Groin and adductor pain
Pain along the inner thigh or where it meets the pelvis, provoked by lateral movement, wide stances and the sled pull. Often builds gradually, occasionally arrives all at once.
This is general training information, not medical advice, and nothing here is a diagnosis. The same pain can have very different causes, and only a qualified professional who can assess you in person can tell which one is yours. If pain is severe, getting worse, or not settling, get it looked at.
- · Pain along the inner thigh, or right up where it attaches to the pelvis.
- · Sore squeezing the knees together against resistance.
- · Worst on lateral movement and wide stances.
- · Sometimes a pull that appeared in one specific rep and never fully cleared.
- · Sled pull technique that involves a lot of lateral bracing and stepping.
- · Wide-stance squatting added quickly to a training week.
- · Skating, court sports or lateral conditioning stacked on a running block.
- · Adductor strength that has never been trained directly while everything around it got stronger.
- · Sled pull, especially the wide-stance hand-over-hand style.
- · Wide-stance and sumo lifting.
- · Lateral lunges and any side-to-side conditioning.
- · Sprint starts and changes of direction.
- · Upper-body training entirely.
- · Narrow-stance squatting and hinging if they stay pain-free.
- · Rowing and ski erg, usually comfortable.
- · Isometric adductor squeezes, which are commonly used early and often reduce symptoms.
Like-for-like substitutions that keep the training stimulus while the niggle settles. A swap, not a rest day.
- · Direct adductor strengthening, progressed from isometric holds to loaded range: the Copenhagen family of exercises is the usual staple.
- · Wide stances and lateral work reintroduced last, after straight-line work is comfortable.
- · Sled pull technique reviewed, since bracing style drives a lot of these.
- · Both sides trained, because the asymmetry usually predates the pain.
None of the advice above applies if any of these are true. These are the signs that this is not an ordinary training niggle. Stop managing it yourself and get assessed.
- · Pain low in the abdomen or into the testicle. That needs assessing, it may not be muscular.
- · A visible lump or bulge in the groin.
- · Sudden severe pain with immediate inability to walk.
- · It flares every time you return to sport despite a steady rebuild.
Sweatlas is not a medical provider. Everything in the niggle index is general information about training, written for healthy adults, and it is not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Do not use it to self-diagnose or to delay getting care. If you have pain that is severe, worsening, or not settling, or you have any of the warning signs listed on the page, see a doctor or a qualified physiotherapist.