Sports Hernia — Causes and Exercises To Get You Back On The Track

Health & Medical Blog

A sports hernia is a relatively common injury that can be sustained by athletes. Your sports physio will be able to help you to recover from this injury. In the meantime, here's an overview of the condition together with some useful exercise tips to help you recover.

Sports hernia

Unlike an abdominal hernia where soft tissue pushes outside of its normal cavity, a sports hernia is caused by tearing or weakening on the internal tissues in the deep layers of the abdominal wall.

Clear indications that you may have sustained a sports hernia include:

  • pain experienced during sit-ups
  • pain that occurs on only one side of the groin
  • stabbing pains in the groin area while running, kicking or twisting
  • pain radiating to the inner thigh on one side
  • pain in the groin when you sneeze or cough
  • soreness or tenderness to light pressure in the lower abdominal and groin areas

Other medical conditions can cause these symptoms so you should consult your GP in the first instance.

Treatment of sports hernia

Your physiotherapist will advise you on what exercises are safe to carry out and may also recommend applying ice to the affected area to reduce inflammation and pain. You should try to avoid stretching your upper body and trunk, and you should not do sit-ups.

Some helpful exercises include:

  1. Gentle stretching of your lower back and hip area as guided by your physio.
  2. You may be given exercises to activate your hip and abdominal muscles to provide support to your groin.
  3. When the pain has subsided, you will be encouraged to carry out exercises to strengthen your hips and core.
  4. Your physiotherapist will use hands-on soft tissue manipulation and joint mobilisation techniques to help improve your hip joint range of movement and to ease muscle pain.
  5. Once you are on the road to recovery, your physio will add specific movements to your recovery programme. You should then be able to return to gentle running or sport drills to help your body recover sufficiently to begin playing your chosen sport again.

If you experience groin pain immediately following playing sport, it is probable that you have sustained a sports hernia injury. In the first instance, you should consult your GP, just in case the problem has another cause. You will then probably be referred to a good sports physiotherapist for remedial treatment and an exercise and rehabilitation programme to get you back to the field.

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