Groin Strains
The fall and winter sports have arrived which means early ice times, fall soccer nights under the lights and an unfortunate rise in groin strains. Hockey and soccer are the two sports that have the highest rates of groin strains and the two sports that result in the most missed time due to injury (40% of cases). These sports have the highest risk due to the amount of rotational movement involved (kicking) and push offs (skating). The adductor muscle group is the most common muscle involved in groin strains (over 70%) and thus will be used interchangeably with groin strain for the purpose of this blog.
Risk Factors
A few risk factors exist for an inner groin strain to occur during a season. Some studies have shown that those hockey players who went on to have an adductor groin strain during the season had on average 18% less strength in their hip adductors prior to the season starting compared to those who were not injured. In addition the hip ADDuctor / hip ABDuctor (inside and outside hip muscles) strength ratio has also been shown to be a factor which lead to higher rates of groin strains during the season with those who had above a 90% ratio having little to no strains and those having below a 80% ratio having a higher likelihood of sustaining an inner groin strain.
Exercise
The majority of groin strains do not require any surgery and resolve within an 8 week timeline, doing proper strength training will allow the muscle fibers to heal and lower the likelihood of future strains. Proper strength training to the adductors can also help to decrease the likelihood of any strains occurring during the sport season. It is important to train not only the hip adductors but, abductors (outside of hip), hip flexors (the front of hip), your core and your hip rotators and extensors (glutes for one). Those studies that have shown a positive relationship between strength training and reduced groin strains were based off exercising at a moderate to high intensity 3 times a week.
Summary
Hip adductor strains or inner groin strains are common in soccer and hockey players. These injuries not only respond very well to exercise based interventions but exercise can also be used to help decrease the risk of these injuries occurring during the season. When developing an exercise program you should aim to target all the main hip muscles as well as the core muscles.