment to regional joint dysfunction can also be required. While I hope this helps can't stress enough that a competent assessment is your best direction not only for treatment but to rule out other serious things that might be behind your symptoms.

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