I’ve been playing hockey my whole life, and as a result I’ve had to deal with groin strains. It’s a common hockey injury. In short, a strain occurs when the activity outmatches the capacity of the muscle. 

The groin is a whole series of muscles and has many functions. They pull the leg towards the midline, but are also involved in hip extension, flexion, and rotation depending on what position the femur is. So it goes without saying, they are heavily involved with leg movement. 

For years before I was a physio, I was constantly stretching the muscles of the groin. This may not be the best approach, but may be a part of the rehab. My view on stretching is that it is to improve your range of motion. In the early phases of a strain, the neurologic system is trying to protect the area. With that in mind, it will inhibit hip abduction, the opposite of adduction, as it takes the slack out of a muscle that is trying to repair. 

So stretching is not the first line of defense. The best thing to do is calm the area down. You can do this with massage, foam rolling, or for lack of a better term, an “adductor release” which could look like this:

Then you’d want to get some blood flow to the area. There are many ways to do this. Here is a simple way to start the process:

Then you want to restore the range of motion. This is when you begin to stretch the muscle. But, bare in mind that it’s trying to heal so keep it gentle and pain free:

Now that you’ve regained your native range of motion, strengthen in that new range with something like this:

Remember, the reason in the first place that it strained is that it’s not strong enough for the activity you’re trying to do. When the pain is gone, place more emphasis on strengthening it so it doesn’t happen again.