SLS PE2 external rotation = groin pain

I had hurt my groin about a year and a half ago doing Cossack squats.  They were one element of a warm up I tried to implement back before I had discovered GB.  But It was too much and I pushed too hard in hindsight and something went pop.  It didn't hurt too bad at the time but it was sore for a long time after that.  

In GB when I saw SLS PE2 I was worried I might have issues, and I am.  With this past injury in mind I've tried to take it very easy not forcing the depth and committing to stay at block one for as long as it takes.  But there was pain from day one.

When I squat to my right with my left foot extended I have a very hard time getting my toe pointed up.  I will also get a sharp pain in my hip/groin on the way back up.  I can minimize it if I really focus on completely relaxing that extended leg.  If I subconsciously or consciously use that leg to help get out of the bottom at all I get that sharp stab of pain.

I've gone through three or four cycles of SLS PE2 block one.  I felt like I was making progress with the slow  and steady approach, the pain on that side was going away the depth was improving.   I still had to be very careful.   But this past time through week 3 I must have pushed too far or not been careful enough.  Now I feel like I'm back at square one.  The pain is back and its creeping into anything involving external rotation of that leg.  I feel it a bit in MN PE 1 > Im and my external rotation in Swivel hips is less than it was before.

I guess I don't really have a question to ask.  Pretty sure the prognosis will be stop and go to the doc.  Any advice or rehab tips would be appreciated.

I've had similar issue in the past. The only thing that helped me was resting. Take a few weeks off from movements that cause pain. Compress the spot with heat for awhile. Then try again at block one just to see how you feel. If you get the same pain then you need the doctor if for nothing more than to know exactly what is wrong. Your body might be misfiring muscles to do work they're not supposed to that's leading to pain. Or you might have a strain in your groin. Those suck reeeally bad.

More that likely after your original injury, your rehab wasn't up to par, and you've been left with a weak groin, perhaps some scar tissue and a lot of tightness.

Hopefully you haven't done too mach damage this round, give it time to heal. 

When you start up again you'll need to work gradually on flexibility and strengthening the groin.

There are various ways of scaling Cossacks either by reducing ROM or load, for example using a support of some sort, as well as starting with just (scaled) negatives on the afflicted side.

"pop" or "crack" in the groin region are not a good sign. the problem is identify the region which had the injury, the muscle belly or the muscleskeletal origin on the groin? do you have pain while touching this region?

Before to continue to read I suggest an Ecography. I did 2 eco, before the complete rest and after, the fiber disposition pf groin tissue were completely different so you can have a reasonable idea of your problem.

first of all do you have pain doing these things or one of these:

- sit on a chair, llift both straight legs as a L-sit with ass on the chair , then with straight legs push with legs against the other

-do the same thing with knee bent at 90°

if it is not painful do it standing and tell me what you feel.

my suggestion for the rehab is this one, it helped me a lot since I got back approximately all my flexibility:

1-rest until the tests I cited above are negative

2-add isometric contraction 2-3 sets of 15-20'' in the position i cited above + gluteus and piriformis stretching

3-then use the adductor machine with 50-60 reps and low weight until you use for them the 30% of your weight, use a limited rom

4-then decrease weight to 10-15% of BW and increase the roms

5-start adding BW squat until you can manage 15-20 reps

6-add BW lunges

7-single legs squat and then  weighted squat

now the strengthen part is good and you can start with some stretching. I suggest high cossack with with both parallel feet and 45° external rotation of them.

Continue  basically with the split exercises on stretch courses.

As you move near the split you can use the suspended split hold for time 30-60''.

All this process , after the point 1, took me about 4-5 months.

Thanks everyone for taking the time and effort to respond.

With my hand I can feel a sore spot about 5 inches down from the crotch around toward the back of the leg.  Its sort of in the no mans land between what I would call my groin and my hamstring.  Not sure where one starts and the other ends.

Alessandro everything feels fine doing those tests.  I don't feel any pain until I try to do something out to the side.  Even a side lunge feels ok as long as there is not rotation.

If I lay on my back bend my knees and put my feet together and try to drop my knees down I will feel the pain part of the way down, If I hold the position and try to relax through it my knees will continue to drop and the pain will subside.

Any additional insights or changes to the suggested protocol with this information?

Thanks again.

There could be any number of things going on adductor group or semimembranosus , best is get a proper diagnosis first. 

First, Ryan, is your adductors' recovery going well man?

Alex,

I'll set an appointment for an ultrasound tomorrow, although I did the test and the sharp pain and discomfort are gone. I'm not sure when I'll get a date , so the ultrasound might be pointless if I get checked in 2 weeks or more.

Unfortunately, I don't have an access to the adductor machine. Are 'adductor flies' and 'adductor pull-downs with a resistance band' good as substitutes?

My goal is to build up to 1 set of 100r with a limited ROM for Adductor Flies ->then 100r with Increased ROM ->then 100r with low weight(0.5kg->1kg->1.5kg each leg etc..) until I can do 3 sets of 30 rep with a certain load. Only then I'd start doing # 5,6&7 in your suggested rehab plan . What do you think?

Last question, when can I start training SLS/PE1 again? Maybe as I start adding BW squats?(#5 in rehab routine)

Thank you very much!

P.s My adductor is already feeling somewhat relived just by reading your rehab plan 

I had a minor groin injury recently, it took about 10 weeks for the pain to go away. After that Middle Split stretches are helping me tremendously. I had to pay attention to approach stretching very carefully though and I still feel injured spot sometimes but I gained new ROM and don't have any pain now.

Note that mine was a minor injury and I am lucky to have it gone away without a professional assessment. I just second what Cole Dano said about strengthening groin and getting more flexible

HB_Ron sorry to hear about your injury.  I wish I could tell you how great the plan Alesandro took the time to give me worked, but I didn’t follow it.  My intention was to go see the DR and get figured out what actually was going on.  Unfortunately my phobia against doctors kept me procrastinating actually following through (I don’t recommend this course of action). 

What I actually did was stop all SLS training from when I posted this in May until probably July.  I also dropped the weight I was using to do windmills from 20lbs to 15. 

By July the occasional twinge of pain had stopped, and the windmills were feeling good though not as deep on the injured side.  So started doing a few reps of SLS PE1.  In August I took my family camping for three weeks so I did only a few GST workouts in the whole month.

In September I got back at it and started SLSPE1 at block 2, my body felt really good after the month off and training was really great.  I had a good month of getting the stretch courses in as well.  Everything was feeling really strong and pain free and moving in the right direction. 

Now October my kids’ hockey started and I’m on the ice with them 2 hours on Saturday, 2 hours on Tuesday, and one hour on Thursday.  This has eaten into the stretching time and I’m feeling tighter as a result. 

So though the adductor is pain free right now I may have a ticking time bomb there unless I can find the time for the Stretch course.  Hope you can get yours sorted out Ron, get help and rest.