"I seemed to have a tight adductor longus" - Cyclist

"Did a hard session on the Exercycle, seemed to go well, but not long afterwards I seemed to have a tight adductor longus?!"

(Name withheld)

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Gary:

You have raised an interesting issue - thanks!

When riding an exercycle, or bicycle of any kind, for that matter, a wide, soft seat, such as those typically found on an exercycle may cause pain in the groin and adductor muscles (Those are the muscles found in the inside of the thigh).

This is because a wide, soft seat may press onto the tendons of the inner thigh muscles where they attach to the pubic bones (refer illustrations).  This may cause bruising at the point of pressure and spasm in the muscle the tendons serve.

This may be a more common problem for male cyclists than females, due to males having narrower hips than women of similar stature.

Take the lead of the pro cyclists:  Fit a narrow seat that is firm to hard, rather than wide and soft.  A well-fitting seat should have the rider sitting on the hard "Bum Bones", rather than the meaty portions of the bottom.

If you begin to feel groin/adductor pain, stop, get off and do some gentle stretching of the groin ("split-type" exercises), then resume cycling.

When relaxing, do some gentle self massage of the groin and adductor muscles, but please be discreet and never do this at the office.

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The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation. Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.

A soccer player with a chronic groin injury

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I was reading up on cortisone shots and came across a post on your blog from 2006. Here is a little back story on my injury. I am 20 years old and I play in the premiere soccer league in XXX. I play for XXX FC. I went through a period earlier this year where I was training twice a day 5 days a week with a game on the weekend. Of course I kept pushing through fatigue and muscle soreness thinking I was young and that my body could take it, what ignorance! Anyway I developed a niggle in my left groin at the insertion point for the adductor longus, this was about 2.5 months ago now.
So I handled it with strengthening exercies and a neoprene sleave. This seemed to do the trick. Then one day I felt a sort of pull at the insertion point and what resulted was a lot of weakness in my left groin. There was no real pain and hasn't been throughout this whole thing, just discomfort, and a dull ache. This happened 6 weeks ago. So I saw my physio, XXXX, and I also went to the XXXX Sports clinic that is tied with XXX University, I saw XXXX. Their diagnosis was a groin strain, that had not quite developed into tendonitis yet.

I have bruised the bone on the inside of my knee and it won't heal

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Back in the summer I fell off my mountain bike and smacked the inside of my knee on the top tube, I guess I bruised the bone and it has been sore ever since. It’s pretty boney in there, which is sore to touch. I have rested it, iced it, massaged it, antiflamed it, stretched it just about everything I can think of. It doesn’t appear to be a tracking problem, the actual knee and kneecap seem to be running freely, just stiff and sore on the inside of the knee when straightening. Any ideas?








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Gary:

The injury appears to be either the medial ligament or to the adductor tendon where it wraps around the medial tibial plateau.  Both these injuries can be very slow to heal.  Incidentally, I wiped out on by mountain bike on the weekend and suffered the very same blow to the side of the knee!

Treatment is as follows: