Groin pain from weighted bulgarian splits squats (I think)

[jonatan]

Hi,

Wasn't sure where to post this. But I'm having trouble with some tightness in my groin area which is also affecting the sensitivity in my private bits in a way that is affecting my sleep and every day movements, nothing extreme but lingering distinct discomfort.
Not sure if this is just my muscles being tight or what.

I'm quite certain it began after I started training my legs more seriously. I was doing different exercises for my legs, especially loaded bulgarian split squats (about 20kg), pushing it, maybe a bit too fast and hard. I'm still quite new to strength training and started about a year ago, I've gained about 10kg of muscle the past year and I feel like I keep running into issues from inexperience and/or because my body hasn't really been pushed like this before, I'm just turning 40.

My best research on the topic (with ChatGPT) tells me the muscles can go into a "shock" state where they get stuck in a tightened state.

Here's a summary
Heavy split squats 
→ Overload/imbalance of psoas or adductors 
→ Microstrain or tension buildup near inguinal region 
→ Compression or irritation of nearby sensory nerves 
→ Groin/testicular discomfort, particularly when muscles relax (sleep) or stretch (daily movement)

The solution?
I've tried different things, like massage and stretching. Haven't really noticed a big difference.
The strategy I've learned from ChatGPT is to keep doing the same exercise but without any load. And eventually the muscles will recover and come out of their "shocked" state.

This is all new to me, I never exercised my legs this hard before. And I feel unsure what to do. I'm about to go to a doctor/physical therapist for this but my experience going this route is not the best.

So if anyone has experience with similar things and can confirm that what I'm doing should work or has any other suggestions that'd be much appreciated. I have two of Kits books "Stretching & Flexibility" and "Overcoming Neck & Back Pain" and they've really helped me before. So any pointers to particular exercises or other resources would be helpful.

Best regards,
Jonatan

[Kit_L]

On 5/16/2025 at 5:11 AM, jonatan said:

My best research on the topic (with ChatGPT) tells me the muscles can go into a "shock" state where they get stuck in a tightened state.

Not the best authority on a subject which has few authorities.

I've been in this business for a while now, and I have never heard of "shocked muscles". As well, with a long background in strength training, including heavy Olympic lifting and a stint in powerlifting, I have never seen or heard of shocked muscles in either of these environments either. 

It is common for beginners in strength training to get stronger quickly, and if you put on 10 kg of mostly muscle in a year, then you have gotten strong quickly indeed and put on a significant amount of muscle. Pain is considered a threshold phenomenon. What this term means is that a problem can manifest over period of time but until it reaches a threshold, you don't feel any pain at all, even though the causes are present. Then one day suddenly you feel pain. This point is that this is not a linear phenomenon.

If you have not been doing remedial stretching, limbering, and relaxing, please don't be surprised to wake up one day to find that you've got a pain in some part of your body. I would go very easy on strength training for a while (do only bodyweight exercise – you'll be amazed you will not lose your strength and your muscle anywhere near as quickly as all the experts tell you that you will), and I would research on how to limber, and how to embody the experience of deep relaxation. Enough of the right kind of movement, and enough relaxation, and this problem that you have at the moment will be a memory.

If anyone else on the Forum has heard of shocked muscles, please post here.

[Gareth O Connor]

Try ditching the bulgarian split squats as well

[Gareth O Connor]

Arnold Schwarzenegger talked about shocking the muscle...there's a video of him on YouTube talking about this

[Kit_L]

@Gareth O Connor: completely different context, and subject. Arnold was talking about how to get muscles to grow; that you have to use novel techniques/exercises/intensity to get this to happen in a mature bodybuilder's body. That line may have come from my film, The Comeback (1980). You can find a ripped-off and renamed copy, "Total Rebuild", as well as the original, on YT. The ripped copy still has the original titles, and I am listed as writer, producer, and director.

[Gareth O Connor]

I'll give it a look Kit

[Matt Chung]

> hat line may have come from my film, The Comeback (1980). You can find a ripped-off and renamed copy, "Total Rebuild", as well as the original, on YT. The ripped copy still has the original titles, and I am listed as writer, producer, and director.

I was curiously mainly about how someone could rip an entire video while still giving credit ... at this risk of misinterpreting the situation, I can imagine how frustrated I would be if I created a documentary and someone blatantly ripped it.

[Kit_L]

The ripped version doesn't give credit on the platforms where it appears, but the titles are baked into the opening sequence (as well as the closing titles) and they could not change those without cutting the opening sequence which is quite spectacular. Matt, speaking as an author, filmmaker and videographer (and photographer!), whose work has been ripped off all around the place (including material from the ST phase of my life), you just can't get too excited about this. Certainly you can't stop it. AI is going to supercharge this.

The story of making the film was a wonderful one – but the story of exhibiting and distributing it was anything but. I became the producer of the film as well as the writer and director only because the executive producer ran out of money and could not pay the bills that I had run up in the editing of the film. We had a clear prior understanding that the bills were his responsibility. He was the one who ripped the version of the film which is now called Total Rebuild. I found out that he could not pay the bills when I called him from a public telephone box on my return from the Philippines where I had been tendering for a documentary for the Board of Tourism there – remember this is all in the days before mobile phones existed – and I asked him for $A32,000 to pay the current bill. He said simply, "I can't; I've run out of money". I had to find that money myself. These are 1980 dollars.

Making a film as a joy. The rest of it — well, it all depends. A taste of that latter flavour: when I exhibited the film at Filmex Festival in Los Angeles, in the year immediately following its production, the actual film print itself was stolen at the festival, and sold illegally to the ABC Sport network and showed three times before I could stop them. I had to take them to court, from Australia... Of course this devalued the film in terms of subsequent sales. I'll stop here. There is a lot more

[Gareth O Connor]

You've lived an interesting life

[Kit_L]

Still am, @Gareth O Connor.

[jonatan]

On 5/16/2025 at 11:10 PM, Kit_L said:

Not the best authority on a subject which has few authorities.

I've been in this business for a while now, and I have never heard of "shocked muscles". As well, with a long background in strength training, including heavy Olympic lifting and a stint in powerlifting, I have never seen or heard of shocked muscles in either of these environments either. 

It is common for beginners in strength training to get stronger quickly, and if you put on 10 kg of mostly muscle in a year, then you have gotten strong quickly indeed and put on a significant amount of muscle. Pain is considered a threshold phenomenon. What this term means is that a problem can manifest over period of time but until it reaches a threshold, you don't feel any pain at all, even though the causes are present. Then one day suddenly you feel pain. This point is that this is not a linear phenomenon.

If you have not been doing remedial stretching, limbering, and relaxing, please don't be surprised to wake up one day to find that you've got a pain in some part of your body. I would go very easy on strength training for a while (do only bodyweight exercise – you'll be amazed you will not lose your strength and your muscle anywhere near as quickly as all the experts tell you that you will), and I would research on how to limber, and how to embody the experience of deep relaxation. Enough of the right kind of movement, and enough relaxation, and this problem that you have at the moment will be a memory.

If anyone else on the Forum has heard of shocked muscles, please post here.

Hi Kit,

Thank you for your reply.
I've been going slow on the strength training but been busy moving. Now I finally have some space (bought a bunch of mats and made a meditation and movement room) and time to try and remedy this issue. Focusing more on stretching and meditation. Thank you for the relaxation link, will dig into the material. I also found this video of yours searching for adductor stretches.

Blessings,
Jonatan

[Chad]

Hey @jonatan ,

I have nearly the exact same issue as you, but I have had it for over a year now. No acute pain from an injury, but dull aches and densitization. Did you ever find any resolution to your issue?

Thanks in advance,

Chad

[Kit_L]

Follow the same suggestions I made to @jonatan; you can't go wrong. Ask questions, by all means.

[jonatan]

Hi, yes, I feel better now, I would say the issue is practically gone and I have slowly started doing more strength training.

What did it for me I think was working my legs, stretching them every way possible, as often as I felt they could handle it (2-3 times a week or so). (Pike and Pancake (plus the one stretch below) stretches were my main ones, I can now do full pike, still some ways to go on the pancake  ).
I also practice meditation usually before which I think helps, also I notice a big difference if I had a sauna before in how deep I could go.

Doing this I discovered where exactly the tension was and how to work it out, for me something like this position really hit the spot: (But I would stay static in it also and sink as deep as possible prying my legs apart pressing my groin towards the ground (helps to have kind of a slippery surface below the legs so they can slide, I used bare skin against martial art mats that are quite soft (nice for the knees) and relatively glidey)).

Thanks again to @Kit_L for the original advice I received, spot on 🙇

 

 

[Chad]

Thank you both for your time. I really appreciate it and will begin some deep relaxation and those stretches. I had my own stretches and bodyweight exercises I was doing including the prone butterfly, but I will work on the pike and pancake as well.

 

Gratefully,

 

Chad