What a squat asks of the groin, and what no study has countedEmerging evidence
In a squat the adductors, the inner thigh muscles that run from the pubic bone to the thigh, help steady your thighs, and the big adductor magnus helps straighten your hip as you rise. They work hardest near the bottom of a deep squat and on the way up: full squats grew them more than half squats in 17 men (6.2% against 2.7% in 10 weeks), and the adductor magnus becomes a better hip straightener as the hip bends. A wider stance raised the demand on the hip's extensor and outward-rotating muscles in 24 adults, but not the net squeeze of the adductors; turning the toes and knees out added a little adductor work in two small studies.
At the front of the hip, a squat bends the hip until the thigh bone meets the rim of the socket, and then the pelvis tucks under. People with a cam shape, a bony bump where the ball meets the neck of the thigh bone, reach that point sooner: 15 of them couldn't squat as low as 11 people without it.
No study counts groin pain from any kind of squat. In 104 Swedish powerlifters, 42% of injuries started in squat training and the hip was among the three commonest sites, but the hip wasn't split into the groin and other areas, and across 17 reports, hip and groin injuries were a minority of lifting injuries. So the map on this page is built from what each cause is known to do; that the groin hurts when depth, width or load rise faster than it is used to is our reading.
Sources 14, 13, 21, 19, 20, 15, 22, 23, 8, 9
Where it hurts, and what it often isStrong evidence
An international agreement on athletes' groin pain, made in Doha, sorts the common causes by where it is tender and which test brings it on: adductor-related (tender on the inner thigh tendon, painful when you squeeze your knees together against resistance), iliopsoas-related (the hip flexors, deep at the front of the hip), inguinal-related (just above the groin crease, worse coughing, sneezing or a resisted sit-up, with no hernia you can feel) and pubic-related (tender on the pubic bone itself), plus the hip joint, which should always be considered, and other causes. A European consensus in 2026 kept the same split.
Adductor-related pain was the main pattern in 58% of 207 athletes with long-standing groin pain and 61% of 100, and adductor injuries were 66% of 110 sudden groin injuries; a third to almost half of athletes had more than one cause. Nearly all of this research is in men in kicking and turning sports, not in people who squat in the gym.
Sources 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
A lump, the testicles and the rarer causesStrong evidence
A hernia shows as a lump where the leg meets the tummy or at the top of the thigh, which may get bigger when you cough or strain and smaller when you lie down, the NHS says; pain in a smaller hernia can be a sign it is being squeezed. The international hernia guideline says heavy lifting "may predispose" to a groin hernia and that the evidence is contradictory, and in 1.5 million Danish men, years of standing at work were a stronger factor than lifting. No study ties squats to hernias. A man with a painless or barely painful groin hernia can usually wait safely: emergencies happened at 1.8 per 1,000 men a year in a trial of 720.
Sudden, severe testicle pain can be a twisted testicle, which needs treating straight away. A so-called sports hernia isn't a true hernia. In children, the NHS says hip problems can be felt in the thigh or knee, and a limp needs an urgent GP appointment or NHS 111. Rarer causes include a slipped hip growth plate in 10 to 16 year olds, a stress fracture of the hip, which had already slipped out of place in a third of 146 adults by diagnosis, and, from mid-life, hip arthritis, which is felt in the groin in most people who have it. One man's groin pain, blamed on a new weight-training programme, turned out to be a tumour, which is why pain that doesn't behave like a strain needs checking.
Sources 54, 56, 57, 58, 59, 50, 61, 65, 67, 68, 66, 69
Who gets itEmerging evidence
Athletes in kicking, turning and skating sports, most research being in men; people new to squats or adding depth, width or load quickly (in powerlifters, 23% blamed too much volume or intensity for their injury); people with a previous groin injury, weaker adductors or less hip range; and younger active adults with cam shapes for the front-of-hip pinch. Groin problems are common and mostly don't stop training: 29% of male footballers reported one in an average week.
Sources 1, 40, 7, 8, 26
When a scan or test mattersStrong evidence
Most groin pain is diagnosed by examination: pressing on each structure and testing the squeeze, the hip and a resisted sit-up. Ultrasound is the first scan for a suspected hernia or a sore adductor, inguinal or hip flexor area, and most hernias are found by examination. For the hip joint, X-rays come first, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is for confirming or planning surgery.
Scans show findings in many people without pain: cam shapes in 37% of 2,114 pain-free hips (55% in athletes), and labral tears in 54% of people without hip pain against 62% with it. A painful deep squat moved the chance of cam impingement only from 30% to 36%, and a pain-free knee-to-opposite-shoulder test makes a hip joint problem unlikely while a painful one proves little. Scans matter after a pop with bruising, for groin pain that builds with every step, for a teenager with a limp, and when 3 months of exercise for hip pain hasn't helped.
Sources 1, 2, 56, 26, 27, 28, 24, 25, 33
How it usually goesEmerging evidence
NHS inform says most new hip problems should begin to settle within 6 weeks, and Arthritis UK that pain from overdoing exercise "often clears up within a few days". Sudden adductor strains in 81 male athletes were pain-free in a median of 13 days and back in full training in 18; complete tendon tears took 55 to 78 days, and 16 athletes with a complete tear treated without surgery returned to sport in a median of 69 days.
Long-standing adductor pain is slower: about 3 months on a structured programme in 15 athletes, and only half fully back by 6 months with looser care. People with hip impingement improved by about 20 points on a 100-point scale over 6 months of physiotherapy. No one can promise a date.
Sources 62, 64, 46, 47, 37, 38, 32
