♪ Bob and Brad, ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists on the Internet. ♪
- Hi folks. I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapists
on the Internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- A little dance there, Brad.
Today we're gonna talk about the best self-treatment
for a groin pull, stretches, exercises and massage.
And it's an updated video. We did this one before.
- Yep.
- And we've learned a few things since then.
- It was very popular. So, it's kind of popular demand.
We thought we should update
the new exercises and treatments.
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- Well done, Bob. It sounded like you did that before.
- Yeah, a few times, 1000 times.
- Outstanding. So we're talking about the groin pull,
the groin strain, pretty common,
not as common as the hamstrings, I don't think,
but pretty common.
So let's talk about what is the groin muscle.
You know, I was surprised at this, Bob,
'cause I just thought I better know my details.
I looked it up and technically the groin muscle,
at least from my search, said abdominal muscles, hip flexor,
the iliopsoas, and the adductor muscles of the hip site.
- Now I would've more commonly expected,
and I think it is more commonly, the hip adductor muscles.
That's the muscle that brings the leg in to each other.
- Right. It pulls in.
It's used a lot for when you do lateral motion.
- Like a soccer movement, kick like that, right?
- Exactly right. So we're gonna focus on those.
We're gonna forget about the abdominal
as well as iliopsoas, the hip flexor.
And we're gonna use Sam once again.
How are you doing? It's been awhile.
Yeah, he feels a little neglected, but here we are.
You're back.
So we're gonna look at Sam's groin muscles we have.
Now there's five or six groin muscles.
I found six. Bob was showing five there, yeah.
We're not gonna worry about it
because they all are in a similar location.
If you pull one, it really doesn't matter.
The treatment is similar
as you'll see when we get to the treatment.
- [Bob] Yeah, you don't need to find out
what specific muscle you pulled.
- You don't, but it is nice to know the general location.
It's from the pelvis, and they connect out to the femur
at little bit different locations,
but here we have a green Kinesio Tape to...
- [Bob] See how it stretches when you bring the leg out.
- Yep.
- [Bob] And then it's more on slack
once you bring the leg in.
- But it's still active when you're moving this way
and this way, as far as stabilizing the hip joint.
- [Bob] Sure.
- It's very critical group of muscles
for all kinds of movements, but mostly side to side.
So if you tear or strain this muscle, like here we've got...
Now you probably can't see this,
but let's say we got a little...
Whoa! (chuckles)
- [Bob] That's a major- - That's a pretty-
- [Bob] That's a surgery.
- Right. Well, we still have one fiber left in that muscle.
That would probably be a surgery.
But we're talking micro tears where that's a typical strain,
but they can be very painful.
I've strained my groin muscle a number of times.
- [Bob] You have? - Yeah, and it's not fun,
but usually you can get through it in a matter of, you know,
a couple weeks, depending on how bad it is.
- That's one I've avoided, Brad.
That's one of a few I didn't have so far.
- Oh, you haven't? - No, no.
- Well, let's pull Sam away,
and I'll show you what some of the wonderful techniques
to get through a groin strain and get through it quickly.
The first thing is how can you self-test it?
First of all, with activities, particularly moving sideways,
or if you try to drag your foot on the ground
and pull it here for some resistance,
it hurts and it hurts in here, okay?
The other one is if you palpate
or you push into those muscles,
usually you can find a tender spot.
- And that's gonna be the inner thigh.
- Right. And that's the spot where the actual,
the micro tears of the muscle fibers has occurred.
And then another one, if you do want to do
a quick muscle test in a seated position,
you just take a squishy ball, put it between your knees.
You can put your fist between your knees.
A ball works a little better and squeeze like this.
Now that may not hurt.
But if you go down and do it in a lying position,
it works some different muscle fibers. You squeeze.
If that creates pain, you know, it's a groin muscle.
- [Bob] Very good. - So you confirm that.
Now, if it's a... I'm gonna stay down here, Bob,
'cause I'm going to do some of these exercises down here.
Again, if you've got a bad groin pull and it hurts,
you gotta give it some rest.
Don't start stretching it and strengthening exercises
when it's really flared up and irritating.
You got to rest it, get a cold pack on there,
you know, watch a little TV, watch our YouTube videos
on how to get stronger, faster, and pain-free.
That's what you're doing right now.
So the next thing is you may do that for,
you know, one to three days, allow it to heal.
When you can start walking
and it's not making you limp anymore,
then it's probably time to work the muscles
and get the scar tissue that's been forming while healing
with cross friction massage.
- [Bob] Yeah, fiber friction massage.
And actually, yeah, it's gonna definitely
get more blood flow to it. - Right.
- [Bob] And that's gonna help it heal quicker.
- So I'll demonstrate here, you know,
and I would do this either laying in a bed,
you could do it on the floor like this.
- [Bob] You were doing so well, Brad. It's lying in bed.
- Oh, I'm sorry. (Bob laughs)
I'm gonna do it right here like this
so you can get a good view.
The fibers go vertically in this position,
I'm gonna get into that muscle.
You might get over that sore spot and get in deep,
and you're gonna work it.
Now after about 20 to 30 seconds,
it might be painful initially.
But as long as the pain reduces after 20 to 30 seconds
and feels better,
you continue to do cross friction massage on that spot,
you know, until your fingers get tired.
- [Bob] That's kind of the gold standard sign
is that if you start massaging it and it hurts,
but like Brad said, after 20, 30 seconds,
it starts to dissipate, then you're golden.
- Exactly. Now, if you find that tender spot
and it's just too tender to work on,
work the muscle above or below it.
- [Bob] And work around it. - Exactly.
You can do that two to three times per day
over a number of days.
And we've had great success with a cross friction massage.
Now the thing about cross friction massage
is the groin muscles are typically large muscle groups.
- [Bob] Fairly heavy muscles. - Your fingers get sore.
Bob, the option that you have is, you know, a massage gun.
If you have one, they work really well
for getting in muscles like this
to do the cross friction massage.
- [Bob] And if you don't have one, by the way,
this happens to be our giveaway this week,
a Bob and Brad massage gun.
So you can again sign up for the contest,
and hopefully you'll win one.
- Yeah, they're great. They even have our name on it.
You can see now.
I have a orange piece of tape on this head.
This head is designed to get in a little deeper,
which is what I want, and also the orange is there
so you can see it against my black clothing. There we go.
- [Bob] Look how that thing started percussing.
- Yep. And then you can just, the goal is to relax that leg.
I'm gonna hold my leg here with my left hand
so I get relaxed muscles when I work.
I can work it across like this and you can...
Now I did have one instance where I was instructed,
I continued it where you couldn't go with the muscle fibers.
But typically we say go across the muscle fibers.
I'm telling you that your fingers will not get near as sore,
and you can do this for as long as you want.
- [Bob] Yeah, you can do it while you're watching TV.
I mean, it's a very easy thing to apply.
- And you can use it on, you know, any muscle group
across your whole body.
- [Bob] The first one Brad had actually is kind of more like
a air-filled head so it's a lot more comfortable.
You can actually even go over bones, and it won't hurt.
- I might start with this one and get to this one
as it gets more aggressive with this particular injury.
And then we want to get into stretching.
Now a common stretch with this is simply the clam shell,
where you bring your feet together,
you're lying on your back.
I got it right, lying.
- [Bob] Yeah, lying on your back. Yeah, very good.
- And just allow those legs to relax and stretch.
You might find if this is a painful one,
it can get out to here where this one get to here.
And then you just work it gently.
- [Bob] Yeah, let it allow you to have what it'll give you.
- Right. Now the other thing we did not have
on the previous video that I've really learned to appreciate
and use a lot-
Can you hand me the strap, Bob?
These straps are really handy for stretching,
particularly this muscle I have found.
I've used a number of them.
This is my favorite strap because it's got these nice loops.
I like the color. It's very smooth.
And it goes across your clothing. It slips easily.
So we actually have our name on this.
If you want a Bob and Brad strap,
you can get that below as well.
- [Bob] I don't know when that's available.
- Oh. Well, it's coming up pretty soon.
- [Bob] Yeah, it's coming pretty soon.
- In October of this year.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put this
around my foot,
and actually my left leg is actually the one
that has been bothering me.
It's doing pretty good now,
but what I'll do is I'll start like this
and I'm gonna put my hand right through here.
And I don't even have to grip it.
It just locks into my wrist.
I'll start out with doing the hamstrings.
Now to get those adductor muscles from this angle,
I simply go off to the side and boy, it works great, Bob.
- [Bob] Wow. - When I first started this,
I was doing this very gingerly. It's like gentle, gentle.
- [Bob] I can see this. - Yep, absolutely.
And then I'd work over farther. I couldn't do this-
- [Bob] Holy cow! - Oh yeah, Bob.
Well, this'd be great if you're in karate too.
And then just hold it.
- [Bob] You got some flexibility there, Brad.
- 30 seconds at the most, on and off,
is what I typically do, okay?
And also, I've learned to work this strap.
You can simply put it around both feet
and then you can do an advanced clam shell
where you pull up on your feet and you go like this.
- [Bob] You're putting your elbows against it too
to press down.
- Yep, elbows here a little more.
And those can be the stretches that you can do again.
- [Bob] Very creative, Brad. I applaud you.
- You can get so creative
with simple little tools like this.
You don't have to have fancy expensive, you know,
you know, little therapists and all that stuff. (laughs)
- [Bob] Right, right. Who needs a therapist?
- Exactly.
For strengthening, the way you may start out
is again, go back to a squishy ball between the knees
and squeeze.
You may start out with some isometrics
holding to six to eight seconds and relaxing.
Do, you know, up to five to 10 of those.
When you can do that without pain,
you can progress to weight bearing exercises.
You know, you're not going to go out there
and work the karaoke really quick right away.
It's not ready for it yet. A little strengthening.
So we're going to use the resistance bands right here,
and the best way we found for our resistance strengthening
of the hip adductor and weight bearing
is you take one of these little Velcro straps.
If you have some bands, you can get these bands.
They usually come in kits of five.
- Well, (mumbles)
- Yep. And we've got our own bands, Bob and Brad bands.
We love them.
You put this around your ankle, which I already did.
And with the anchors on the wall,
you don't have to have anchors. You can hook it up to-
- You can hook it up to a door too.
They all come with his door inserts.
- Exactly.
The anchors are much more convenient but not necessary.
You can see how you just put it on there easily.
Hold onto something if you need balance.
And I'm working that adductor muscle right here.
Now I'm gonna do 10 to 20 of these,
depending on how it feels.
When it starts to hurt, any sharp pain, it's done.
You need to stop and give it a rest
and wait for the next day.
But the key is, is not just to do the injured leg,
but you need to turn around, do it this direction as well
to get the opposite muscle group,
as well as the weight bearing.
I'm not gonna do it 'cause I don't want to take the time
to change the band,
but you also want to put the band on the other leg-
- [Bob] The opposite leg, sure.
- So that the injured leg is the one that's not moving.
It's the one that's experiencing the weight,
which is critical.
- So in other words, you'd hook it up to that leg,
move that one, and this one would be working,
even though you're moving that one.
- Right. Well, let's just say that this is my injured leg.
Now I'm going to work. Now my uninjured leg is working,
but this muscle- - Has to work too.
- Has to work just to make- - To stabilize you.
- Right, a lot is going on just from weight bearing,
which is critical.
(sighs) Wow.
- All right, I think we've figured that one out, huh, Brad?
- Yeah, I kind of stumbled through that. Sorry about that.
It happens, you know?
- Right, Brad and I can fix just about anything.
- But you're not sure, are ya?
We can get anything fixed but that broken heart.
- Heart, but we'll work on it.
- That's right, and the groin pull
doesn't have a lot to do with that broken heart,
but we'll get closer.
- We'll get to it. Thanks for watching.
(ending musical note)