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Sports hernia experiences? (Read 665 times)


Feeling the growl again

    Anyone dealt with a sports hernia and have tips to share?  I'm becoming convinced that this has been my problem lately.  It is bilateral, definitely more towards the centerline than a hip flexor issue would be (been there, done that).  Typically I can get through the first run of the day okay, but it becomes more painful/tight afterwards and has cost me some evening runs.  Now it's getting to the point where I can feel it all day even if I'm just sitting around, even when I skip an evening run.

    "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

     

    I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

     

      You might contact Thunder Classic; he battled one in 2010 or 2011, and it apparently resolved without surgery.

       

      Hope yours clears up similarly!

      "I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."

      -- Dick LeBeau

        Sitting will kill you.

         

        Have you gained weight recently or have you recently been losing weight?

         

        You almost doubled your mileage in recent weeks. Did it bother you before the increase in mileage?

         

        I wonder if you have much side-to-side movement when you run. Do you also have tight IT bands, tight back, or anything else tight that might be pulling you in directions?

         

        Are you sure it's a sports hernia and not just a hernia?

         

        I've theorized myself to have a sports hernia before. If true, I suppose it's mostly still there just waiting to get worse. I found a handful of things helped me forget about it within a couple of months. Initially I mitigated the pain by lessening impact during running (slower running, softer surfaces) and avoiding activities that caused me to lift my knee high (sitting, running hills, biking). Over time I lost weight, added minor amounts of core and general strengthening, and began things like hill sprints of less than 10 seconds. Treat it like an injury that you need to initially lay off from and just like any other injury after it has healed past an acute phase start to add the most minor of targeted workouts to strengthen it.

         

        If you mostly sit between your doubles, I recommend finding time to lay down or stand up/walk between the two runs. (I'm assuming you don't have a 20 minute dynamic stretch routine like some Division 1 kid.) Otherwise you're just shortening/bunching everything in your midsection, probably healing some microtears, and then rigorously stretching it back out all of a sudden with your second run.

         

        Avoid hills and biking like the plague. I'd tell you to avoid treadmills and hard road runs, but they've worked for you in the past, so I don't want to bark up that tree.

         

        If you feel good in a couple of weeks add the hill sprints. Quite literally start with 1 hill sprint of less than 10 seconds.

         

        MTA: Wear newer shoes already.


        Feeling the growl again

          Sitting will kill you.

           

          Have you gained weight recently or have you recently been losing weight?

           

          You almost doubled your mileage in recent weeks. Did it bother you before the increase in mileage?

           

          I wonder if you have much side-to-side movement when you run. Do you also have tight IT bands, tight back, or anything else tight that might be pulling you in directions?

           

          Are you sure it's a sports hernia and not just a hernia?

           

          I've theorized myself to have a sports hernia before. If true, I suppose it's mostly still there just waiting to get worse. I found a handful of things helped me forget about it within a couple of months. Initially I mitigated the pain by lessening impact during running (slower running, softer surfaces) and avoiding activities that caused me to lift my knee high (sitting, running hills, biking). Over time I lost weight, added minor amounts of core and general strengthening, and began things like hill sprints of less than 10 seconds. Treat it like an injury that you need to initially lay off from and just like any other injury after it has healed past an acute phase start to add the most minor of targeted workouts to strengthen it.

           

          If you mostly sit between your doubles, I recommend finding time to lay down or stand up/walk between the two runs. (I'm assuming you don't have a 20 minute dynamic stretch routine like some Division 1 kid.) Otherwise you're just shortening/bunching everything in your midsection, probably healing some microtears, and then rigorously stretching it back out all of a sudden with your second run.

           

          Avoid hills and biking like the plague. I'd tell you to avoid treadmills and hard road runs, but they've worked for you in the past, so I don't want to bark up that tree.

           

          If you feel good in a couple of weeks add the hill sprints. Quite literally start with 1 hill sprint of less than 10 seconds.

           

          MTA: Wear newer shoes already.

           

          Can't avoid the sitting, part of the job.  I do try to get up and walk around as often as possible.  I hate sitting.  None of these problems started until after I switched jobs last year and am required to sit more.

           

          No change in weight.  Down a bit if anything.

           

          Problem was present before mileage increase.  Just not as bad.  First symptom occurred perhaps 10 days into my 550 mile December, at that time it was pain where the pelvis halves join in front (fits early sports hernia symptoms on several sites), slight pain when coughing.  More recently a tight feeling in groin area.  With mileage increase -- which was more incremental outside that 100 mile week, last week was only 77 vs in the 60s most of the year -- now pain is bilateral where one would expect this type of pain to occur in the abdominal wall.

           

          I typically have smooth form without lateral movement.  However I have been doing most (~80-90%) of my runs on a treadmill.  This is unavoidable unless I simply don't run due to excessive heat here recently and need to watch my young kids many days.  I have been suspicious that the treadmill does something....or running a lot more than usual at a slower pace -- due to excessive volume in December or due to excessive heat now -- has something to do with it.

           

          My wife is qualified to assess hernias.  I do not have one.

           

          Periods of cutting back have not helped much, it simply comes back to a level corresponding well with overall mileage.  I'm not willing to simply stop running for weeks on end yet.  I am thinking of adding in icing, stretching, and strengthening routines recommended and seeing how that goes first.  Especially at work between sitting periods.

           

          A smarter person would probably just take time off but I'm not there yet.  Smile   If it gets any worse I will be forced to consider.

           

          MTA:  Two new pairs of shoes arriving today.  Wink  It took surprisingly long to find my usual shoes, they must be switching them over soon as all the usual places were out of my size so I was lazy about searching harder to find them.

          "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

           

          I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

           

          L Train


            Osteitis pubis?

             


            Feeling the growl again

              Osteitis pubis?

               

              Hmm.  Possibly.  And equally depressing.

               

              When it started I would have been more inclined to say yes.  Now, it seems more in the abdominal wall.  All of these options seem relatively poorly defined and difficult to differentiate.  In general muscle imbalances, inflammation, and potentially damaged soft tissue leading to pain and tightness that must be addressed by strenghtening/stretching it seems.

              "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

               

              I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

               

                The Precision gets updated every July (last few years). This makes it simultaneously the least and most fun month to buy a pair.

                 

                It's going to be difficult to see many tangible changes soon if you need to stick with most of your current habits, but that may be for the best. At least you're getting new shoes and are aware of the problem. More experience and slow changes will help you isolate what works and doesn't.

                 

                If I can recommend one thing, it's more walking. Try to find time for 20+ minutes of walking, whether it's before, between, or after workouts. Dick Beardsley walked every night for something like an hour leading up to the Duel in the Sun as a way to unwind from all the hard training. Some Japanese coaches require marathoners to hike trails hours at a time for weeks before starting marathon training. Walking is a low-stress way for the body to repair and prepare.

                 

                I share your skepticism toward the treadmill. It's like running on a small path without turns to shake things up and the Q-angle from hip to impact provides the exact same repetitive stress with each step, which would be more jarring up through your pelvis where the leg and core meet. Inclines, declines, and footstrike could make it more pronounced, too. That's not to say that road cambers are much better. Where are these mythical golf courses for runners?


                Feeling the growl again

                  The Precision gets updated every July (last few years). This makes it simultaneously the least and most fun month to buy a pair.

                   

                  It's going to be difficult to see many tangible changes soon if you need to stick with most of your current habits, but that may be for the best. At least you're getting new shoes and are aware of the problem. More experience and slow changes will help you isolate what works and doesn't.

                   

                  If I can recommend one thing, it's more walking. Try to find time for 20+ minutes of walking, whether it's before, between, or after workouts. Dick Beardsley walked every night for something like an hour leading up to the Duel in the Sun as a way to unwind from all the hard training. Some Japanese coaches require marathoners to hike trails hours at a time for weeks before starting marathon training. Walking is a low-stress way for the body to repair and prepare.

                   

                  I share your skepticism toward the treadmill. It's like running on a small path without turns to shake things up and the Q-angle from hip to impact provides the exact same repetitive stress with each step, which would be more jarring up through your pelvis where the leg and core meet. Inclines, declines, and footstrike could make it more pronounced, too. That's not to say that road cambers are much better. Where are these mythical golf courses for runners?

                   

                  Good to know about the update timing for the future....when I finally did find them they were half price.  Smile

                   

                  I just walked 40min over lunch, then came back and read this.  Yes, actually I feel a lot looser just from walking.  I think one thing I need to do is force myself to start off even slower on runs and ease my way into them.  Especially hard to do on the treadmill. 

                   

                  Thanks for your comments.

                  "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                   

                  I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                   

                  wolvmar


                  UM 45 Ohio 23

                    Spaniel - just wondering how your rehabilitation of this issue went.  I think I have something very similar and could use any advice on how to successfully deal with it while, hopefully, not eliminating running (or biking).  thanks

                    stadjak


                    Interval Junkie --Nobby

                      Spaniel - just wondering how your rehabilitation of this issue went.  I think I have something very similar and could use any advice on how to successfully deal with it while, hopefully, not eliminating running (or biking).  thanks

                       

                      I had something similar.  But diagnosed as pelvis stress fracture compounded with osteitis pubis.  Symptoms were: felt fine when I ran fast, hurt to the point of adding 2mins to my pace when I ran slow for more than 4miles.  Best way to describe my pain was that it felt like I jumped on a tall bicycle but missed the seat and landed on the cross bar.  Primary location of pain was "the taint" -- though there's an official word for the region, even the doctors had trouble recalling it but agreed "the taint" was accurate enough for diagnostic reasons.

                       

                      Solution: 9weeks off running.  A steroid (methyiprednisolone) and an anti-inflammatory (meloxicam) regiment after the 9weeks were up.  Then a very very slow reintroduction to running (you can look at my log since July)

                       

                      Resolution: I'm up to 50mpw.  Still feeling slow -- and feeling limited by residual pain.  Otherwise, looking forward to a Spring marathon.

                      2021 Goals: 50mpw 'cause there's nothing else to do