Tendonitis In Pelvic Region, Male High School Track Athlete

by Concerned Parent

My son competes on the high school track team.

All season he has struggled with pain in the pubic bone region. Sprinting was the aggravating activity. When we had him examined, the diagnosis was tendonitis from the action of the abdominal muscles and adductors which tie in to the pubic bone.

He had been icing and taking ibuprofen to try to continue to compete, but the pain continued to worsen. He has been done with track for two weeks now; so he is lifting, but has quit running hoping to help things heal. He still has some pain, not more, but not significantly less.

He continues to ice after lifting but has discontinued the ibuprofen.

Please advise us as to how we can best bring healing at this point.


Joshua Answers:

Thanks for asking, I'm happy to help.

I need more information to get a better idea of what exactly is going on.

1. How old is your son?

2. Is he still in the growing/growth stage?

3. What is his history of athletics? How long has he been sprinting, running, active, etc.

4. How long has he had pain. Did it show up all of a sudden, or start small and slowly get worse over time.

5. Please say a little bit more about the diagnosis. If you were told that the diagnosis "was from the action of the abdominal and adductors..." that's a pretty broad area.

6. Where exactly does he ice?

7. Does he have pain anywhere else?

8. When sprinting aggravated it, did it hurt during the sprint, or later after practice?

9. If sprinting caused immediate pain, where exactly did it hurt, and please
describe the pain.

I have two thoughts to share, and I'll withhold the rest until I see the answers to the above questions.

A. I doubt that he has the wear and tear damage kind of tendonitis. I'm guessing at this point that his inflammation of the tendon, if that's what it actually is, is from muscles being WAY too tight and putting too much tension on the connections. That makes the nervous system very unhappy and creates pain.

B. As he is young, rest -may- fix the problem. It could just be growing pains related, and/or he'll just grow out of it.

It is predictable, however, that a particular Pain Causing Dynamic has begun.

This means that even if the pain goes away, it's likely that to a small or large degree, this pain pattern will revisit you son, especially if he stays a sprinting kind of active.

My point being, let's find the problem and disrupt the pattern. Or at the very least show him how to manage this so he can keep himself pain free for the next 70 years.

I look forward to your answers.

Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert

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Jun 04, 2009
PART 2 - Tendonitis In Pelvic Region, Male High School Track Athlete
by: Concerned Parent

To answer your questions:

1. 17

2. He has not grown significantly taller for about 1 year.

3. This was his third year of track with many years of many kinds of sports participation since he was about 10.

4. He has had pain for about 2.5 months. The pain started small and got worse as the season progressed.

5. The diagnosis was that he had tightness in the hip flexors which caused stress on the abs and adductors to keep knee in line. He had particularly tight adductors throughout most of the season. As advised, we went through a stretching routine every day.

6. He took ice baths for a couple of weeks early on and then under the advisement of the physical therapist, started direct ice massage on the tender area (pubic bone and down to adductor attachment).

7. no

8. At first, only pain after practice. As pain worsened, he was unable to compete due to the pain while sprinting and then continued to have pain afterwords.

9. He always indicates the pubic bone and down along the inner groin to the adductors. The pain was sharp during the season while trying to run and dull after the activity. Now the pain is dull and seems to worsen after activity (basketball with friends) but he is not doing any sprinting.

Thank you for your interest!


Joshua Answers:

You're welcome!

It's late, so I'll answer this today or tomorrow.


Jun 10, 2009
PART 3 - Tendonitis In Pelvic Region, Male High School Track Athlete
by: The Tendonitis Expert

Sorry, I obviously didn't get a response out when I said that I would.

My punishment is that I just typed out a big long response and accidentally hit the wrong key and erased it. :(

So. Moving forward (again).

It may be a good thing I erased the response. I'm now inspired to film my response and -show- you what you can do to help your son.

But I'll say these things in no particular order:

1. Bolster his connective tissue with Essential Bone Broth.

He is growing, and highly active. Adding Bone Broth to his daily nutrition will greatly improve the structural strength of his tendons, ligaments, cartilage, bones, connective tissue, etc.

I don't think he has damage related tendonitis, I think he has way-too-tight-muscles tendonitis. Meaning a Pain Causing Dynamic but no actual damage.

2. He's definitely got an IlioPsoas tightness issue. Most health professionals will totally gloss over this. And I believe the tight hips and adductors. That makes sense.

3. Along those lines, you may want to spend a little bit and get this ebook about hip tightness and muscle balance.

It's specific focus is patella-femoral pain and problem, but a key of that is tight hips. It's a good ebook from a Physical Therapist that I trust. Can't go wrong with it for your son's future in athletics.

4. Get some Magnesium for Tendonitis. My page that that link goes to explains the connection between Magnesium deficiency and Tendonitis pain.

I'm going to film a little something for you about how/where to massage him the right way. Keep an eye out for that no later than monday.

What I said here is valuable, and I'll be showing you something very different.


Jun 11, 2009
by: Concerned Parent

Thanks for the response.

We started bone broth this past week after reading your site. He has taken a calcium-magnesium supplement at my suggestion but I don't know how rigorously.

I just ordered the e-book. I think it will be good for him as this is not the first injury he has had in the hip/groin area.

He is at church camp this week and will be engaging in moderate activity. I am anxious to see how he responds to the increase in activity.

What would be your suggestion as to activity level in general?

Thanks so much. I look forward to the video.


Joshua Answers:

Great to all that.

Bone broth is a vital but kind of unnoticeable support for everybody, and especially athletes.

That, and using what the ebook trains him on, will serve him well for the rest of his life.

I'll repeat this on the video, but basically, if it hurts, back off. If it doesn't hurt, go with it. If it starts hurting, back off.

Basically the nervous system is guarding him. If it gets scared or notices too much potentially damaging (even if there is not damage, it's just paranoid) running type activity, it will lock down and make muscles tighter and dump pain enhancing chemical.

I'll speak more about this on the video.

Also, I appreciate that you are such a loving and concerned mother, both willing to notice that something is amiss and willing to walk through walls to find a solution out of your love for your son.

That makes me feel good.


Jun 23, 2009
Grrr, I'm a week behind.
by: The Tendonitis Expert

Sorry, I'm a week behind. I can't take it anymore!

Come heck or high water, I'm filming something for you tomorrow morning and getting it up online sometime tomorrow.

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