The effectiveness of the Copenhagen adduction exercise on improving eccentric hip adduction strength among soccer players with groin injury: a randomized controlled trial.

Groin strains linked to the adductor muscles are common in soccer, and clinicians often debate what to add to standard rehabilitation to help players recover strength and reduce pain. This small randomized trial compared a rehabilitation program with the Copenhagen Adduction Exercise added against the same program without it, in thirty male soccer players followed over eight weeks. Both groups improved on every measure tracked, including eccentric hip adduction strength, hip range of motion, pain, and self-reported hip and groin disability, but the group that did the added exercise showed a greater increase in strength and a greater reduction in pain, along with better scores on the disability questionnaire.

Hip range of motion did not differ meaningfully between groups. The main limitation is the small sample, just fifteen players per group, which limits how confidently these between-group differences can be generalized to the broader soccer population or to female players, who were not included.

If you have had a groin strain from soccer, you may wonder whether a specific exercise added to your rehab program actually helps beyond the exercises already included. This study looked at exactly that question, using a particular exercise that trains the inner thigh muscles while they lengthen, known as the Copenhagen Adduction Exercise.

Thirty male soccer players followed an eight-week program, with half doing this added exercise and half following the standard program without it. Both groups got better over the eight weeks, which makes sense since both were doing structured rehabilitation. But the group that included the added exercise showed a bigger improvement in muscle strength, a bigger drop in pain, and better scores on a questionnaire about hip and groin function, compared to the other group.

Flexibility around the hip improved similarly in both groups. This is encouraging but comes from a small study of thirty men, so it is not yet clear how reliably these differences would hold up in a larger, more varied group of players, including women.

This is a summary of research, not medical advice. Talk to your own healthcare provider about anything affecting your care.

This trial speaks to a specific rehabilitation question for adductor-related groin pain in male soccer players: does adding the Copenhagen Adduction Exercise to a standard program produce better outcomes than the program alone? Both the intervention group and control group improved significantly within themselves across eccentric hip adduction strength, hip range of motion, pain, and Copenhagen Hip and Groin Outcome Score subscales over eight weeks of twice-weekly sessions. The between-group comparisons favored the exercise-added group, with a mean difference of 0.49 Nm/kg in eccentric hip adduction strength (95% CI 0.31 to 0.66) and a pain reduction difference of 1.60 points (95% CI -2.18 to -1.02), alongside better HAGOS subscale scores; range of motion showed no significant between-group difference. This offers reasonably direct support for including this exercise as an add-on component, though the comparator group also received structured rehabilitation rather than no treatment, so the added benefit appears attributable to the specific exercise rather than general attention effects.

The main limitation for applying this is the small sample, fifteen per arm, male-only soccer players, and no mention of long-term follow-up or return-to-sport outcomes, so durability and generalizability to other populations remain unestablished.