Groin pain for breaststrokers

Happy Friday!

Who doesn’t love a good groin strain?

It.

Is.

Awful.

If you’re not a breaststroker, you probably will never deal with this in your life.

Unless you do another sport that incorporates both lateral work paired with explosive movement patterns... Or you decide to do run sprints out of nowhere.

So what’s a groin strain?

A groin strain is also known as an adductor strain, or muscle tearing that occurs in your adductor muscles (we have 3 different ones). The adductor group includes a total of 6 different muscles that aid in bringing your thighs together… Like the motion you see in breaststroke when you snap your legs together and squeeze to get into your glide phase.

Why do groin strains occur?

Groin strains occur due to various reasons that typically include issues related up the chain (i.e. hip) or down the chain (i.e. knees), and aren’t always localized to simply the adductor region. These often include:

• Weak muscles

• Muscle imbalance

• Compensatory movement patterns

• Limited mobility

• Poor warm up

• Sudden explosive and powerful movements

• Poor nutrition

• Poor hydration

• Poor recovery strategies

• Lack of training

How do you minimize groin strains?

The best way to prevent getting groin strains is to properly train your adductor group, but also have a comprehensive strength program that emphasizes core and hip strengthening, as well as strengthening down the chain. This includes strengthening muscles that attach to your knees, as well as ankles.

Injuries, such as muscle strains, often occur because your body has been adapting to improper compensatory movement patterns for quite some time. You pair that with explosive movements and that’s when you typically see muscle strains.

In addition to strength, mobility training will be an integral part of your program. Having adequate joint mobility and soft tissue extensibility are equally important to ensuring your muscles are healthy, strong, and capable of not only tolerating, but also accommodating fast, explosive movements.

Not sure how to incorporate strength and mobility into your swim training?

Join The Swimmer’s Doc Membership for a FREE 7-day trial for a combination of strength and mobility workouts to start improving your performance today (and stop those nasty groin strains from happening)!

As always, leave feedback by replying to this email. I love sharing the wealth of knowledge and I’m glad I get to share it with you!

Until next time,

Sandra

PS - You don’t have the same body as the person next to you. So why would you train the same way as them? Tailor your training and nutrition so it fits YOU instead of doing cookie-cutter programs that offer mediocre results. Sign up for 1:1 coaching with me.

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