I’m having a recurring problem with my left adductor, particularly on squats. It doesn’t feel injured necessarily, but it is quite sore and tight each time I squat (even with a week recovery in between sessions, pvc pipe rolling, etc.)
It has gotten to the point that it is hard to drive my knees out when I come out of the hole on squats – my legs seem like they want to collapse inward to avoid the twinge I get if I force my knees to stay out.
Any tips on rehab for this? As I mentioned, I’m rolling it as best I can and I’m doing mobility work before my lower body sessions. The two additional thoughts I had were possibly stretching it before I squat and/or using the adductor machine before squatting to warm it up. I’m a competitive powerlifter, so not squatting isn’t an option and I don’t want to use briefs to cover up the problem.
[quote]burt128 wrote:
I’m a competitive powerlifter, so not squatting isn’t an option and I don’t want to use briefs to cover up the problem.[/quote]
I would consider your options:
- Rest it, get ART, and return after skipping a season
- Don’t rest it, damage it worse, and make return to 100% more difficult/impossible
I agree with BackInAction. If you don’t rest it, you can’t expect it to ever fully heal. There are plenty of ways and techniques you can use to bring up your squat without actually squatting. Find a weak link (low back, glutes, mobility, coming out of the hole, etc) and perform exercises that don’t cause pain to address those needs.
Also, from everything you said you currently have been doing, one thing is lacking, IMO. I would recommend performing some glute/hip abductor/hip external rotator activation drills. You can stretch the adductors and try to create as much mobility as you feel necessary, but unless you are strengthening the antagonist muscles, you are only attacking 1/2 of the problem.
Last thing, to go along with BackInAction’s recommendation of ART (or any more aggressive soft tissue mobilization), is to see about the practitioner focusing on separation between the medial hamstrings and adductor muscle groups, as well as the vastus medialis and adductors. I have found a lot of times that the fascial of the medial hamstrings/quads fuse with the fascia of the adductors and create a lot of issues with mobility, activation, etc.
Not the advice I wanted to hear, but probably the advice I needed to hear. I’m deloading next week, so I’ll probably just skip squats in favor of something else. After that, I’m going on vacation for two weeks and I guess I won’t be squatting during that time frame (I have planned to find a gym). I won’t have access to ART or the ability to roll it while I’m on vacation – is there anything I can do besides stretching and activation/mobility work to speed the healing process while on vacation?
Dude, you’re going on vacation. Enjoy your vacation, rest and deload a bit! It will probably do your adductor, your CNS, and your body as a whole some great benefit to take the time off. Besides the mobility/activation work, the only other thing I would suggest is to go see a qualified practitioner who can assess your function movement patterns and can direct you to exactly what you should be targeting with your mobility and activation drills.
Also, short foam rollers can be purchased for like $10 and are easy to pack for travel. If you don’t wanna fork out the $10, find a LAX or tennis ball to use instead. And don’t always target the adductors with the rolling. It may even be better to focus on rolling the surrounding tissues (hamstrings, quads, glutes, etc).