The Great Adductor Strain

We all "know" what we're "supposed" to do to take care of ourselves. When we exercise often, a few more tasks are added onto the to-do list of self-care. And I suspect that, like me, most people aren't as vigilant about these tasks as they are about the actual workout.

You should be.

Ah, the good old days of hearty, healthy adductors. Last year.

I strained both my adductors (inner thighs) at the end of January, and not until seven months later did my legs start to feel mostly normal. About 80% normal. So, without further ado, here's what I learned from the Great Adductor Strain of 2013:

Don't do too much too soon. The Strain happened a few weeks after I began teaching six Zumba classes a week. Not a lot for some, but a lot for me. And there were even a couple weeks when I taught eight. If you're doing a level of activity that's elevated way beyond your norm, be careful.  

Stretch. I was so tired the week prior to The Strain that I decided to forgo my usual nightly stretching routine to go to bed a few minutes earlier. Mistake.

Warm up. The Strain happened on a day when I was following someone else's routines without really warming up first. I tend to lay the blame on the "samba lunges," but the truth is that I should've warmed myself up.

Pay attention to your body. Maybe, if you injure yourself, you'll fall down and clutch something in pain. Or maybe you won't even notice until hours later, as in my case. I just felt a strong general ache. I assumed it would either fade after a few days or remain for months as a muscle injury. At that point, my thinking was, well, not much I can do about it now. False.

Allow yourself to recuperate. So... instead of resting, I just kept teaching. I did light squats and told everyone else to get deeper. This was painful in more ways than one; I love to squat. I literally almost passed out when I did a hip circle at the beginning of a class.

And then, two weeks later, was the Zumba Instructor Conference. I moved as little as possible while there, but I couldn't avoid the miles of walking and hours of standing and (very light, in my case) dancing. Since The Strain, I've never really gotten the chance to rest my aching thighs for more than a few days total.

Trust me, I would've been in a much goofier position if I'd had fully functional legs.

Take action to heal. In many cases, rest and extra stretching just won't cut it. I waited several weeks before my bizarrely cracking hips made me go to the chiropractor, who finally confirmed my suspected self-diagnosis of strained adductors. She dug her fingers into the "spasm" in my poor tender flesh and messed around in there, agonizingly. After that, I could walk so much more easily.

But it wasn't enough. I needed painful massage after painful massage with more than one massage therapist. I needed "reciprocal inhibition" to try to force my locked-up muscles to relax. I needed hot baths and long walks and foam rolling and endless stretching. If I hadn't waited weeks between injury and diagnosis, between one appointment and the next, I could've healed much faster.

Moral of the story? Take care of yourself, or you could cause yourself serious, lasting injury. You might not be able to squat for months, and that would be awful.

Because squatting is fun.