Upper back pain after Judo

**dmyhra** · Posted On: 6/05/2011 1:31pm

Last week I had a hard practice with a pretty spirited randori session and now my whole neck and upper back are strained, it's hard to pick things up and to turn my head.
I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions on rehabbing my injuries because the rest of my body feels fantastic and I want to get back to training as soon as possible.

**judoka_uk** · Posted On: 6/05/2011 2:10pm

Rest. Ice. Compression

Then I usually use a combination of ibuprofen gel, stretching and masaging.

If it persists or there's serious restircted movement seek medical attention.

**LarsCG** · Posted On: 6/05/2011 6:00pm

I tend to get a specific muscle or group of muscles in my upper back pulled during judo training, leading to stiff neck and interesting discoveries of the "oh, getting stuff from the top shelves didn't always black me out from pain, did it?"-kind, but I chalk that up to getting old and not warming up and loosening up enough. Spend some extra minutes stretching and loosening up your upper back muscles before training - seems to work for me. Still, I'll be testing that gel judoka_uk mentions I reckon.

Regards,
Lars

**judoka_uk** · Posted On: 6/05/2011 6:07pm

Originally Posted by LarsCG

Still, I'll be testing that gel judoka_uk mentions I reckon.

Regards,
Lars

It might be illegal in the US because Ibuprofen is a Non steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drug a.k.a NSAID. Don't know about Sweden, when I went to Sweden it was to visit my girlfriend and so she was the only one pulling my muscles... waaay!

I and most other combat sport guys use the gel, because it can be topically applied to the inury point and so acts more directly in its anti-inflammatory capacity on the affected area.

I also use Deep Heat not sure what that's called outside of the US gel is best, try and avoid the spray because its less efficient and stinks out everywhere you spray it.

**The Juggernoob** · Posted On: 6/05/2011 6:59pm

Ibuprofen is Advil in the U.S and Bengay is basically deep heat.

**LarsCG** · Posted On: 6/06/2011 1:44pm

Originally Posted by judoka_uk

It might be illegal in the US because Ibuprofen is a Non steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drug a.k.a NSAID. Don't know about Sweden, when I went to Sweden it was to visit my girlfriend and so she was the only one pulling my muscles... waaay!

Hehehe yup, a Swedish girl is my main reason for being here too, though I'm Norwegian by birth... well, ibuprofen in pill-form is unregulated here but I haven't seen it in gel-form (I think). There's some acetylsalicylicacid (bugger knows if that's close to the English words for it) based gels available but they require you to stay out of sunshine for 2 weeks or some such nonsense... are those eejits totally unaware of how little sunlight we actually get up here in the cold north?? Now we've finally got decent temperatures outside (ran 6 km in splendid sunshine today, 20-odd degrees celcius) I am NOT going to deny my corpse-pale skin some delicious UV-rays just because of a daft gel... :-)

Regards,
Lars

**The Juggernoob** · Posted On: 6/06/2011 4:38pm

Originally Posted by LarsCG

Hehehe yup, a Swedish girl is my main reason for being here too, though I'm Norwegian by birth... well, ibuprofen in pill-form is unregulated here but I haven't seen it in gel-form (I think). There's some acetylsalicylicacid (bugger knows if that's close to the English words for it) based gels available but they require you to stay out of sunshine for 2 weeks or some such nonsense... are those eejits totally unaware of how little sunlight we actually get up here in the cold north?? Now we've finally got decent temperatures outside (ran 6 km in splendid sunshine today, 20-odd degrees celcius) I am NOT going to deny my corpse-pale skin some delicious UV-rays just because of a daft gel... :-)

Regards,
Lars

acetylsalicylicacid

is more or less aspirin, best to avoid mate.

**No.1_Son** · Posted On: 6/06/2011 5:12pm

NSAIDs are available in the US without a prescription at any drugstore & most supermarkets. I haven't seen the gel form, but I didn't know to look for it until now. Awesome idea.

**judoka_uk** · Posted On: 6/06/2011 5:27pm

Ahh ok then, I'm misinformed. Well if you can find the gel form get a load, because its way better than just taking a pill, as you apply it topically on where ever hurts with much greater benefit.

When I was training super hard in Rugby and Judo I had a tube of ibuprofen that lived in my bag along with a can of deep heat and another that lived in my bathroom.

You can get deep heat and deep freeze in tubes as well

Deep heat in a tube is way better than deep freeze though, you hardly notice deep freeze, but you definitely notice deep heat.

Once at Rugby after we had played and beaten St. Albans school we pinned down Eiffon-'Hyphen'-Jones and sprayed his balls with deep heat spray. That was fucking hilarious.

**1point2** · Posted On: 6/06/2011 11:15pm

Knowing nothing of your injury or broader physical situation, and having no scientific backing, I'd like to share my anecdotal experience.

I did judo and BJJ a lot, stretched my back a lot (cobra and knees-to-ears), and developed a lower back strain that took months to heal. RICE and NSAIDs helped in the short term, yoga helped in the intermediate term, but lifting weights (heavy below-parallel squats and heavy, careful deadlifts) are fixing the root cause. Namely, I had a weak back.

Again, I'm not sure if this carries over to your situation, but this realization helped me.