How to prevent groin injury from breaststroke

The following websites may help you develop, add, or simply tweak your strength and stretching regime. I ‘m also a breaststroker and have had a groin problem before but so infrequently I consider it a non-problem. You sound like you’ve got loads of potential and you’re on the right track. If the problem comes back, I think one of the muscle groups in the groin area may be overpowering an opposite muscle group. So, correcting the problem will require you to experiment a little to find the exercise and muscle group that is deficient. Please look at the following list of your leg exercises and try to determine what you’re missing. It may take some time (2-3 weeks) to find which one you’re neglecting but it's time well spent. Please be sure to go slow and take your time because doing too much could aggravate your problem. Good luck to you and good health this New Year. Coach T. exercise.about.com/.../bllegsbuttthigh.htm sportsmedicine.about.com/.../hip2.htm www.usaswimming.org/.../ViewMiscArticle.aspx www.exrx.net/.../ThighWt.html

Consider eliminating the breaststroke kicking from your warm up and do more full stroke or eggbeater if you need to. When you do the kick alone you have more acceleration/deceleration which puts more strain on your knees and groin.Also make sure in your kick that you don't kick out at the start after your recovery(I doubt if you are given your times,but that is a common stroke flaw that increases strain on the groin.)

How much of your workouts is actually breaststroke? I've never had any groin problems, but have had shoulder problems. When I was actively training for breaststroke, maybe 25% of a 3,000 yard workout was ***, with free, drills, etc filling in the remainder. But then again, I never had times anywhere close to yours (even yard times close to your meter times), so maybe I didn't do nearly enough. I typically swim 3000-4000m per day. If we have a "sprint day" (more likely to be 3000m total) the normal warm up *** swimming is about 300-400 m slow kicking and 200-400 slow br swimming. Then about 6-8 x 50 all out *** or 4 x 75 or 2 x 100 or 1 x 200 or something with the first one being 80% and then fully all out on the rest. Before I even go into the water I normally do some squatz without weights (10-15) and then jog around the pool and some stretching after that. So I say I have maybe 1/3-1/2 of total distance being *** on a sprint day. If we have a distance day the warmup is always 200-400 m less warmup and I never ever hurt my groin those days. So the problems only occur when I try to swim really fast. I have changed my technique rather drastically the last 6 months to 1) be faster (I had a really old school technique from my past that I am know trying to adopt to the new rules) but also 2) to avoid getting my groin hurt all the time...(more narrow kick etc etc) and it works to some extent but I still need to be groin pain free to really be able to train my sprint *** stroke....I cant only go 80% because then I wont be training what I want to be good at...being fast :cry: /Per

You could always haunt garage sales until you find that inner thigh exercising thingy that Suzanne Summers used to hawk on late night t.v. What was it called - Thighmaster, something like that? hahaha..there is a limit to what I am ready to stand up against in form of humiliation from my fellow master swimmers but also my wife...i think i will rather start doing some similar excercises in the gym...thanks anyway! :)

...and to all of you that recommend me to switch my stroke I can say only this: "breaststroke is for swimmers who find the other strokes too easy" ;) but in real life the fact are the following: -I reeeaaallly s**k at backstroke -I hurt my right knee really bad last year in butterfly kicking with fins (leg bent in the wrong way and i had to go out of the pool for 2 months)...this pretty much makes all out free and all out butterfly impossible for the coming year until i dare to go full speed on these strokes again. /Per

Consider eliminating the breaststroke kicking from your warm up and do more full stroke or eggbeater if you need to. When you do the kick alone you have more acceleration/deceleration which puts more strain on your knees and groin.Also make sure in your kick that you don't kick out at the start after your recovery(I doubt if you are given your times,but that is a common stroke flaw that increases strain on the groin.) I agree. I have found that I tire more quickly from the kick only than from the full stroke or stroke only.And when you tire your technique suffers and you are more likely to get injured.Limit how much *** stroke kicking you do with the board since it only works your kick and concentrate more on your stroke/glide/recovery with a dolphin kick or no kick at all.

i am a breaststroker myself. when doing breaststroke, use some dolphin kicks instead. I don't mean really hard ones, but just lunge your body with your pull, and you should follow that in a dolphin kick position. It helps a lot with your glide and underwater breaststroke movement. When you kick, keep your knees close together. during your entire breaststroke race, your knees should never come more than 1 ft apart, and they should aways be closer together than your feet. Squeeze from the knees instead of the groin. My groin hurt before too, but after i kicked correctly, it went away. But if it's bothering you a lot, rest it for a while. Well, i don't know how legit my advice is, seeing that i'm only 16, but I think it's what you should do. and you go 1:09 lcm? i only go a 1:05 scy, i think when converted, ur time is faster...

When does this kick become illegal for breaststroke? It almost sounds like a mini dolphin kick. It sounds legal for old folks butterfrog stroke but not too legal for breaststroke..

i am a breaststroker myself. when doing breaststroke, use some dolphin kicks instead. I don't mean really hard ones, but just lunge your body with your pull, and you should follow that in a dolphin kick position. It helps a lot with your glide and underwater breaststroke movement. :confused: Is this legal? I was a timer last weekend. I saw a kid swimming breaststroke looks like what u suggested above. He didn't get DQ.

no no no..... i don't mean do that in a race. it's a breaststroke drill that I use instead of breaststroke kick during practice when my knees hurt. both butterfly and breaststroke has a curve that is started with the pressing of the chest underwater. practicing it with dolphin like form will help you glide and actually accelerate underwater after your kick because you are riding part of your own wave.