Groin muscles/ groin strain from skating
Stan
[If you wish to contact me, write to ja...@letterbox.com; don't use the
address in the header.]
Since I [age 51] bought my fitness inline skates 2 weeks ago, and
since I'm new to inline skating, I've developed a discomfort or strain
in the groin where the legs join the body. I'm sure that this new
activity of inline skating and the strides I make while skating have
brought about this strain/discomfort in the groin (mainly on the left
side].
While I can skate with this, I wonder if it wouldn't be better to
skate less or rest a few days 'til the strain goes away or lessens
greatly. [I skate daily but only for perhaps 5 to 6 miles (or less
some days) roundtrip on a level, very smooth bike path.]
Certain sudden skating movements cause more pain on the left side of
the groin. Is this sudden greater pain and the feeling of something
not quite in order in the groin due probably to just pulling of
muscles in the groin?
During the day while walking about I feel the slightest sensation of a
strain-- it doesn't really bother me, and is not annoying when I ride
my bicycle.
I think my stride is longer than it is for those having recreational
skates. My wheelbase is 10.8 inches for my size (US) 8.5 Bauer X-ERT
skate. The skates, having ABEC 5 bearings, are fast but I put on a
smaller wheel -- 72 mm -- while I develop skills.
What's best for this sort of strain in the groin? Skating only every
few days? Some kinds of exercises or stretches for the legs and groin?
Thanks,
Stan
[If you wish to contact me, write to ja...@letterbox.com; don't use the
address in the header.]
LateNite
Stan wrote in message <35a91c1e...@news.itis.com>...
Stan,
I would recommend both stretching before and after skating, as well as
resting a bit. If you have only picked up your skates 2 weeks ago, you may
be a little over enthused and may be hurting yourself. I would recommend
continuing with your alternate forms of exercise as well.
Mike
PUNISHER
Let me just say that it's great that you're exercising and choosing
inline skating to boot (no pun intended). We did some analysis and found
that inline skating actually does have very good benefits in terms of
strain imposed on the joints compared to something impactful like
running.
Anyway, where you are feeling the strain on the inside of the thighs are
a common sore spot, especially for beginners. You've probably strained
the adductor muscles a little bit. This often happens when you;re doing
movements involving a lot of adduction (moving the thighs toward the
midline) I just started myself and got DOMS in my adductors as well.
The initial soreness is usually due to DOMS (delyaed onset muscle
soreness). What's happened here is that there are tiny little tears and
microtrauma to the muscle cells, and these aren't usually serious and
heal up within a few days. You can 'work out' as you've observed.
The problem with not recovering fully is that when you put some more
stress, you can actually increase these relatively insignificant tears
into something major.
The best thing is that if it persists, go see a physiotherapist.
Otherwise, if you don't think it's serious, I advise a few days lay off.
In the meantime, do some warm up exercises before stretching; you never
want to stretch a cold muscle. Just do these stretches for a few days,
and then try again.
The first time you put those skates on, make sure you warm up first,
then do some gentle stretches. Skate only for 15-25 minutes, after which
you should stretch gently, adn then cool down. It's better to skate too
little than too much the first time around.
If you feel alright the same night and the next day, don't go crazy.
Start off with alternate days first, and then increase the frequency as
your muscles get used to it.
As for cycling, you tend not to use the adductor muscles, depending on
how hard you ride. Then, the various adductor groups start coming into
play. It's possible also that you are subconsciously peddling more with
your right, so you don't feel the strain on the left as well.
Good luck.
John Snakenburg
: [If you wish to contact me, write to ja...@letterbox.com; don't use the
: address in the header.]
: Since I [age 51] bought my fitness inline skates 2 weeks ago, and
: since I'm new to inline skating, I've developed a discomfort or strain
Find my postings in this news group. I'm mostly replying to newbies
warning of side-torque injuries to knees, legs, etc. THIS IS NO JOKE!
Get off those things. It's not worth it. The design has a long way to
go before this kind of injury can be minimized. If you like skating,
head for the ice-rink. You won't have that kind of problem with ice-
skates because they are rockered and turn much easier without generating
twist on your knees. That's what is causing the groin-pain. The skates
'hang' at the end of each stroke and won't come back without twisting
your toe out. It will hit you somewhere along the leg joints .. ankle,
knee, hip and cause a high-rep stress injury. Aerobics will help this
a lot. Mixing up different sports will also help, but not as much. Back off.
Recoup. And then skate with lots of rest stops. Never skate more than
one minute without a pause for 20 seconds ( exactly 20 seconds :-)
Downhill coasting counts as a pause. If you really want to feel this hang,
try a pair of 4-wheel skates, and then switch back to inlines. Then
you'll feel it !!!!
johns
Brian A
John Snakenburg wrote in message
<6odisf$plq$1...@newshound.csrv.uidaho.edu>...
>Get off those things. It's not worth it.
Say, John. Maybe you could start your own newsgroup:
rec.sport.not.inline.skating, for people such as yourself who are
enthusiastic about not skating. You could all get together once a year and
not skate together. It would be fun. You could not skate to music. You
could not skate through scenic vistas of natural wonder. The possibilities
are endless, if stunningly dull.
Just an idea.
Brian A
Bill Hicks
> Find my postings in this news group. I'm mostly replying to newbies
> warning of side-torque injuries to knees, legs, etc. THIS IS NO JOKE!
snipped for brevity
It will hit you somewhere along the leg joints .. ankle,
> knee, hip and cause a high-rep stress injury.
snipped
> Recoup. And then skate with lots of rest stops. Never skate more than
> one minute without a pause for 20 seconds ( exactly 20 seconds :-)
> Downhill coasting counts as a pause.
Excuse me Doctor Snakenburg, but could you kindly refer me to the
scientific study conducted to verify your information? I find it very
difficult to believe. I have been inlining over 3 years years,
instructing for the last year, and I have not heard of this. My knees
don't bother me, nor have they ever.
Yes, I do stretching exercises before skating, but when I start, I
usually skate a minimum of 20 miles non-stop. I do this every other
day, and every fourth skate is a 30 miler.
Non of the students I have taught have ever complained of aches or pain
either. Perhaps, if there are so many of you on your campus that are
complaining of sore knees, you may want to consider you really are not
skating properly and take a lesson from a certified instructor.
Bill Hicks, Instructor, American Inline Skating
George Merkert & Lila Rioth
what are your qualifications in exercise physiology? why should we give
credence to your opinions? what data do you have to support your assertions?
george merkert
PUNISHER
> You won't have that kind of problem with ice-skates because they are
> rockered and turn much easier without generating twist on your knees.
> That's what is causing the groin-pain.
It's true that being rockered, ice skates don't cause as much stress to
the sides of the knees since you don't put as much lateral strain to the
outside, and medial side of the inside knee. Although the issue with
torque from turning also transmits forces to the groin, we don't see
adductor strain a lot. Mainly it's the glute med muscles of the outside
leg since when you're carving a turn, you're actually internally
rotating against resistance provided by the ground.
> The skates 'hang' at the end of each stroke and won't come back
> without twisting
> your toe out. It will hit you somewhere along the leg joints .. ankle,
>
> knee, hip and cause a high-rep stress injury.
I'm not sure what you mean by twisting your toe out. But it's true that
with any sort of heavy boot, torque in the joints are increased. With
inline skates, if you're using a heavy boot, and one with a long base as
well, then the moment arm is increased naturally. Perhaps not
significantly for a lot of skaters, but if you have had any ligament
instability, for example, or a previous injury, you will know it for
sure.
> Aerobics will help this a lot.
What do you mean here?
> Mixing up different sports will also help, but not as much. Back off.
> Recoup. And then skate with lots of rest stops. Never skate more than
> one minute without a pause for 20 seconds ( exactly 20 seconds :-)
This is pretty good advice actually. But more specifically, you want to
choose sports that target each muscle group used somewhat differently in
order for cross-training benefit to work. Otherwise you may be
repeatedly working the same muscles. Look also at preventing muscle
imbalance. Inline skating is actually great because of the way you work
different musculature with different techniques, but this advantage is
not as pronounced if you're starting out and limited to the same
repetitive movements.
The rest pause above should only be an arbitrary guide however. As you
improve in terms of muscular endurance and your joints become accustomed
to the stress, you want to slowly increase in terms of time, and
decrease the numebr of pauses as well. This is especially so if you hope
to derive any cardiovascular benefit from the skating at all.
Someone mentioned that a lot of skaters don't get injuries from skating,
and that's true of any sport. But it's unfortunately the ones that do
get them that things like torque stress and moment arms make a hell of a
lot of difference. Factors that affect frequency or presence of injury
include age, skating technique, individual strength and conditioning of
the involved structures, as well as experience. Everyone's different and
some are more susceptible to injury than others.
By the way, in all this discussion, I don't think we've heard back from
Stan. How's that strain feeling now?
Brian A
PUNISHER wrote in message <35AB7673...@student.uq.edu.au>...
>Sorry, I made a little faux pas,
>...That should have been lateral strain on the INside knee and medial
>strain on the OUTside knee, judged in relation to the apex of the turn....
I'm glad you cleared that up, otherwise someone doing a tight turn might
have got their apex stuck up their medial, which can be very embarrassing.
Try explaining THAT in the emergency room. :)
Brian A
"Doctor, Doctor, gimme the news, I gotta bad case of lovin' you."
Stan
[If you wish to contact me, write to ja...@letterbox.com]
On Tue, 14 Jul 98, PUNISHER <s08...@student.uq.edu.au> wrote:
>.... Factors that affect frequency or presence of injury
>include age, skating technique, individual strength and conditioning of
>the involved structures, as well as experience. Everyone's different and
>some are more susceptible to injury than others.
>
>By the way, in all this discussion, I don't think we've heard back from
>Stan. How's that strain feeling now?
Thank you Punisher for asking how I'm doing now and thanks for that
helpful post here for me the other day. That was kind of you.
I'm not skating-- just taking it easy. I took 600 mg. of ibuprofen [an
anti-inflammatory drug here in the US] once on Sunday, and once
yesterday. Last night I put ice on the left groin area and today I
hope to speak with a nurse about this injury.
I went to the library last night and read in the Mayo Clinic Family
Health Care Book about muscle pulls and those that occur in the groin.
The Mayo book said that the groin pulls are the 2nd most common type
of muscle pulls that occur in sports injuries. The book said to use
heat and ice [but I understand that the thinking now is to use only
ice for the duration of the treatment and healing process]. I read too
that elevation of the area is useful and the taking of an
anti-inflammatory.
I was a bit alarmed to read about the worst kind of muscle pull injury
in the groin. In this one, the muscle is ruptured and surgery is
required to fix things. I hope I don't have this degree of injury.
[How would one know if the muscle is ruptured? Great swelling? Unable
to walk? X-ray - or some other scan - of the area revealing muscle
rupture?] I have no swelling and feel only the slightest sensation in
the groin when walking-- not really pain, just an awareness of
something not quite right there.
Now and then I make some movement while walking about or moving from a
recumbent position and *I see stars* since the pain is so great but
not so long lasting.
I cannot recall if I ever had such an injury there before. Perhaps if
I did there's some weakness in the muscle tissue after past healing--
I don't know. But I [age 51 remember] have to report that the only
exercise I've been doing for years now is bicycle riding. [Once this
riding was long distance but in the last 7 years is just 5 or 6 miles
a day in city riding on errands, going to the University library,
etc., etc. I still do -- with no subsequent physical complaints -- a
12 mile ride around a lake.]
Since I stopped skating this past Sunday, I have been briefly on my
bicycle for those 5 or 6 mile errand type rides, and I don't have an
aggravation of my groin problem during or after these short trips.
I hope to recover fully and then certainly warm up and stretch before
going out skating. [Once upon a time I did a great deal of stretching
and I was - and perhaps still am if I return to it - very flexible.]
That's my report to date.
Stan
PUNISHER
PUNISHER wrote:
> It's true that being rockered, ice skates don't cause as much stress
> to
> the sides of the knees since you don't put as much lateral strain to
> the
> outside, and medial side of the inside knee.
That should have been lateral strain on the INside knee and medial
strain on the OUTside knee, judged in relation to the apex of the turn.
> Although the issue with
> lot of difference. Factors that affect frequency or presence of injury
CurtAdams
>While I can skate with this, I wonder if it wouldn't be better to
>skate less or rest a few days 'til the strain goes away or lessens
>greatly.
Be a wimp. Groin strains are very prone to become chronic injuries.
I tried to tough mine out and ended up unable to skate for months. I
still can't do waltz jump takeoffs without regretting it.
Stretch thoroughly before and after skating. Butterfly stretch was
best for me. Once you've injured it, however, stretching can slow
recovery.
Curt Adams (curt...@aol.com)
"It is better to be wrong than to be vague" - Freeman Dyson
serena.j...@gmail.com
Serena