Endurance exercise can help you to lose weight, reduce stress or achieve more toned and shapely legs. Running is particularly hard work and can be rough on the body, with aches and pains almost inevitable. Inner leg pain on the right or left side is a common malady and can result from a number of physical issues.
Inner Leg Anatomy
Your inner thigh includes five muscles known as adductors. The three shorter adductors are the pectineus, adductor brevis and adductor longus; these originate in your pelvis and insert on your femur. The gracilis and adductor magnus are the long adductors; they also originate in the pelvis but insert on your knee. Their function is to bring your thighs closer together. Pushing inward with your knees while you hold your thighs apart with your hands engages your adductor muscles.
Sports Hernia
Also called Gilmore's groin and or athletic pubalgia, a sports hernia may develop suddenly or over time. Pain in your inner left leg is usually mild when you run at a steady clip, but may be more intense when you accelerate from rest, as in a sprint competition. A sports hernia results from weakness in your abdominal wall. It is caused by lateral shearing forces on the adductor muscles at the points at which they attach to the left pubic bone of the pelvis. Rest sometimes completely solves the problem, but in some cases surgery is required, so see your doctor if your left-sided pain resembles that of a sports hernia.
Osteitis Pubis
Osteitis pubis is inflammation of region in the midline where the two pubic bones join. The pain varies in character, but whether sharp or dull it normally comes on gradually. The pain originates at the site at which the bones meet and radiates to the left inner thigh. Runners with biomechanical imbalances, e.g., a left leg slightly shorter than the right, are susceptible to this left-inner-thigh injury. Rest and ice provide short-term pain relief, while stretching and strengthening your left pelvic muscles help guard against a recurrence.
Adductor Tendinitis
Pain that radiates down your leg and worsens when you accelerate or change the direction you're running may signal adductor tendinitis. When the pain is left-sided, the injury results from inflammation of the tendons connecting the left adductor muscles to the pelvic bones on that side. Unlike a pull, strain or outright tear or the muscle, adductor tendinitis most often results from overuse, less frequently being the result of trauma. Rest, icing the left groin, anti-inflammatory drugs and rehabilitation exercises are the standard of care for left-sided adductor tendinitis.
