I made a post about this before but I still haven’t had any luck in figuring this out. I haven’t been able to squat without waking up the next morning with pain in my right adductor for several months now. The most I can handle is a low bar single ~ RPE 1-3 and one light set of 5. Anything higher intensity will cause symptoms. Barbell squats seem to be the only exercise that really aggravates it, although I can push the volume and intensity a tad bit more on high bar squats but still have to remain ~ RPE 5.
I am very familiar with the pain in training article and have followed those guidelines a few times over but I haven’t shown any improvements. I would appreciate some help and I am willing to try anything to get this sorted out, as I have not been able to do a proper high volume squat workout in almost a year.
Thanks
Hey @tcarleo ,
Thank you for following up and providing the additional context regarding this adductor issue you’ve been dealing with. I read through the other thread you posted as well and I have some ideas on how you could try managing this moving forward. It sounds like the biggest obstacle is returning to barbell squatting as you’ve went through a few phases where you subbed in alternative movements (leg press, goblet squats, hack squats, etc.) and had minimal symptoms. I also saw where you mentioned you had tried a similar movement to the Copenhagen exercise with a cable attached to your feet and you didn’t feel like you were getting any benefit from it. This ties into my first recommendation - give this bent knee version of the Copenhagen drill a try prior to your squats to serve both as a warm-up and to build some more capacity along your inner thigh. I typically prescribe 3 sets to RPE 9 on this movement. If you train at a gym that happens to have a hip ADDuctor machine, that could work just as well (2-3 sets x 12-15 reps @ RPE 8). With either of those movements, try to play around with positioning to see if you can target that area where you are experiencing symptoms.
Again, this slot should serve as a warmup and should make it a bit easier to work into your squats (more on this here). From there, I would recommend going through an extended block where you’re keeping the intensity under your tolerable threshold for symptoms and focus on building capacity. From your previous post:
“…progressed from doing sets of 8 with 135 up to sets with 165-185 twice per week. I tried to push up to 205 and 225 for sets of 8 and the symptoms starting coming back again, waking up in the morning only sore in my right adductor. Sometimes I can even feel a sort of lingering tenderness in my right adductor outside the gym from standing or sitting too long. I just want to be able to barbell squat heavy again and I feel like I’m continuously hitting road blocks and I don’t where to go from here. Should I take time off from barbell squats and go back to using machines where I can train productively and try again in a couple months? Or should I keep squats in my training and continue to train at lighter loads and be more patient?”
The adjustment you made to doing higher rep sets to limit loading was a great strategy and one we use often. However, it’s unclear how long you spent with this training style and it often can take much longer than we expect to experience symptom relief. I think patience and embracing a more gradual return to heavier loading over the course of 8-12 weeks would work well in this instance.
As far as the squat itself, you could implement a tempo (3s on the way down, 1s pause in the hole for example) to limit loading further while staying in that 6-10 rep range initially. Moving slower through the movement also tends to be more tolerable in a lot of instances. Every other week you could drop the rep scheme until you’re down to doing sets of 5, and then try doing normal tempo squats and see how you do. You could also try modifying your stance width/toe angle to see if you notice any differences there.
Hopefully some of that was helpful. If you would like more hands-on guidance we do offer we do offer remote consultations where we can talk through your specific situation and provide you with more concrete training recommendations and rehab focused programming with ongoing feedback through the process if you think that would be beneficial. You can submit an inquiry here
-Charlie
I appreciate this response, I will implement these recommendations exactly as prescribed. Thanks