Martial Art Injuries

SEANoftheDEAD

Right,

Been training in a traditional Jiu-Jitsu for about a year and a half now.
First few weeks I was grand, not a bother, then after about 2 months starting picking up little injuries here and there. All muscle pulls btw. Mostly in the rib area and the hamstring.

In August I tore something on lower back that kept me from training right up until 2 weeks ago, now tonight I'm in pain again cause I've torn something on my chest going onto my shoulder and I've a horrible sensation shooting from my wrist up to the chest...

Other students seem to pick up a few niggles here and there. But I am wondering what is wrong with me as I always seem to do something a bit more serious.

Is it something lacking in my diet that has my muscles so weak?
Anyone else, about a year into there martial art training have a similar problem?

I should point out, that outside of the dojo, I go gym and do would be doing a good work-out 4-5 times a week. Never once in the gym or going on a jog does anything happen injury wise...

Bres

Maybe you should ask your instructor, you could be overworking your muscles. See if your instructor has any functional exercises you can do in the gym that would benefit your martial art as opposed to just using machines in a gym

MartyMcFly84

How often to you stretch? Whats your warm up/down like? what kind of exercises do you do in the gym?

i.e If you have been doing isolated weight exercises over a period of time and not working on flexibility it can cause tightness in the muscles that can easily tear now you are doing martial arts that require a greater range of movement.

You should try spending time stretching everyday, and work on your flexibility. Make sure you are warmed up and loose as possible before starting class.

I am not a doctor or physio, but I encountered similar problems in my shoulders and back when I moved from Rugby to BJJ, and changing my routine in the gym and stretching really helped me.

SDTimeout

Fingers and toes.

Always the fingers and toes.

Doug Cartel

I was out for ages with a shoulder injury. Then when I came back I hurt my opposite shoulder/neck because I'd lost mobility in my thoracic spine. Had to do a load of work to get mobility back, but ever since I haven't had any problems.

Similarly, years ago I used to constantly hurt my lower back, then after I hurt it particularly bad (while dead-lifting about 40kg!) my physio diagnosed me with poor mobility in my hips. Once I got that mobility fixed I've had no real problems with my back since.

Basically I think you need to make sure you have good mobility, especially at the hips. This is *not* the same thing as flexibility, I think you can be very flexible, but still have bad movement patterns.

SEANoftheDEAD

MartyMcFly84 wrote: »

How often to you stretch? Whats your warm up/down like? what kind of exercises do you do in the gym?

i.e If you have been doing isolated weight exercises over a period of time and not working on flexibility it can cause tightness in the muscles that can easily tear now you are doing martial arts that require a greater range of moment.

You should try spending time stretching everyday, and work on your flexibility. Make sure you are warmed up and loose as possible before starting class.

Cheers man, this (i think) is good advice. I will admit to cutting short on the stretch's sometimes...

it seem's the problem here is down to myself anyway... I had fears of maybe it was poor instruction, but some of the responses on here have put my mind to ease.

SEANoftheDEAD

Doug Cartel wrote: »

Basically I think you need to make sure you have good mobility, especially at the hips. This is *not* the same thing as flexibility, I think you can be very flexible, but still have bad movement patterns.

Any recommendations on what exercises will do this? Well what you find works best...

Thanks.