What an awesome squat session! There were a couple funky ones that almost didn't fly but look at you now. Squat champion of the world. What was that like 185? 200? 125 ok. Still things are clearly getting better.
Until the next morning...
You wake up, roll over and HOLY SHMOKES!
That inner thigh is JACKED UP!
Is that the hamstring? The quad? WTF IS THAT?
Walking is going to be an absolute chore today and the feeling of squat gains has flown from your mind. Now all you can fathom is limping around due to an adductor that is more lit up than a Vegas billboard.
The adductors, pictured up their on the right are a group of muscles that are pretty cool. They pull your knees in (oh no!) as well as pull your pelvis over your leg (huh?). Like reigns on a horse, they help pull you every which way. When you squat, they help to keep your pelvis balanced so you don't twist at your back. But clearly, your's are not balanced.
If you are experiencing severe adductor discomfort after running, lunging, squatting, or other activities that don't immediately make you think "Oh ya baby, let's get after these inner thighs" then you likely have a pretty substantial preference for hip rotation one way or the other. For most, this rotation is to the right, why that occurs is for another blog. That usually leads to a jacked up right inner thigh or a legitimately strained left inner thigh.
If this is something you are experiencing then you need to work on rotating your hips to the non-dominant side and stabilizing over that hip. Then reintroducing those inner thighs into activities that used to jack them up. So simple, yet such a pain in the groin.
How do you determine if your preference is to the left or right?
Everyone, EVERYONE, prefers rotation over their right hip. Unless they don't.
Why don't they? Pathology, training, previous injury, neurologic changes as a result of trauma, reversed internal organs (unlikely), surgical intervention, etc. All these things CAN, but not definitely, create a preference for either reducing right hip rotation or improving left hip rotation. It is impossible to make a generalization here. What can be said is that if you test for and identify what muscular preferences someone has, you can systematically and logically train them to be more balanced.
This blog is not medical advice nor should it replace any direct medical advice you have received. If you are not experiencing pain, continue to train, but as always, if you are hurt seek medical advice. This statement is one that I abide by, despite some major discrepancies I have with it. Pain and damage are not 1 to 1. You can have some pretty severe damage and not even know it, you can have very little and refuse to go to school like the middle child adductor that we all love to be, hate to see. Either way, if it's hurt, get it checked out by someone you trust.
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