Groin Pain and Adductor Strain

The adductors are a group of six muscles that run along the inner thigh, connecting the pelvis to the femur. Their primary job is to pull the legs toward each other, but they also play a significant role in stabilising the pelvis and controlling movement at the hip during walking, running, and changes of direction.

When one of these muscles gets stretched beyond what it can currently handle, the fibres can partially or fully tear. That is what most people mean when they say they have a groin strain. The pain typically sits along the inner thigh or at the crease where the leg meets the pelvis, and it can range from a mild ache to something sharp enough to stop you mid-stride.

Most adductor strains occur close to the pelvic attachment, where the tissue transitions from muscle into tendon. Tendons have a relatively poor blood supply compared to muscle, which partly explains why groin pain from an adductor strain can linger longer than people expect, even when the initial injury seemed minor.

It is also worth knowing that the adductors do not work in isolation. The hip, pelvis, and lower back all influence how forces are distributed through the inner thigh. What feels like a straightforward groin problem is sometimes being driven or maintained by something further up or down the chain.

Getting an accurate picture early matters. A thorough assessment looks at muscle strength, movement patterns, and what specifically provokes your symptoms so we can understand what is driving the irritation and build a plan that addresses it properly.

Why Adductor Strains Happen

Groin pain doesn’t always trace back to a single incident. Sometimes it comes on during a specific movement, but just as often it develops gradually when the adductors have been asked to do more than they’re currently conditioned for.

Common contributors may include:

How We Treat Groin Pain and Adductor Strains

Getting the Adductors Strong Enough to Handle What You’re Asking of Them

Treatment starts with understanding what you want to get back to, whether that is returning to sport, getting through a full day of work without a limp, or just being able to walk up stairs without that familiar pinch in the groin.

Because adductor strains are almost always tied to how much the tissue can tolerate relative to what is being asked of it, care tends to focus on rebuilding that capacity. This typically means progressively strengthening the adductors and the surrounding hip muscles, improving how the pelvis moves under different demands, and gradually reintroducing the activities that have been aggravating things. Anyone curious about what adductor rehab exercises actually look like in practice will find that the approach is more straightforward than most people expect.

The goal is not to shut everything down while you wait for the pain to pass. In my experience, the people who recover best are the ones who stay as active as their symptoms allow and build back up steadily rather than waiting until the pain is completely gone.

Hands-on treatment may help reduce sensitivity and improve how the hip moves, but the lasting gains come from strengthening the muscles and addressing the movement patterns and habits that allowed the strain to develop in the first place.

Education is a big part of what we do. Knowing why your groin is sore, what aggravates the adductors, and how to pace your return to full activity gives you the tools to manage this condition confidently and reduce the chances of it coming back.

Groin Pain and Adductor Strain Questions We Hear Most

These are some of the most common questions we get from people dealing with inner thigh and groin pain in Burlington.

Helping Burlington patients move better since 2005.