Hey BBM,
I’ve made a post about this before and plan to see an orthopedist soon but I would like to get some thoughts on what might be going with my adductor. Pain and discomfort in right adductor has left unable to squat medium to high loads and volume for roughly 1 year now. I’ve tried to apply the recommendations in the BBM pain article over and over without any success. There are plenty of squat variations in the form of machines that I can do mostly pain free, but I am a powerlifter and I need to barbell squat. A top set of 8 @ RPE 3-4 on low bar squats is about the highest level of intensity and volume I can handle while still being able to deadlift the next day. Im unable to properly train all forms of barbell squats, particularly low bar squats. I’ve also noticed a lack of mobility in my right adductor compared to my left. When it is in a stretched position like during a leg press, it feels as though the adductor/groin area is swollen and extremely tight. I’ve tried cutting out squatting entirely and pushing lower body exercises that are tolerable but that’s never helped me reintroduce barbell squats. Ive also tried adding in single leg work, as well as the Copenhagen adductor protocol and the adductor machine at my gym. I was doing the copenhagens twice per week for 10-15 reps and got pretty good at them. This was also true for the adductor machine, as i am able to push those to a RPE 8-9 for multiple sets without major discomfort the area. This is confusing to me as it seems like the muscle is still strong and capable to lifting heavy without pain. There is something about barbell squats that my leg doesn’t agree with. I may try only low bar squatting 3+ times per week at lighter loads and lower volumes to force the area to adapt to that specific squatting position more frequently. Would this be a good approach? At this point I’m also just curious as to what exactly this injury might be and why it’s lasted so long.
I’ll also add that the pain is almost never felt during exercise, just a swelling feeling, almost like a pump in my right adductor. It is not until the next day does the soreness and discomfort set in
Hello, I would probably start by giving the hip series article a read that you can find here. You’re not really reporting a single mechanism of injury i.e. one rep feeling a sensation and it sounds like you are working on some specific adductor strengthening which is a good step in the right direction. What you are reporting from symptoms is something that would slant the approach towards the more “strain” bucket. Often here you can use what would normally be considered as supplemental variations as the primary squat for the week and I would likely have you try something like some wide stance squats or even slightly staggering your feet an inch or two to load a different area. You can then use a comp squat at a lower RPE almost as a technique/test to see what you are tolerating. What I would probably parse out a little more here is what you said about low bar squatting 3+/week. I am assuming you are not having 3+ comp squat sessions/week on average in a training block? I do think that is one approach to work on exposure but it is often as much a balance of working through a problem as working around a problem and if it as sensitive next day as you are reporting, I would probably schedule one comp squat day, in front of a day off for some added recovery and use the rest of the squat volume for the week as mentioned for different variations.
Thank you for your response, I’ve kept my one low bar squat day and added in pin squats slightly above parallel and am going to add a wider stance squat as well. I’ve also noticed that I can tolerate singles much better than multi-rep sets. For example, a set of 8 or even 5 @ RPE 8 will probably cause symptoms the next day, but doing 2 or 3 singles @ RPE 8 will result in little to no symptoms. Because of this, should I lean into doing more singles and lower rep sets?