Why the groin tears in ice hockey and how to stop it: test your strength ratio, build for six weeks, maintain year-round — with documented numbers.
In ice hockey the groin is not bad luck, it is arithmetic: if your adduction strength sits below 80 percent of your abduction strength, your risk of an adductor strain is roughly 17 times higher. That is what the study on professional players showed, where players who stayed healthy had a strength ratio of 0.95 while those who later got injured sat at 0.78 [2].
Why exactly there? Because that is the muscle group you skate with. Propulsion comes from hip abduction — pushing the leg out sideways off the inside edge [6] — and the hip adductors actively bring the leg back and stabilise it [5]. The same muscles that make you fast are the ones that tear: over 40 percent of all muscle strains in elite hockey involve the adductors, mostly the adductor longus [1].
And now the reason to keep reading: this is one of the best documented prevention results in sport. A six-week preseason strengthening programme for at-risk players cut adductor strains from 3.2 to 0.71 per 1000 player-game exposures — three strains in two seasons instead of eleven [3]. That is not prevention, that is a different sport.
The simplest practical test is the squeeze test: lying on your back, knees bent to 45 degrees, a ball or rolled towel between the knees, squeeze maximally and count the seconds until it drops off. Compare that feeling with abduction against a band. The relevant threshold comes from research: adduction below 80 percent of abduction means strongly elevated risk [2].
The documented block is a functional adductor strengthening programme over six weeks for players with a conspicuous strength profile [3]. In practice: three times a week, starting with isometric squeezes (5 times 20 seconds), then lateral lunges, adductor slides and single-leg work. Increase resistance before repetitions.
Lying on your side, supported on your forearm, the top leg resting on a bench or held by a partner, you lift your body until it forms a straight line. Three levels: knee version, short lever, long lever at the foot. In a cluster-randomised trial — run in football, but mechanically the same demand — the risk of groin problems fell by 41 percent, season prevalence from 21.3 to 13.5 percent [4].
The effective scheme from the trial: three times a week during preparation (6 to 8 weeks), then once a week across the whole season [4]. Once weekly sounds like nothing — it is the difference between "built" and "lost again". The groin forgets faster than you think.
The deeper and cleaner your push runs over the inside edge, the more evenly the load spreads [6]. Jerky, flat edge changes from an upright posture concentrate the load on the adductors [5]. And because around 74 percent of all injuries happen in games [7], the preparation belongs in training, not in the dressing room five minutes before puck drop.
Prevention and rehabilitation are two different things. With acute groin pain, pain when coughing or sneezing, or radiation into the testicles or lower abdomen you belong with a doctor, not in a strengthening programme — a hernia, hip joint pathology or athletic pubalgia can hide behind it.
The Copenhagen Adduction exercise is highly effective but also highly intense: muscle soreness in the first two weeks is normal, sharp pain is not. Start with the easiest level and at most 2 sets of 6 reps per side, and progress over weeks, not days.
And an honest note on the evidence: the 41 percent figure comes from a football study [4]; for ice hockey, the chain of strength ratio, programme and reduced strain rates is documented separately [2][3]. This guide explains and motivates you, but it does not replace a physiotherapeutic or medical assessment.
Measure your strength ratio twice a season with the same simple setup and write the number down. Not because a home measurement is exact — it is not — but because it forces the only question that matters: has adduction grown stronger relative to abduction? That exact ratio separated uninjured players (0.95) from those later injured (0.78) [2]. And if your number looks better after six weeks of the programme, you have not "felt" your risk drop, you have changed the variable it hangs on.
Because your propulsion loads the very muscles that get injured: drive comes from hip abduction off the inside edge [6], and the adductors bring the leg back and stabilise it [5]. Accordingly, over 40 percent of all muscle strains in elite hockey hit the adductors, mostly the adductor longus [1].
Through the ratio of adduction to abduction strength. If adduction sits below 80 percent of abduction, the risk of an adductor strain in the professional study was roughly 17 times higher; uninjured players sat at 0.95, later-injured players at 0.78 [2]. A simple squeeze test at home does not replace a proper measurement but does show progress.
Eccentric adductor training, above all the Copenhagen Adduction exercise in three progression levels. In the cluster-randomised trial the risk of groin problems fell by 41 percent and prevalence from 21.3 to 13.5 percent [4]. In addition, a six-week preseason programme in ice hockey showed a drop from 3.2 to 0.71 strains per 1000 player-game exposures [3].
Three times a week for 6 to 8 weeks in preparation, then once a week across the whole season [4]. The hockey build-up was also designed as a six-week preseason block [3]. Anyone stopping after preparation loses the protection exactly when games start — and around 74 percent of all injuries happen in games [7].
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