Groin injuries are fairly common among the athletic and the active, but they are still nothing to sneer at. The pain from a groin injury can be severe, so try to avoid them at all costs by stretching before strenuous exercise and keeping your groin muscles in shape. If you do sustain a groin injury, however, you are better off caring for it right away. If you continue to work out, run or play a sport, you could cause irreparable harm to your muscles. Following is an explanation for how to recognize and treat groin injuries.
How to Recognize Groin Injuries
Thankfully, groin injuries are fairly easy to diagnose yourself. In most cases, you’ll experience them during physical activity, especially if you haven’t warmed up beforehand. You’ll feel a certain degree of pain in your inner thigh, depending on how badly you’ve injured your groin. It might simply feel like a lightly pulled muscle or it may cause you to stop immediately. Some people characterize the pain as a mild burning sensation while others refer to it as more of a sting. Either way, you’ll know immediately that you’ve damaged your groin and adductor muscles.
If you’re not sure if you’ve sustained a groin injury, sit down on the ground and put the flats of your feet together on front of you on the floor. Try to lower your knees to the ground. If you feel pain in your inner thigh from the stretch, then it probably is a groin injury. It should worsen as you attempt to lower your knees or lean forward toward your toes. If the injury is more severe, you may have trouble walking or standing up.
How to Treat Groin Injuries
In most cases, groin injuries will heal on their own after a week or two of rest. Avoid even mild activity for at least forty-eight hours and avoid doing anything that might further stretch the muscle. You can also alternate using an ice pack every hour or so for the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours to avoid inflammation, though sometimes it cannot be avoided. You probably won’t need anything stronger than over-the-counter pain medication.
If you notice extreme swelling or bulging of the groin muscle, visit your doctor immediately. You might have sustained a hernia or you might have pulled the groin muscle entirely off the bone. This could require surgery or intense physical therapy to repair, so seeing a doctor as quickly as possible is imperative. For more intense groin injuries, you might be prescribed stronger pain medication such as Tylenol 3 or Codine.
Once the pain has diminished significantly, start stretching the groin muscle on a daily basis. The only real way to avoid groin injuries is to strengthen your muscles, thereby decreasing your susceptibility to injury. Talk to a sports medicine professional or your doctor about exercises that can help strengthen those muscles, but the most common are sideways leg-lifts and the groin stretch mentioned above.
If you are involved in sporting activities on a regular basis, you might want to invest in a soft cup to wear while you’re active. This is more comfortable than a hard cup and will reduce your chances of sustaining a groin injury. Make sure to stretch before all sporting activities and exercise and always stop if you start to feel pain in your inner thigh.
