Physical Therapy for Athletic Pubalgia

Have you ever felt a sharp pain in your groin after a game or workout?

Maybe you’ve heard of a “sports hernia,” but you’re not sure what it really is.

Well, let’s clear things up.

Athletic pubalgia is sometimes referred to as a sports hernia.

But it isn’t really a hernia at all.

It’s more like a muscle or tendon injury in your lower tummy or groin area.

That’s why physical therapists call it athletic pubalgia, which is a more correct name.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at athletic pubalgia.

We’ll will help you understand what this injury is, why it happens, what it feels like, and how you can get better.

What is a Sports Hernia (Athletic Pubalgia)?

A sports hernia, or athletic pubalgia, is when you hurt some of the soft tissues in your lower belly or groin.

These tissues include your muscles, tendons, and ligaments.

It’s not like a real hernia where part of your insides pokes through your tummy.

Instead, a sports hernia is a tear or strain in the soft tissues near the groin.

Sometimes a sports hernia can lead to a traditional hernia, but they are considered separate injuries.

What Causes a Sports Hernia?

Sports hernias happen when you do a lot of twisting and turning with your body.

These injuries often occur with sports that involve sudden direction changes, like soccer, hockey, football, wrestling, and rugby.

Imagine planting your feet and then quickly twisting your body—that’s how these injuries often happen.

Other things that can cause a sports hernia include:

• Forceful hip movements, like kicking, sprinting, cutting, and twisting
• Doing too many or unsafe exercises for your belly and hips
• Having weak abdominal muscles and being out of shape
• Having an imbalance of strength between your hip and belly muscles

Many times, these injuries happen slowly over time.

The most affected areas are often:

• Your oblique muscles
• The tendons that attach these muscles to your pubic
• bone
• The tendons that attach your thigh muscles to your pubic bone

What Are the Symptoms of a Sports Hernia?

The main symptom of a sports hernia is a groin pain that doesn’t go away.

RELATED: Physical Therapy for Pain Management

The pain might feel:

• Sharp or stabbing, especially when you are doing something active
• Like it’s coming from deep inside your groin or lower belly
• Worse when you do sit-ups
• Like it’s moving into your inner thigh
• Worse when you cough or sneeze
• Better when you rest, but comes back when doing physical activity
• Difficult to pinpoint where it’s coming from

With a hernia, there’s generally a visible bulge.

That’s not the case with a sports hernia, which as we mentioned is not a real hernia.

How Is a Sports Hernia Diagnosed?

To find out if you have a sports hernia, your sports medicine physical therapist will ask you a few questions and do a physical exam.

In general, your physical therapist will want to know how your injury happened, what your pain feels like, and a history of past injuries, among others.

The physical exam may involve checking for tenderness above your pubic bone, and watching for pain triggers.

In some cases, it may be recommended to have medical imaging done to confirm.

What Are the Treatments for a Sports Hernia?

If you have athletic pubalgia, a physical therapist can help.

Physical therapists are experts in movement.

At Capitol Physical Therapy, our therapy team has experience with a wide variety of different sports injuries, including athletic pubalgia.

Below are some of the options your physical therapist may recommend.

1. RICE

RICE is an acronym that stands for rest, ice, compression, and elevation.

It’s a classic physical therapy technique for managing pain associated with injuries.

In the case of athletic pubalgia, ice and compression are particularly useful.

2. Gentle Stretching

Since the injury is located around your core muscles, your physical therapist will show you some exercises to gently stretch those areas.

This may include stretches for your:

• Hips
• Lower back
• Groin

Emphasis is, of course, on the “gentle” part.

The goal of these stretches is both to decrease your pain, and to increase your flexibility.

3. Strength Training

Once your pain is under control, your physical therapist can work with you to build your strength back.

This may include exercises based in Pilates or in yoga, targeting your hips as well as your lower back.

From there, your physical therapist can begin incorporating activities to help you work toward getting back to your sport.

4. Education

In some cases, you can prevent a sports hernia from happening.

If you play sports that put a lot of stress on your hips, your physical therapist can show you how to avoid reinjuring yourself.

Do You Need Surgery For Sports Hernia?

In more serious cases, surgery is sometimes recommended for a sports hernia.

If that’s the case, your physical therapist can help you prepare for your surgery.

They can also offer physical therapy for surgery recovery afterwards.

However, in many cases, physical therapy alone is enough to resolve sports hernia pain.

How Long Does it Take to Recover from Athletic Pubalgia?

How long it takes to recover from a sports hernia depends on how bad the injury is and what treatment you have.

If you have physical therapy without surgery, you might feel much better after 6 to 8 weeks.

If you have surgery, it can take 6 to 12 weeks to get back to physical activity, and depending on the severity of the injury and the type of surgical repair, some cases can take longer than this. Note that every case is different.

Your physical therapist will give you an estimate of what to expect.

Book Your Appointment With Capitol Physical Therapy Today

If you think you might have a sports hernia, our physical therapy clinic can help.

Here at Capitol Physical Therapy, we’ll work to get you back to doing what you love.

Book your appointment with to Capitol Physical Therapy today to get started.