THE ADDUCTOR STRENGTHENING PROGRAMME PREVENTS GROIN PROBLEMS AMONG MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS: A CLUSTER-RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIAL

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE

According to recent studies in professional football, adductor strains are the second most common cause of injury reported with almost 10% of all injuries over the course of a season reported as involving the adductors. A risk factor attributed to adductor-related injury is low strength levels within the associated musculature. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify the effectiveness of a specific adductor strengthening exercise in the reduction of adductor-related groin injuries.

METHODS

The study recruited a large number of semi-professional footballers from the Norwegian football leagues and randomized them by team into a control group and an intervention group that contained 313 and 339 players respectively.

The intervention group were required to complete one exercise, the Copenhagen Adduction exercise, three times a week during the preseason period (6-8 weeks) before this dropped to a maintenance dose of one set per week for the competitive period of the season (28 weeks). The repetitions performed on each side gradually increased from 3-5 per set, to 12-15 repetitions by the end of pre-season, and this prescription was maintained throughout the course of the study. This exercise had two lower levels, which provided players who complained of greater than 3/10 pain on performance of the Copenhagen Adduction exercise with a regression option. The control group undertook their normal daily training protocols for the study.

RESULTS

The primary outcome of the study found that there was a 41% lower risk of reporting groin problems within the intervention group. They found than on average in the intervention group there was a 13.5% weekly prevalence of groin problems,

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