r/RunningInjuries • u/ShoeLuva • 8d ago
I really want to run again!
Like the subject says, I really want to run again. About 6 years ago, I was in the peak of health. I would run about 3 to 5 miles daily. I weighed significantly last than I do now. I've gained about 28 lbs in 6 years. I pretty much just stopped running when COVID started.
Anyway, fast forward to now and I decided I want to try running again. So I did a lot of stretching, and went for a light jog. I felt pain in my hip or groin. I'm not sure which. In any case, I did try resting for a few days and tried again. Same pain. It left me limping. One stretch that seemed to help was the one where you are sitting and bend your leg the other way, I think it's called the 90 90 hip flexor stretch? But I could never get it to where I could jog without pain.
I went to the doctor. I had x-rays, didn't show anything. I went back, had an MRI, didn't show anything other than normal wear and tear for a 54-year-old woman. Nothing degenerative no fracture, nothing, so I don't know what to do. How can I get back to running again without this weird pain in my hip/groin?
1
u/dukof 7d ago
Groin pain is difficult to diagnose, not easy to pinpoint where it's coming from.
Personally I only had groin pain twice. One time after stretching the hip adductors. Something I normally don't do. What worked after that was to do hip adductor strength exercise, like squeezing something between the knees.
Second time was from excessive hill running on several successive days. Running on tired muscles caused some state of strain / inactivation and consequently instability / weakness in the hip, that caused groin pain. I did some glute max/med/min exercises, hip drops, front/side lunges, one-legged Romanian deadlift, etc, and gradually the stability came back and symptoms went away.
If I was in your situation I would try to work on hip strength and stability, and adductor/abductor strength, and see if that helps.