Groin Muscle Pull

by Robin
(Wauconda, IL USA)

I am a 46 year old female, and jog/walk to workout. I experienced a pain in my groin which I first thought was from stretching. Pain became much worse after run the next day - down the inside and back of my thigh.

After a week, I started seeing a chiropractor, but I am wondering how long these typically take to heal.

I can walk, but that is not a great workout. Tomorrow will mark the third week since my last run.

I am also wondering if neoprene shorts will help support the area when I return to the workout (I currently wear neoprene knee supports that are awesome!).

Thanks for any help/advice you could offer. I am getting really depressed without my endorphins ;-/



Answer by Dominique:


Hi there,
Thanks for your question about your pulled groin muscle.

It's a bit hard to work out how long it will take to heal, depends a lot on the severity, i.e. the damage that has been done.

It's a good thing you sought help from a specialist. I understand it's frustrating that you can't run in the mean time (believe me, I have been there!), but it's best to be patient and wait it out.

Future prevention is best done by taking care of the muscles around the weak spot. That is, if it is a weak spot, it could have been a once-in-a-life muscle pull that will never repeat itself.

But in general, the way to take care of these things is to help make the structure around the weak spot stronger.

When people have bad knees, you can do a lot of good by working on lower and upper leg strength, making the calf, quad and hamstring muscles stronger will do a world of good to the bad knees, funnily enough.

Same with the groin. Improving the structure around it would include stretching and strengthening of the hip adductor and abductor muscles as well as the pelvic area and general core stability.

Google yourself to some ideas about the type of stretches and strengthening exercises you can do.

Hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Dominique