Working out around a lower abb strain
Discussion
About 6 weeks ago I started to notice a real muscle pain in the lower abbs on stretching in the morning....then realised I couldnt do any core work without real pain. This followed a hard (but not crazy) abb session and a couple of falls playing basketball so who knows what caused it.
Anyway, just tried my first core session in weeks and it was rubbish - anything that contracted the abbs caused enough pain around the pubic bone attachment (and across into the hip flexors) that it was pointless. I could easily do lots of light crunchies but only 20% of the weight I would normally do on anything like cable crunches.
So - lower abb strain? Solution? Rest? Should it still hurt when pushed about 2 months?
Anyway, just tried my first core session in weeks and it was rubbish - anything that contracted the abbs caused enough pain around the pubic bone attachment (and across into the hip flexors) that it was pointless. I could easily do lots of light crunchies but only 20% of the weight I would normally do on anything like cable crunches.
So - lower abb strain? Solution? Rest? Should it still hurt when pushed about 2 months?
Sorry to say it but I had a lower ab strain in June last year and it took me well into October/November to be able to train again at anything like the intensity I wanted to.
If your lucky it will heal if your not lucky you will have damaged the fascia and it will always be a weakness, this is what my physio told me. Fortunately I am sprinter so I run in straight lines mostly, I was told if I was a footballer or had to do a lot of lateral movements it might be worse.
They are a bugger as they are very hard to rest as you use them for every movement, I still to this day even a year later get a dull ache very low down on my ab wall after a couple of days of hard training.
I still potentially think I may have a small hernia but I can still train so I will keep going until it stops me training.
What worked for me was single leg raises, lie on your back pull your knees up to 90 deg and push your lower back into the ground. Then slowly extend one leg out with the aim being tapping your heel on the floor. When I started I could barely straighten my leg before pain - take it to the point of pain beginning and not past it - and did 5 reps each leg 3 times a day.
The other thing I did was gradually extending the distances I could run, I didn't do any jogging but I would stride out for 10m, then the next day 20m, then the next day 30m, then 3 sets of 30m then 4 sets of 30m runs etc...and just built up like that until I could do 100m reps without pain.
The key for me was to not try and do too much too soon as I had a couple of setbacks where I tried to do too much too soon and ended up taking another 2 weeks to get back to where I was previously.
It took a long time though and was the worst injury I have ever had in terms of recovery time and I have properly pulled my hamstring previously and that was nothing compared to this. Good luck with the rehab.
If your lucky it will heal if your not lucky you will have damaged the fascia and it will always be a weakness, this is what my physio told me. Fortunately I am sprinter so I run in straight lines mostly, I was told if I was a footballer or had to do a lot of lateral movements it might be worse.
They are a bugger as they are very hard to rest as you use them for every movement, I still to this day even a year later get a dull ache very low down on my ab wall after a couple of days of hard training.
I still potentially think I may have a small hernia but I can still train so I will keep going until it stops me training.
What worked for me was single leg raises, lie on your back pull your knees up to 90 deg and push your lower back into the ground. Then slowly extend one leg out with the aim being tapping your heel on the floor. When I started I could barely straighten my leg before pain - take it to the point of pain beginning and not past it - and did 5 reps each leg 3 times a day.
The other thing I did was gradually extending the distances I could run, I didn't do any jogging but I would stride out for 10m, then the next day 20m, then the next day 30m, then 3 sets of 30m then 4 sets of 30m runs etc...and just built up like that until I could do 100m reps without pain.
The key for me was to not try and do too much too soon as I had a couple of setbacks where I tried to do too much too soon and ended up taking another 2 weeks to get back to where I was previously.
It took a long time though and was the worst injury I have ever had in terms of recovery time and I have properly pulled my hamstring previously and that was nothing compared to this. Good luck with the rehab.
It could take 6-9 months before it is fully healed.No stretching for a couple of months and certainly no abs exercises with weights at all 
.Try to avoid doing your normal games and be careful.Torn fascia is generally no worse than a pulled muscle but ideally you should rest the affected bodypart,which is not easy with abs.
.Try to avoid doing your normal games and be careful.Torn fascia is generally no worse than a pulled muscle but ideally you should rest the affected bodypart,which is not easy with abs.
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