Old Man Blows Out Adductor

[Father Time]

I was doing some nice deep squats.

I had been doing a straight forward linear progression of 5 sets of 5 straight across and adding just a little weight each workout 3 times a week.

I have reached a point where they are truly work to get them all done.

In fact my adductors and especially my right one have been pretty tight on and off for 2 or 3 weeks now.

But I have been able to just carry one and get it done.

All my squats reach parallel (sometimes a little below but not much).

Last Wednesday I did the first three sets fine. Heavy, but got em done.

I set out on my fourth set knowing that there was a possibility that I would not make it.

So I widened my stance just a little. Maybe 1/2 an inch and determined myself to not waste energy by going down slow and 'riding the breaks'. I went down under control but quickly.

I began my drive up and Ker Boom!!!

I had not made it an inch when my right leg suddenly and completely just gave out. My right adductor simply released all tension at once and I fell back and down. Just about an inch to the safety bars so there was no further injury but I am done in the squat rack for a few days at least.

Now that it has been 5 days, I really do not believe anything is torn and it is just a nasty muscle pull.
I am still walking with a slight limp right now.

I walk it. I roller it, and I keep my fluid levels high. (Geez I pee a lot.)

So I am looking for any advice on how to rehab this thing and get me back under heavy loads again the proper way, and after the proper amount of time.

Any help is appreciated.

I guess there really IS a small price that we must pay for rubbing elbows with the immortals.

 

[8thangel]

I'm interested to hear as well... I'm an older guy myself and did the same thing but actually tore the muscle. However I tore my left adductor muscle and think I also tore some scar tissue on an inguinal hernia repair done 10+ years ago as well.

Not trying to hi-jack your thread just saying I know the feeling, I did just about exactly the same thing as you. Warmed up as per usual and then decided to take a slightly wider than usual stance and WAMMO, tore my adductor. Went down and didn't come back up, freaked me the hell out. This was 5, almost 6 weeks ago now....

From what I've learned so far it will take some time to heal, about 6-8 weeks and then just take it slow getting back into it. Since I haven't quite made it that far I can only speak from a limited experience but look forward to hearing back from anyone else with further experience with this type of injury.

 

[Father Time]

8thangel,
Thanks for weighing in. Don't worry about hijacking my injury. You can have it!
I don't think I tore anything but I am interested in your experience as well.
No problem if this becomes an abductor issue thread instead of something about me and my particular instance of it.

 

[Father Time]

One thing I know is that when I do get back to the weight I was doing I probably will not widen my stance or go down quickly on the first one on any set.

 

[8thangel]

I won't go wide again, not with any real weight anyhow.

I've heard from two different friends (one is a NP the other a PT) of mine to not use any weight at first, just do the squatting motion and see how you feel first off. From there just use small increments of weight a little at a time... and give it time before you jump back up to whatever weight you're accustomed to working with. No need to rush things and wind up getting set back again.

It's a marathon not a sprint, right...? Especially for us older dudes!~

 

[Father Time]

What I figure happened to both of us was that we had reached a certain level of strength for the overall system which was approaching our limits.
In an attempt to push it just a little higher we adjusted our stance out wider and put more stress on the abductors than they had dealt with before and took some of the pressure off the hams, glutes, quads, whatever.
The abductors are big powerful muscles, but in our normal lives are rarely stressed.
So when that overload hit them, it was too much.
Yes to start with body weight (and I am already testing this gently each day now) and slowly climb back up.
Remember, there is no finish line unless you finish yourself.

 

[PillarofBalance]

To answer the OP... I think we covered this in the journal. Rest. That's it. Some ibuprofen would help too. This isn't that serious so don't worry about it too much... Sucks having to take some time off though.

 

[Father Time]

Yeah, rest is the obvious solution for right now. I figured that as soon as I could stand again and knew that it would not involve surgery.
But being Mr. Figure Shit Out, I'm still trying to workout exactly what happened and why so as to prevent future incidents as best I can...

 

[PillarofBalance]

Yeah, rest is the obvious solution for right now. I figured that as soon as I could stand again and knew that it would not involve surgery.
But being Mr. Figure Shit Out, I'm still trying to workout exactly what happened and why so as to prevent future incidents as best I can...

You'll likely never figure that out. Narrowing your stance a bit might help. You can keep doing a wide stance if you want, but you need to rotate the toes out more and really focus on squeezing your glutes and hams to push up. Sometimes its just a matter of bad luck, or circumstance. Sometimes its a matter of your own physiology. Its possible that that you just aren't meant to squat with a wide stance. It may also be because you sit at work... Large muscles, tendons etc such as the psoas and adductors will tighten, shorten and lose flexibility. Once you're healed "enough" and just use your best judgement to determine that, start squatting again - very very light weight, but find a stance or style that doesn't aggravate the injury. Some strain, light pain is ok but not a stabbing pain. Play around, see what shakes out. You just might find a more natural and mechanically advantageous way to squat and come back with a heavier 1RM...

 

[Father Time]

"...never figure that out..."

Oh yea of little faith...

 

[Father Time]

OK POB,

I have been exploring the whole connection between foot angle and what muscles get activated recently.
It may very well be that those of us who get abductor injuries are using a wide stance and have our toes pointed out more than we should.
Tomorrow I will attempt to get my toes more rotated toward the middle and (10 to 20 degrees from neutral) and try to activate more of the outside hamstrings than the abductors during my squats.

» “Hip torque”, toe angle, and squatting

8thAngel,
I wonder if this applies to your situation as well...

 

[PillarofBalance]

OK POB,

I have been exploring the whole connection between foot angle and what muscles get activated recently.
It may very well be that those of us who get abductor injuries are using a wide stance and have our toes pointed out more than we should.
Tomorrow I will attempt to get my toes more rotated toward the middle and (10 to 20 degrees from neutral) and try to activate more of the outside hamstrings than the abductors during my squats.

» “Hip torque”, toe angle, and squatting

8thAngel,
I wonder if this applies to your situation as well...

Awesome question... When I point my toes out I get better activation of the vastus medialis and when I front squat "oly style" which is a somewhat narrow stance with toes pointed out and ATG I feel more strain on my abductors then when I squat in a wide power stance. If I front squat toes pointed in, I don't feel the pull on the abductors.

I am not sure what I can say beyond that. But that's been my experience thus far.