Running is an unparalleled way to address virtually every fitness concern — weight control, cardiovascular health, leg strength and even improved mental focus. These benefits come with risks, however, including sore or damaged muscles. Your inner-thigh muscles, also called the groin muscles, can become painful on both sides as a result of numerous common ailments.
Muscles of the Inner Thigh
Your inner-thigh muscles, or adductors, bring your legs together. If you put your hands between your knees and push inward against the resistance, you're contracting your adductors. These include five pairs. The two longer adductors are the gracilis and the adductor magnus, which run from the ischium of pelvis all the way to the inner knee. The three shorter adductors include the pectineus, adductor brevis and adductor longus; these extend from the ischium to the femur.
Sports Hernia
A sports hernia may occur either acutely as a result of trauma or as a result of chronic overload. Among runners, it is usually an overload injury. Pain results from repetitive shearing forces on the inner-thigh muscles at the sites where they attach to the pelvis. Pain may be one-sided but is often bilateral. This type of hernia is anatomically and functionally distinct from the better-known inguinal hernia, but both involve abdominal weakness. Physical therapy may help, but most sports hernias require surgical repair followed by a six- to 12-week period of running-free recuperation.
Adductor Tendinitis
If during running you experience achy pain radiating down the inner thighs of both legs, especially when you accelerate or change direction suddenly, you probably have adductor tendinitis. This inflammation of the tendons connecting the adductor muscles to the pelvis is more likely to be caused by overuse than by trauma, unlike a strain or a pulled muscle. Treatment involves rest or running at a very slow pace, icing the area, anti-inflammatory drugs and physical rehabilitation exercises.
Osteitis Pubis
Osteitis pubis is the inflammation of the joint where left and right pubic bones connect. This articulation is called the pubic synphisis. The pain in your inner thighs may be either sharp or dull, but in either instance usually sets in gradually. The pain is centered in the midline, and may radiate into the lower part of your belly as well as into the adductors. Stress overload is most often the cause and usually occurs in runners with abnormal biomechanics. Rest and ice can help reduce the pain, while strengthening and stretching exercises are useful in the longer term.
General Treatment Strategies
Physiotherapist Chris Mallac, a contributor to the Sports Injury Bulletin website, advises immobilization and light massage for the immediate management of an injury to the groin muscles. In the case of a serious pull or slight tear, your medical provider may offer a groin strap, a simple device tied high around the thigh that redirects movement from the injured muscle or muscles to the strap itself. Mallac warns that stretching in the immediate aftermath of an acute adductor injury is actually detrimental and suggests doing isometric stretching by squeezing an object such as a football between the knees for 10 seconds, relaxing and repeating up to five times.
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