a Faster Holistic Way
to End Chronic Pain
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...for Relief That Lasts™
LAWRENCE GOLD
SOMATICS
Relief You Can Count On™
GUARANTEE +1 (505) 819-0858
BY APPOINTMENT • SELF-RELIEF MOVEMENTS • CONSULTATIONS
SINCE
1990
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Hanna Somatic Education
®
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Groin Pain: Causes, a Way to Relief, How Long It Takes
PLUS: Get started with free instruction in movement training exercises that eliminate groin pain and make movement easier faster than by stretching or strength training.
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© 2017 Lawrence Gold
certified practitioner, Hanna Somatic Education®
certified 1992
As author of this article, my guess is that you've had groin pain for some time and have tried stretching and/or strengthening exercises -- the most common approaches of therapy -- and found that they didn't work. I suspect you got temporary changes, partial changes -- changes that evaporated shortly thereafter and left you pretty much the way you were, before -- or perhaps, worse due to the "rebound tension" common after stretching.
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I'm going to explain four causes of groin pain.
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1. tight thigh adductor muscles | muscle pain
2. tight psoas muscles and hip joint flexors | muscle pain, joint pain and bursitis
3. sacro-iiac joint dysfunction | muscle pain and nerve pain
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Less commonly, a bone injury or fracture or even kidney stones may cause groin pain.
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WHERE IS THE GROIN?
The groin is the region between your abdomen and your upper thigh, in front (commonly misnamed, "the loins" -- which are at the mid-back). It's visible as the region where your leg connects with your pelvis -- light green in the illustration).
Another cause of chronic pain in that area is chronic anxiety or fear, which triggers muscles to tighten in a pattern called, "Startle Reflex". Startle Reflex triggers tension in the thigh adductors (at the groin), abdominal muscles, chest (pectoral muscles), upper shoulder muscles (which hide the neck between the shoulders), and other muscles involved in curling forward toward collapse (as into fetal position). Chronic muscular tension causes chronic muscle fatigue ("burn") and sets the stage for muscle pulls (muscle tears) because tight muscles resist lengthening in movement and so are subject to damage by forceful movements (as in athletics).
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The key to clearing up pain of this type is to recover control of those muscles' tension level (muscle tone); then, the pain of muscle fatigue quickly fades out and, if damaged, the muscles can then heal. That can't be done by stretching because stretching does nothing to improve muscular control. People have to stretch because they lack control; if they had control, they could just relax (because both tensing and relaxing are part of control).
TO TAKE ACTION
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I'm sending you to a YouTube video that shows how to get control of the thigh adductor muscles. This page will stay open, when you navigate to that page. Do what you see, there, then come back, here. TO BOOKMARK this PAGE: [ control-D ] or [ command-D ]
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This exercise in muscular control will relieve the "adductor" tension (if it's the one you need -- and remember the other causes named); you'll feel the change immediately, although you may need to do more than one practice session to get it all. Remember, though, that your pain may come from one of the other causes.
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If you have tension in the other places I mentioned (i.e., if you have the Startle Reflex pattern), you'll need to relax the entire tension pattern, to keep the changes from this exercise because the Startle Reflex involves all of those muscles in a single action pattern. To relax the entire pattern, use The Cat Stretch program (which involves neither a cat, nor stretching; it's a nickname based on what we see cats do, upon arising from rest).
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HOW LONG IT TAKES TO RECOVER*
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with this exercise, LESS THAN AN HOUR (adductors, alone -- not the full Startle Reflex pattern)
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with hands-on sessions using clinical somatic education techniques: three visits
That completes this section on groin pain from this cause.
TIGHT PSOAS MUSCLES AND HIP JOINT FLEXORS
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MUSCLE PAIN | JOINT PAIN | BURSITIS
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Another common cause of groin pain is a tight iliopsoas muscle tendon, which attaches on the deep inner surface of the upper thigh, plus tight hip joint flexors (e.g., the gluteus minimus, not shown). The iliopsoas tendon attaches both the iliacus muscle and the psoas muscle (shown in the video at right) to the inner thigh (bottom of image). The tendon, itself, may hurt, or it may trigger iliopsoas bursitis.
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Tendons are the ends of muscles that attach to bones. People sometimes confuse tendons with ligaments. Ligaments are "straps", "bindings" or "cuffs" that connect the ends of bones, at joints.
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The attachment of the iliopsoas tendon, deep at the top of the inner thigh, may hurt, or the bursa that the tendon crosses on its way to its attachment may hurt (iliopsoas bursitis). A bursa is a soft, lubricated, fluid-filled sac that acts as a pulley for a tendon that crosses it on its way to its attachment. The tendon and the bursa are in the same area; pain of either condition comes from the same cause.
TO TAKE ACTION on PSOAS MUSCLE PAIN
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I'm sending you to an article on psoas muscle pain, which details the symptoms of tight psoas muscles, explains the cause, and contains a link to the program, Free Your Psoas. If you have the symptoms described, you need the program. You may read that article and then come back, here, or just start the program. This page will stay open, when you navigate to that page.
TO BOOKMARK this PAGE: [ control-D ] or [ command-D ]
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The program, Free Your Psoas, frees and integrates the psoas and other hip joint flexor muscles, with other core muscles; this integration is something more than what you get with a "one muscle" fix: a lasting improvement in comfort, and agility in all athletic activities. When the psoas muscle relaxes, the groin pain goes. You can get started with the program, for free, and it has a lifetime satisfaction guarantee.
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HOW LONG IT TAKES to RECOVER
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with this program : ABOUT EIGHT WEEKS
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with hands-on sessions using clinical somatic education techniques: two-to-three visits*
How well does it work?
A BID FOR CREDIBILITY: A third party speaks.
unsolicited, uncompensated testimonial
That completes this section on this cause.
A TWISTED SACRUM: SACRO-ILIAC JOINT DYSFUNCTION, "S.I.J.D.", SACROILEITIS
MUSCLE PAIN | RADIATING PAIN | NERVE PAIN
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Another common cause of groin pain, usually missed, is a twisted sacrum with a jammed sacro-iliac joint. The psoas muscles opposite the jammed S-I joint tighten up and cause pain at the inner hip bone and groin. The S-I joints, below waist level -- in back, to either side of the midline -- may cause radiating pain at bladder, hip joint or elsewhere.
Common medical practice is to treat pain at its location, as if the pain signifies the location of the problem -- which it does, in many cases -- but which it does not, in this case.
When a sacrum is twisted, muscles all around the sacrum, pelvis (including the psoas), low back, and elsewhere tighten up; many symptoms ensue. If you have a twisted sacrum, attempts to deal with groin pain through the adductors or psoas muscles will fail or may even backfire, making symptoms worse.
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So, it's good to determine if that's what's got you.
TO TAKE ACTION on S-I Joint Dysfunction
You can read about the symptoms and causes of a twisted sacrum, here. Most often, it comes from a hard fall or blow to the tailbone, sacrum or hip bone; sometimes, it's a hard, uneven landing from a height onto the feet. If the article seems to describe you, you can get started, for free on the program, Comforting Your S-I Joints, by sending for it from that article page.
HOW LONG IT TAKES to RECOVER: VARIABLE DEPENDING ON SEVERITY
ANYWHERE FROM A FEW WEEKS TO MANY MONTHS
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That completes this section on that cause.
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INGUINAL HERNIA
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Inguinal hernia comes from a pull on the inguinal "ligament", which is not really a ligment, but an extension of the tendon of a front thigh muscle ("the femoris rectus"), which tightens to cause knee action, such as kicking. The tendon of that muscle, when chronically tight, pulls on the soft tissue next to It, causing the hernia. The pain of the hernia may trigger cringing in the neighboring groin muscles, muscle fatigue, and pain at the groin.
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The program, Free Your Psoas
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HOW LONG IT TAKES to RECOVER
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with that program, ABOUT FOUR WEEKS (for inguinal hernia; eight, for tight psoas muscles)
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with hands-on sessions using clinical somatic education techniques: one-to-three visits
That completes this section on that cause.
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Stretching or Strengthening? Both are "Old School".
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Since strengthening and stretching are standard therapeutic practice, I'll cover them briefly, next.
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Here's the $64,000 question:
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Why do muscles seem to
need repeated stretching?
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The answer is, they keep tightening and shortening. What makes them keep them tightening and shortening? Muscle/movement memory is the culprit: whatever we do to muscles (including stretching, massaging, or manipulation), muscle/movement memory returns them to their habitual resting-tension state in days or sooner. That state is programmed in, the same way as all movement patterns are programmed in: conditioning -- not "hard-wired", but acquired from repetitive use or injury.
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In stretches, tight muscles remain passive, while other muscles force the stretch. Stretching doesn't improve control. To improve control, you retrain the muscles involved by practice of controlling them. You retrain muscle/movement memory. As you gain control, pain fades out and easy movement returns.
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Strengthening exercises have conditioning effects: They tend to condition muscles to be tighter. Tight muscles are fatigued muscles, and fatigued muscles burn.
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So the answer isn't stretching or strengthening, but correcting muscle/movement memory.
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How do you correct muscle/movement memory? the same way as you learned to walk, to begin with: learn the movements and get better at controlling them. New muscle/movement memory develops and replaces the old muscle/movement memory. Muscles relax and comfort returns.
Muscle / movement memory runs the show far more than I think most people recognize. It affects how we move and what we feel from our muscular tensions. It's not psychological; it's physical.
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Muscle / movement memory controls and shapes movement and posture. The pain of an injury triggers cringing (guarding) and alters muscle / movement memory, often for the rest of a person's life.
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Correcting muscle/movement memory corrects many problems. Pain goes; movement gets easy and natural. It's life-changing -- and not most people's experience of therapy.
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To correct muscle/movement memory is easier, faster, more comfortable, and more lasting than stretching.
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To understand how injuries trigger pain that outlasts the healing period, you may read, "Completing Your Recovery from An Injury".
SUMMARY
Because most groin pain problems are really muscular control problems of muscle memory/movement memory, somatic education exercises or clinical somatic education techniques are able provide far faster, more durable relief more easily than strengthening, stretching, massage, conventional therapeutic exercises, or clinical manipulation techniques.
BREAKTHROUGH
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Given your past experience with therapy, you may regard my claims of what Hanna Somatic Education® can do as "pretty bold", far-fetched, or as outright dishonest. Every breakthrough, I think, faces that hurdle.
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One of the problems I seem to be running into may be that people are so used to therapies that take forever or produce results that don't last that they assume that clinical somatic education can't be "that much better". They may jump to the conclusion that I exaggerate and so am not to be trusted -- a form of the same hurdle. (See my answer to, "Why isn't this better known?")
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Hanna somatic education reliably gets large, durable improvements quite a bit more quickly (and easily) than most other approaches get small, temporary improvements. Unless you have experienced clinical somatic education, this isn't something you already know about. The word, "breakthrough" is not an exaggeration or "sales-speak", but a word justified by consistent results over many years by many practitioners with widely ranging conditions that have persisted despite previous therapy -- both conventional and "alternative".
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From my perspective, these estimates of how quickly different types of groin pain can clear up (with this approach) aren't "pretty bold"; they're pretty accurate and factual. I make efforts to write most clearly and precisely, not to exaggerate to any degree.
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It may be that people are conditioned to accept the expectations of the best-known or most authoritative treatment approaches as pretty close to what might be expected from any new approach -- "better, but not that much better" -- and quite possibly not as good, with all of the exaggerated claims and "noise" out there. To that "knowledgeable" frame of mind, anyone claiming to do anything that works vastly better must be exaggerating, and therefore, dishonest and worthy of dismissal. But what if it is as I say it is?
