GROINS - What is With the Groins!?

[Lamplighter]

Ok...it has been a number of years since I last actually played, and I was a goalie, but can someone, anyone, explain to me what the deal is with all the freakin groin injuries this preseason. It is almost getting laughable in terms of how many guys are down with pulled, tweaked, injured, tight, and just plain BAD groins! :laugh:

[lanky522]

You see them so much in the early parts of the season and preseason because players are out of shape. When I say out of shape, I don\'t mean, fat with beer guts, they are just out of hockey shape (they are still probably better conditioned than 90% of the general public on their worst days).

They get these groin injuries because their bodies aren\'t used to the strain (because very few players practice or play as much in the offseason as they do during the season). The groin is one of the more vulnerable muscles in the human body, and hockey is one of the worst sports for it because of the skating and movement on ice involved. If you are even remotely out of shape (or even if you\'re in shape and just not careful in the opening weeks), it\'s pretty easy to tweak a groin.

Don\'t you remember after the lockout when there were something like 5-10 starting/important goalies out with groin injuries of some type? It\'s because of the break from the every day practices and training caused them to be more injury prone.

As the season progresses, you\'ll see the current injuries fade away, and you won\'t likely see new ones replacing them. Because once the players are back into the swing of things, their bodies become more resiliant to these sorts of injuries.

This is why it was such a big deal that gaborik stayed home this summer and trained. (No news out of wild camp about any muscle problems with gabby).

[chuckles]

i think some of it has to do with the \"new nhl\". there is a lot more back-and-forth, end to end to end skating nowadays. you have to admit, these players are really working their lower bodies much harder than before the real crackdown on obstruction. as lanky mentioned as well, no amount of off-ice conditioning over the summer will compare with pushing onesself to the limit trying to capture a spot on an nhl team. i injured my groin a few years ago playing hockey, and it was a matter of playing really hard all game long, then really striding as hard as i could to back-check (as a d-man caught up ice :P ). i was able to finish the game, warrior that i am, but my strides were akin to taking baby-steps. now i do WAY more stretching before every game/practice. :dry:

[The Comish]

Lamplighter wrote:

what the deal is with all the freakin groin injuries this preseason.

And yet somehow, all\'s quiet from Groinmaster Gaborik :whistle:

[Raccer]

Gaborik will lost is title to Havlat, he left today\'s game :

\"Havlat out for the remainder of the game with a mild groin strain.\"

[Screaming Jawa]

I recall hearing somewhere, a few years ago, that hockey players are relying too much on the bike for conditioning, and it\'s one of the worst things to do for groins.

You\'d think these guys would spend their summers on inline skates, just to make sure this kind of thing didn\'t happen.