Second amen for Compression shorts. I'd taken 3 months off from bowling due to change in schedule at work, then when a charity tournament opp came up, I had 2 weeks to get ready. Even though I stretched before what was to be a normal practice session of 8 games, later that day I realized that if I had the opportunity, I shoulda done a 3 or 4 game block over a couple of days.
Took an old pair of compression shorts I hadn't used in almost a decade, which were one size too small -- which made for a totally different set of distractions while bowling, and did rather well with not near the pain that I had been having. Of course, I also had taken 3 Alleve an hour or two before bowling in the tourney, so that helped also.