Is Cycling Good for Groin Strain? [Guide: Groin Pain Recovery]

Cycling has been noted to be great for the body for many reasons. It is great to be able to tone the body in many different ways, work an excellent amount of muscles throughout the body, and improve overall physical shape. For body development, cycling is excellent. But what about recovering the body from an overuse injury such as groin strain? Many are told that to allow a strain anywhere, including in the groin to heal is that you need to allow the muscle time to rest and not give any impact. That may mean that you an endurance runner may have to stop running for a period depending on the severity. Are their alternate means to maintaining or even strengthening cardiovascular strength while looking to recover the groin muscles needed to propel you forward? Is cycling good for groin strain? Cycling is excellent for groin strain if done correctly. We will discuss what correctly means in full detail in this post.

In this post we will talk all things strains, focusing particularly on the groin. We will discuss if cycling is a good way to train the body while the tendon and muscles are repairing themselves. We will also discuss how to train your body while it is repairing itself. Outside of cycling, we will discuss the difference between development pain and emergency pain and how it is important for an athlete to understand the difference between the two so that they are able to develop their body without further deteriorating it. Finally, we will close with other ways to decrease inflammation around the groin strain to give the body room to restore itself.

What aggravates a groin strain?

When working out with a fresh groin strain, there are many activities that can aggravate a groin strain. Essentially any movement that places the groin out of its natural frame of motion, or moves the groin within its natural frame of motion too fast will cause aggravation and inflammation – and pain. Examples include:

• Kicking a ball too hard
• Sprinting
• Sitting cross legged
• Incorrect squat technique

When a groin strain is recovered, the groin area is still relatively weakened to its prior state, so it is still fairly easy to aggravate the area or re-establish a strain. When a strain is recovered, other more strenuous activities may cause aggravation:

• Picking a heavy item up incorrectly
• Incorrect squat technique
• Incorrect sprint or distance running technique

Is cycling good for groin strain?

Yes, cycling is great for groin strain. The purpose of cycling while having a groin strain is to continue training while that particular muscle is injured. You can continue training to develop the muscle and also prevent further weakening from prolonged rest after suffering a fresh muscle strain in the groin. If an endurance athlete suffers from a strain and simply rests, there will be minimal rehabilitation to the joints and ligaments and recovery will be prolonged. If the recovering athlete chooses to cycle with groin strain, they will need to:

• Have an understand of good pain over bad pain
• Pair cycling with ice, rest, stretching and strengthening

What is good pain versus bad pain?

Throughout an endurance athletes life, they will experience pain in vary degrees. The most common physical pain is a pulling, aching sensation throughout the body at various times throughout an exercise. This is good pain that is typically worked with. This pain typically will increase gradually, and can effectively be very painful, though it can still be acknowledged and worked with. Typically good pain is the body signaling to the mind that this is an area that the body has not physically gone before, and is not exactly sure what will happen next. As long as the body is trained to understand this, they are able to work through this good pain. Good pain will typically come on earlier with injured athletes as the body is voicing its discomfort level to the mind due to its understanding that a specific area is injured.

What is important is to develop an understanding of how to distinguish this feeling from bad pain. Bad pain is the feeling of your body telling you that it is time to pull brakes right now or else something unfortunate will happen – typically an injury. The easiest way to tell that this bad pain is manifesting is if you feel:

1. Pain that is very sharp
2. Pain in a specific area of the body
3. Pain that develops from level 0/10 to 10/10 within one second or several

If an athlete experiences bad pain at any period while cycling with a groin strain, the adept athlete will stop and immediately move to rest and ice recovery. If cycling with a groin strain and good pain develops over time, there is no need to have concern of a redevelopment of a strain.

How much cycling is too much cycling when cycling with groin strain?

When you are cycling with a groin strain, you are cycling too hard if you feel:

• Any Pain (good or bad) above 4/10 in the affected area
• Any Pain (good or bad) in the affected area 1 hour after concluding your ride
• Any pain or soreness (good or bad) in the affected area the morning after

How can I heal my groin faster?

The main way to heal your groin faster is to do all that you can to decrease inflammation in the area outside of times when you are exercising. This includes:

• Ice or Ice Bath
• Float or Epsom Salt Bath
• Dynamic or Static Stretches
• Tissue massage
• Warm recovery Yoga

Ice or Ice Bath

Ice or Ice bath is one of the strongest forms of recovery for the body around. Ice and Ice bath is the most targeted way to physically decrease inflammation in the body.

Float or Epsom Salt Bath

Floats and Epsom salt baths are great to decrease inflammation after icing the body over a period of time. They have also been shown to be preferrable when the groin strain is healed and maintenance is necessary.

Dynamic and Static Stretches

Different stretches are available to gently stretch the groin and give room for the recovery to occur and diminish inflammation. Care should be taken whilst stretching to not over stretch and risk re-injury. Typically, re-injury will occur when overstretching while static stretching on a muscle that has not been initially mobilized or warmed up prior. Care should be taken.

Tissue Massage

Tissue massage is great as it decreases the amount of inflammation and experienced pain for the athlete. There are also different butters and creams to further diminish inflammation surrounding the body. If a muscle becomes quickly inflamed, a 5 minute massage gun directly over the inflammation will calm the area down.

Warm or Hot Yoga Practice

Practicing yoga in a warm or hot room allows the muscles to release tension more easily. A practice of Hatha or Yin yoga may be effective to the recovering athlete from injury.

Conclusion

In this guide you should have a firm understanding of how to cycle with a groin strain. You should also have a firm understanding of why cycling with a groin strain is good, when done correctly. There are different types of pains for the endurance athlete to understand, and when an endurance athlete actively works with good pain, then they will be on the road to recovery. When they work with bad pain, they will be on the road to re-injury. Pairing cycling with Ice, Recovery Baths, Massage, Yoga and Stretching will also provide the athlete a more speedy recovery. All of these strategies when paired together for both recovery and athlete maintenance provide a strong base for an athletes performance, and training ability.