Lately I’ve been reading a lot about the correlation between knee pain and injuries on the quadriceps, adductors and hamstrings. Nowadays what I am observing is that most often than not, people are trying to cure the symptom, not the real cause of the pain.
People often complain of knee pain, when they squat, lunge or jump. The reason might be hidden in different places, like bad technique, muscle imbalances, tighten muscles and so forth.
A month ago I wrote about the correlation between IT Band Syndrome and knee pain. Today I am gonna raise the topic about adductor trigger points, knee pain and IT Band Syndrome.
In order to move on, we should understand what a trigger point is. The most important thing you need to know about trigger points is that they refer pain to a different area. As I pointed out in my previous article, the IT Band Syndrome may be responsible for the sharp knee pain you feel, every time you try to squat or lunge. Do you understand it? The problem starts at your IT Band, but the pain is referred to your knee.
When thinking about thigh muscles, most people limit the muscles to quadriceps and hamstrings. That’s great, but as anything else in life, the problem is in the details. And the detail in this case are your adductors.
The adductors are one of the most overlooked muscle groups. People rarely think about their importance, about their function. People rarely work them or stretch them. In other words, if you let your adductors stay in the shadow, they are gonna be mean and attract your attention, by causing a lot of pain and trouble!
So why in the world are adductors so important?
The adductors play an important role in movement and stabilization of the leg and the pelvis. I won’t go in a detail about each muscle from the adductor group( just take a look at the picture above).
So anyway what is the function of the adductors?
1.To pull the leg toward the middle of your body( see the connection “add”…they add your leg, towards the middle of your body)
2.They rotate your knee inward
3. Help to flex the leg at the hip joint
4. Perform anterior rotation, i.e. they dip your pelvis down and forward.
5. As I said they help in stabilization, by keeping your knee from going outward when you put weight on the leg( when walking, jumping, running)
A lot of work, right? That means, that no matter if you pay attention to your adductors, they are still doing a hell of a work and they can be easily overloaded and thus cause pain.
The pain you have will depend on the location of the trigger point and the muscles affected. But to make things easier and help you find where the trigger point is, sit on a chair and spread your legs. With your thumb follow the location, where your thigh hurts. You will undoubtedly feel something like a hard tissue, something like a bundle. That means this is your trigger point. Check out the pictures below. This are the places where trigger points on your adductors could be found.
So once you know where the trigger point is, you need to massage it, foam roll it, stretch it!
Otherwise, if you let it stay like that, the pain will grow and eventually it will start bugging your knee. Why? As I said earlier the adductors rotate your knee inward. Trigger points cause weakness in your adductors, which mean sthat they can no longer perform their function- to stabilize your leg. What that means is that the leg will constantly try to rotate outward, which causes the muscles on the outside of your hip and thigh to overwork and become really tight and shortened. That will lead to the IT Band Syndrome, that I discussed previously, which on the other hand leads to a really sharp knee pain.
See what happened? And you thought adductors weren’t worth your attention…
In case you want to avoid this happening to you, you should stretch and foam roll your adductors on a daily basis. Besides that you should make sure, you are working on strengthening them, and not letting the muscles on the outside of your thigh become way stronger than those of the inside. Muscle imbalances cause a lot of trouble, so it is totally worth the work!
Here are some ways to foam roll your adductors 🙂
Do you stretch and foam roll your adductors? Have you had any problems with your knees caused by tight adductors or IT Band Syndrome?
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А это можно перефразировать? Ортомоль Тэндо
Great article. It’s so easy to overlook the adductors because they are more tricky to foam roll than other muscles. Instead of lying on the floor I suggest putting the foam roller on a stool then straddling it to get more weight on the adductors/hamstring and therefore far greater effect.
I have a tight right leg and hip. I believe it is my adductor. I rolled it and felt buying in the groin and some tingling in my calf. Pinching a nerve?
Shame the replies have been spammed by scammers.
…Interesting! I took up running late and to excess (500 miles a year, if not injured).
Achilles tendon strain came first – 1-2wks rest simply cures that. Various instances of bad ankle rolls – can take months to heal, but simply rested and came back well strapped wearing boots (Inov8 GTX 286? They are the lightest).
ITBS (AKA, Runner’s Knee) developed, without knowing what it was at the time, so I rested for months! Within half a mile of my comeback, the pain returned (burning on the outside of the knee/leg).
I went to the Internet and, avoiding being side-tracked by porn, realised it was ITBS.
Invariably, ITBS is a friction RSI, not a true physical injury.
Personally, with stretching, my ITBS was cured (for 5 mile runs) in a matter of days. Just stretch it daily and before runs:
Stand behind your sofa and lay your shin horizontally along the back rest; then basically, do any kind of movement, in-out, up-down, whilst keeping the shin stationary; do it slowly and firmly, but not violently or the ACL in the knee’s centre could rip (you will not be running ever again!) NB: If you hear a slicing sound of sinews, don’t be alarmed, you are doing right.
…Anyway, years later, I now have almost constant knee (pressure) pain, which slowly developed into a limp whilst I did 100 miles in 6wks, plus weight training 3x per week (yeah, I have no job). It hasn’t gone away after 3 months’ rest – so here I am searching the Internet again! I’m fairly sure it’s cartilage wear from doing >1000 miles in 3 years, aged 40 (but I’m quite light and strong). The pain sometimes feels in different places in/around the knee, with some pain sent down the tibia. But the pain is worst when I’m sat down putting shoes on, with my knee at a right angle, with the tibia pushing up and away from the knee as I wrestle my shoe on (maybe the ACL is damaged?).
Looks like GP and surgery for me.
It’s very depressing with no exercise, running with my dogs through woodland. I’ve lost over 1 stone of muscle! 🙁
The science behind trigger points may be weird or missing, but I don’t care: a foam roller is the best thing at the end of the day.
Now how about standing work-stations?