Hello BBM team,
Last weekend I’ve torn my adductor longus on the right side. I was testing my squat 1RM and half way up the rep I felt something tear.
I went to ER and they made an echo and confirmed it was a big tear in the adductor longus. It’s bunched up now and needs repair.
The advise was to stop training for a while. I don’t really agree with that because I can still do plenty without feeling any pain. (I’ll manage pain and load, not to aggravate the situation)
I still have some questions:
what movements would you advise against, even when pain levels while doing them are quite low?
how much pain is acceptable when training with this kind of injury?
Do you have any idea how long recovery can take after surgery? (I’m 44 yo)
There are not specific movements we would necessarily avoid; rather, it is going to be based on your symptoms and tolerance.
This is not something that we can tell you or quantify for you. The symptoms should be tolerable, and not worsening over the course of your sets or lingering into the next day(s) after the training session.
This is highly variable based on individual factors as well as your rehabilitation plan. Hopefully they set you up with something like this; if not, our rehab coaches would be happy to help you out.
Thank you for your response.
I’ve visited an MD today and got some good news. He advised against surgery (contrary what the dokter in ER told me). He was confident this tear will heal if I follow the advise you also give me in the answer to my second question.
I’m familiar with the article. It helped me in the past (much less catastrophizing going on now). I’ll read it again, just to be sure.
I’ve still been training in the meantime. Kept the absolute load very low but increased the amount of reps. I need some more GPP anyway.
I’ll slowly try to increase the load for squat en DL movements and see if I can slowly get to full ROM squats again.
Thank you and the rest of the BBM team for educating the lifting community.
Hey rho,
I want to expand on what Austin said a little as the recommendations for adjusting load are solid. I’m happy the physician recommended against surgery (sometimes adductors do absolutely benefit from repair so this means you are not in this camp). Once things are starting to settle down symptom wise, I would highly recommend starting to perform some specific adductor work as a means of building strength back up. We typically start athletes with a Copenhagen Adductor Protocol as a means of addressing this. It is highly likely you will see a deficit side to side as a result of the injury. The goal as you perform this (I normally have athletes do it 2-3x/week) is not absolute symmetry but I would like to shoot for at least 80-90% side to side. There are a host of other supplemental exercises with which to do this as well such as a Cossack squat or even the hip adduction machine. In the initial phases, you may want to add in some variety to your programming as the intensity of the primary lifts may be down. This is one of those instances where there isn’t really “good/bad” exercises, but rather doing some different things has utility in itself. I would also recommend that you continue to perform the Copenhagen exercises (progressing as you tolerate) for at least 12 weeks. They don’t take that long and have shown good utility after adductor injuries.
I don’t really agree with that because I can still do plenty without feeling any pain. (I’ll manage pain and load, not to aggravate the situation)