Part 2 of our evidence based sports injury prevention blogs will focus on the prevention of adductor injuries. If you are serious about preventing injuries, and keeping yourself on the park or in the gym longer, be sure to read on and immerse yourself with the most up to date research regarding injury prevention.
The adductors are a group of muscles originating from the hip that run down the inside of your leg and primarily act to move the leg towards the midline (adduct). This group of muscles comprises of Adductor Magnus, Adductor Brevis, Adductor Longus, Pectineus and Gracilis. Adductor Longus is the most commonly injured adductor muscle. Kiel and Kaiser (2018) stated that Adductor Longus accounted for up to 90% of these injuries.
Adductor tears are extremely common across a variety of different sports and are notoriously difficult to rehabilitate. Recent research conducted by Kerbel et al (2018) which included data obtained from 25 different American College sports from 2009 to 2014 found that adductor tears were the most common injury occurring in 24.5% of all injuries. These injuries tend to occur mostly in sports that involve kicking and sudden changes of direction and speed.
He most obvious question is how to avoid these injuries? The Coppenhagen Adductor strengthening programme is your savior. A study by Haroy et al in 2018 showed that performing only one of these exercises three times a week in preseason and once a week in season resulted in a 41% reduction in total adductor related injuries.
If you are someone with reoccurring adductor injuries we will illustrate how you can prevent them.
All individuals are to begin at level 3. If this exercise provokes greater than 3/10 pain, then you must regress to level 2. Similarly, if level 2 provokes 3/10 pain, then you must perform level 1.
Levels 2 and 3 are performed through contraction of the adductor muscles of the upper leg. The upper leg pushes down into the partners hands to bring the lower leg up before slowly bringing it back to the floor. Level 1 is performed by lifting the lower leg up off the floor and slowly lowering it back to the starting position. Repetitions of this exercise should begin at 3-5 and work your way up to 12-15 as comfortable.
For any of you that are regular high intensity sports players and especially those of you who have been having difficulties with adductor related injuries this exercise is a must! With a reduction in injury by over 40% you’d be silly not to.
Stay tuned for Part 3 of my evidence based injury prevention program which will focus on quadriceps injuries. This is essential reading for anybody who is serious about fitness and injury prevention.