I’ve narrowed down my groin pain to my psoas. I never really thought about how important it was until my internship because I was dealing with a lot of soccer players then. And I randomly learned some releases and stretches for it along the way. So although I’m still frustrated not to be more pain-free, I’ve noticed I actually feel better the day after my runs (even if my IT bands don’t agree). I’m also trying to shrink my “rehab” routine and incorporate rehab-ish movements into my workouts. I’m thinking a lot about my breathing and bracing as well.
I’ve taken some time to think about everything I’ve learned about my workout routine and how it could be improved. While I am frustrated that I’m not seeing results, the truth is that the only person I can blame is myself. I’ve been quite busy at work the past 2 months (and it’s now just easing up), and trying to lose weight yet maintain my muscle yet deal with some limiting factors (ex. I haven’t squatted more than 85 in the past few weeks) has been stressful for me. I have to remind myself everyday that I won’t really put on muscle if I’m in a deficit to lose weight. I can definitely see that I’ve lost some muscle, but I’m trying not to panic and just do what I can.
I really like planning my workouts the day of and that’s totally okay.
Just around a year ago I tried to write out a month long program and I got so bored by the third day. Instead, I mostly planned things out during my warm-up, but I did mostly stick to a routine — I still had the same exercises, but sometimes in different orders or using different types of loads. The past few months it’s really been a mess, and I’ve sort of just winged all my workouts because I’m just trying to have fun while dealing with my hip flexors.
But I found out what my best thing is — I am currently unwilling to write myself out a program because I tend to overload myself and do too much. I’d love to find some friends/coworkers in the future who will maybe program a few weeks for me, but for now, I will plan my workouts right before I do them. I’ll plan the whole thing out so I don’t keep adding exercises because that takes me 3 hours and really doesn’t benefit me at all. It gives me some flexibility, but also an idea of what to do.
And I know that if I want to see really great results, I should have consistent movements and lifts to get better at those movements. However, I am not looking to increase my squat or deadlift, or even bench yet. I just want to move better and that involves a lot of exploring what I can and can’t do. There’s way more that I can do though, so that’s good. I just know I can’t do pistol squats or pull-ups currently, BUT that can change! I am looking to be stronger for work so I can help lift things and people. I need to be better at doing what I talk about though, like my mobility work and my animal flow/crawling around on the ground. I’d rather be consistent there than anywhere else.
There’s a cutoff point for progress and purposeful movement.
By this I mean that at a certain point, your “return” from the work you do starts to do you more harm than good. I actually feel really great at the start of workouts, which is normally when I do my compound movements and some of the accessory movements that are still considerably intense (about an hour). I feel worse at the end, which is usually when I’m doing my kettlebell work (lots of single leg/lateral stuff) and my core work. Looking back, this has happened nearly every long workout recently. I get frustrated near the end, my groin really bothers me, and most times I just give up because I don’t want to hurt myself anymore.
What I should be doing instead is simply shrinking my workout time — as I’m still experimenting with pre-planning my workouts, I’ll slowly learn how long things take. I should definitely also spend more time at the end on mobility work, proper breathing through stretching, and focusing more on that neurological relaxation. I should probably also consider doing my core work at the start of the workout — it’s really crazy that almost every movement in the gym uses your groin (which is part of your core) for even the smallest bit of stabilization. I mean, I always knew that, but I didn’t really understand it until now.
I need to eat at better times.
Today I ate breakfast at 8:30 (I like to eat it around 10–11, but sometimes I don’t have time on busy days). Then around 1 I had a banana and my protein powder/almond milk. That’s probably around 600 calories but I felt pretty good to workout at around 1:15. I got home at around 3:30 (yeah, my very long workout was a bit silly), and I didn’t pre-prep my salad last night because I was super tired/lazy. So I ended up eating my “lunch” around 4:15. And I eat very, very large salads, which is fine when I’m eating it at 1.
Directly afterwards I felt ok, but about an hour or so later, my stomach was in knots and extremely bloated. It definitely had to do with the carrots because I chopped them instead of grating (I do well with small pieces/grated carrots, but I’ve noticed that larger pieces tend to result in bloating or even gas). But I also think I just ate too much too quickly, because I actually felt pretty good with my earlier “meals”. But that also results in me eating not enough calories and actually hindering my weight loss.
It’s a bit weird now because I have the afternoons off (only for 2 more months though, and then HELLO Utah!), so I can workout right after work. See, if I eat a salad then I’m definitely stuffed for a good hour and I’d just have to sit there. However, this is what I did in Utah a lot and it resulted in me eating maybe 1400 calories a day — breakfast at 7:30, snack at 1:30, a pretty long workout because I had nothing to do, then often a massive dinner at 4:30 or 5. And then a snack at 8pm or so. The only reason I put on muscle was because I was pretty new to lifting so heavy. But now I really want to figure out how to make this better, so I think I’ll just have to bring more snacks to the gym (just a shame the protein bars I got for free are pretty bloat/discomfort-inducing).
So aside from eating at better times, I do have to realize that bloating is a pretty common thing with salads. And also, I have been eating the same things for the past 6 weeks for breakfast and lunch. And while that’s helped me feel better and help with my gut, I want to slowly introduce different things to my diet again. It’s just easy for me to keep eating the same things while I still enjoy them and it allows me to keep from being stressed about that part of my life, especially when I find foods that make me feel good. It’s just hard not having a microwave at work. Grad school will be a little better, but also maybe worse, we’ll see what happens when it comes. I just get hungry pretty easily so I’ll have to make sure I have good snacks!
I let myself slack off too much.
And then when I don’t see results I get really upset, but the only person I have to blame is myself. Of course, you have to take rest days especially if you’re dealing with an injury, but I know I took some extra days off because of the anxiety and fear that my body was going to fall apart. Instead, I could have focused on that anxiety and done meditation, positive self-talk, progressive muscle relaxation, etc. And I know very well that this stuff greatly affects me in a good way.
I recently wrote out a list of how I know I’m more anxious than usual, and that includes things like wanting to watch TV all the time, constantly switching between social media platforms (while also watching TV), and not wanting to workout. Because I know that I love working out, but the fear alone of making my groin pain worse has caused me to step back. I am very aware of this, and I’d like to work on this fear before I “force” myself to workout alllll the time again. But awareness is one thing, action is another, and I haven’t taken a lot of action yet. That’s to change.
HOWEVER, I know for a fact that I’m extremely hard on myself. So, see my next point.
I also demand a lot from myself.
About 6 weeks ago my groin was really pissing me off, and I suddenly remembered what I learned in my “special topics” course about athletic pubalgia. The adductors and the ab muscles work closely together because they attach at the same site, and I realized there was a reason I was constantly massaging/poking my ab muscles and feeling weird during my squats/hip external rotation. A lot of athletes have dysfunction there (although it’s mostly males, funnily enough) and while I started doing my own “rehab”, I wasn’t letting myself rest. I had to call a friend and panic a little about it, and he told me to take the week off. When I hesitated, he said this, sort of as a joke, but also a bit seriously “Jen, it’s ok. I give you permission to do that”.
I tried really hard to say, oh, I can do the machines still, I can do some of this — and a few days after that conversation I found myself continuing to do long workouts even though I knew I shouldn’t. So I did stop, and ended up doing pure “rehab” movements for a week. It definitely helped, but since coming back, my consistency has dropped to an all-time low because of my confidence level in my body’s ability to bounce back and be STRONG. My pain has also varied and been all over the map, but I have to remind myself that it’s normal and this will go away soon.
I truly believe it will go away, but I’ve learned that I need to treat my body and mind and muscles with more respect. I ask a lot from myself when no one else really is, so it’s okay to scale things back a little.
I’m going to be okay.
Saying the simplest thing to yourself can help. I know that I’m going to be okay because I’ve bounced back from numerous issues before. I know that I am going to be okay because it is purely muscular (aside from the niggling hamstring/foot tingles that I now see is because of my absolute lack of hamstring work the past 1–2 months). Of course, what I mean is that it’s purely neurological because it was definitely an insidious onset and a lot of this is from my panicked thoughts and “tight” muscles.
I tend to bounce around a lot with my workout ideas because if I’m not seeing improvement in the first week, I get frustrated. I really wanted to work on my shoulder/thoracic rotation maybe 2 months ago, and I had big plans but my groin pain got in the way and I eventually gave up (which was silly, the whole body is much too connected for that). I give up easily especially when it comes to physical pain because of my past with it. The other reason is that I’ve never really set goals properly, or I’ve wanted things that aren’t possible at the same time (ex. fat loss and muscle gain). Currently I just want to maintain my muscle (and this means using machines or movements that require less stabilization on the floor, ex. cable workouts), get rid of this pain, and increase my endurance so I can eventually do longer workouts.
So…what have I learned?
This post was nothing more than a way for me to see the things I’ve learned. Of course, I’ve learned PLENTY about identifying which exact muscles are causing the pain (I think). However, I’ve also learned a lot about letting go of that knowledge and working on how I approach these pains from an emotional standpoint. I’ve learned a lot about dealing with IT band syndrome and athletic pubalgia (although thankfully I had a very light case of it) too. For example, I heard athletic trainers tell their athletes to foam roll their IT bands (or they did releases). Then I jumped to the camp that you shouldn’t and to focus on the muscle. Then I came around to the idea that myofascial release by way of foam/lax ball rolling lasts only 10–15 minutes anyway, so you need to load it afterwards, but also that rolling is just a desensitization neurologically. So maybe we should roll our IT bands, but our intent behind the movement is different.
I’ve learned to be a little less judgmental of what I see in the gym too. Your intent is everything. My intent is to progress properly and somewhat comfortably, even if it looks a little odd that my current max squat feels laughable for having lifted for a year. Also, no one actually cares that much or thinks about what you’re doing (for the most part).
I learned to have a reason for the things you do! Even if it’s the smallest of reasons. I mean, you might want some more hard evidence/proper reasoning for your job, but I think it’s really great for other aspects of life too. If someone asks me why I want to work in professional sports, even if it’s a student or a mentor or a potential boss — I want to have an answer because I want to pursue things I have a strong desire for or else, what’s the point?
I suppose this post branched out a little bit, but I think it has a little bit of everything — hard lessons I learned, some sports medicine concepts, and how I can improve. All of my favorite things!
In a few weeks, I’ll make another post when this pain disappears or lessens drastically, because I know it will. I would say “until then”, but I know I’ll be back on here soon enough.
