Well, it's time to quit Martial Arts for a while

[h_sh_m]

So the time has come.

If you're wondering, I'm 27 years old. I had no history of doing anything even mildly athletic, with the exception of lifting weights sporadically in the year before I started.

Here's a list of injuries currently affecting me. Note: Anything listed as 20% and below means that the pain/lack of functionality of this joint affects my everyday life. Anything 80% and above means I don't even notice it most of the time, but occassionally in training it'll remind you that it's there, and it could easily resurge more seriously at any moment:


(also enclosed as an attachment)


I'm on a standing dosage of 600mg of Ibueprofen (for pain and inflammation of traps), ~200mg of Cardamazapine (muscle relaxant for traps) and an antibiotic (for toe infection). Also I'm using zyrtec for allergies but neither here or there. Right now I can't stand up or sit upright for more than a few minutes at a time because my trapezius is so tight. I had to spend the whole day at home lying down. It's fucking time.

And that is truly bullshit. In almost 2 years of training I have yet to go through a full week without having to stop because something hurts too much. The worse part is that the rate at which I get hurt doesn't allow for the full rehabilitation of other injuries. Can't work certain parts if others aren't working.

I really don't want to stop. I truly hate it more than you can imagine. I seriously have dreams about this sport. (and cue the gay jokes)

I got a staph infection through an invisible mat burn on my knee in my first couple of weeks I ever started. Noone ever told me what staph was so I kept working figuring it was just another random pain. That took months to rehab from.

Learned about overuse injuries, tendon damage, rotator cuffs, turf toe, nutrition and supplementation, pretty much everything the hard way. The only instruction I ever received was in techniqes. 2 years of training and I've probably netted less than 1 year in the gym. Not to mention the time I've wasted babying things. I never even got to fight. **** this ****.

[Sang]

Maybe you are a hypochondriac?

If i had 20% functionality in my elbows i wouldn't be able to continue doing MT for a year and have the other problems start.

[h_sh_m]

You're misreading. This is the current status. It started a long time ago, then went away when I had to take a looooong time off (because of knee injury). Just restarted again two weeks ago. Yes, I wouldn't have been able to continue with it for a year.


It's on the inside of the elbow, so currently i've done certain things to work around it. First I missed a few classes and have been icing. Second I wear a brace on each elbow. Third, I avoid holding pads for people and will allow them to target me instead while i block, since this is less stressful on the muscle. This is easy to do when combined with: Third I stopped working with advanced people and basically choose whoever looks like they're a weak mofo in general. Fourth don't do any clinch work at all.

Also, it doesn't affect my ability to hit too much.

The thing that really hurts is doing the arm wrestling motion (sort of a lateral contraction - opposite of the direction a figure an Americana submission would push it). That is damn near impossible and hurts alot in everyday life (eg: when closing a heavy filing cabinet).

Also hurts to do a straight bicept curl.

[JohnnyCache]

I don't know what schedule you've been keeping but I think rather than viewing it as "quitting" you should view it as taking a few months to work on: Rehabbing everything, joint fitness, and flexibility. Start taking something like yoga for three months or so.

[Deadmeat]

Out of curiosity, how exactly did you sprain your wrists while holding thai pads?

From what I can gather a lot of these injuries seem to be the result of either poor form, or failing to warm up adequately prior to training (your hip, for example). Is it that you're too eager to just get in there and spar/drill.whatever, or is your instructor to blame for not instructing you adequately in the importance of both good form and adequate preparation for physical activities?

I'm not busting your chops or anything, just a little taken aback by such a drastic effect in such a short time. I've been involved in martial arts for around eight years (not counting karate and boxing when I was a kid), and only ever really hurt myself badly once, following which I took adequate time off to recover.

[h_sh_m]

how exactly did you sprain your wrists while holding thai pads?

Wrist: Just one wrist, and not a typical 'sudden' sprain. Working with someone stronger than me & about 5" taller, as I was holding for kicks I gradually began to feel a mild tingling pain in my wrist. Finished the kick heavy drill with moderate pain. The next day it had all the symptoms of a really bad sprain w/ severe pain on the pinky side of it and the hand being completely unusable (pronation/suppination is really the issue more than forward backward movement).

Took 2 days icing and compression, started stretching after that, and began strengthening exercises with a theraband then weights thereafter. Took a total of 2 weeks off and returned, but I still do the exercises. It's workable but still moderately fucked up though. If I warm it up really well, absorbing only the hardest punches and pretty much all knees will hurt it. Kicks I've found ways usually to work around.

My suspicion is that I was holding the pads wrong causing my hand to suppinate/pronate in a jerking way, not forcibly enough to cause a sprain in one go, but enough to cause problems after repeated instances. But I'm fairly certain I've gotten better at holding pads since.

Funny Story: I was paired up with some chick recently who started having what might've been same problem as she was holding pads for me. Her forearm looked kinda inflamed and was painful. I stopped the drill and got her one of those 'pop & use' instant ice packs (I carry a bunch of them now). Told her to ice it & massage it for a few minutes, wrap it up and go home. Finished the drill on a heavy bag. I forgot to check in with her the next day but like 4 days later when I remembered to ask she said it was back to normal.

From what I can gather a lot of these injuries seem to be the result of either poor form, or failing to warm up adequately prior to training (your hip, for example). Is it that you're too eager to just get in there and spar/drill.whatever, or is your instructor to blame for not instructing you adequately in the importance of both good form and adequate preparation for physical activities?

As far as I can tell, the hip injury is the only one i can blame on me failing to warm it up properly. Although it killed a week or so, I've since corrected that and it's one of those things I'm not worried about, because even though it's not at 100, I know it's getting better.

The trapezius was caused by bad form during an exercise i was doing to rehab mild pain that i mistakenly thought was coming from my rotator cuff (I was shrugging to cheat while doing rows). But the problem there was that the pain was misdiagnosed as a rotator cuff injury by my physical therapist when it was actually the traps acting up. So basically I exacerbated a pre-existing condition.

What caused the pre-existing condition? I don't know, but I suspect it was shitty form during thai boxing and generally too stressed out about getting hit. Now it's so tweaked even getting into an argument with someone will make it start hurting


Wait. what the **** am i doing? Noone can be masochistic enough to want to hear my amateur diagnosis of every injury I've gotten.

My point is that I think you've pretty much got it spot on. It's a combination of all the things you correctly pointed out and with the amount of damage i've taken there's more than enough to attribute to everything.

I've trained at 2 gyms with excellent reputations and I do think instructors have slacked off big time on enforcing/informing people of **** that could've saved me alot of grief. Thus my preaching **** like this like it's gospel:

http://www.bullshido.net/forums/show...48#post1728448
http://www.bullshido.net/forums/show...73#post1779773
http://www.bullshido.net/forums/show...07#post1763507

Believe me when I say, nothing has ever been taught to me but technique, and everything I ever learned in terms of injury prevention has come either from Bullshido or from research I've had to do after going through the **** myself.

I think that instructors will especially slack on telling you **** if you're an adult student. I don't know why but I think that's a pattern. Also, if you look somewhat athletic (I do even though I'm not) or you look like you know what you're doing (for some reason I do even when I don't).

So I blame a large part of it on this. Basically when you're a kid, you can expect attending a martial arts school to be a 'sensai' type situation where instruction will be all-encompassing (skills, general health, even moral education). If you're an adult be clear: this dude is only gonna teach you how to punch. That's it. If you can't fuckin walk the next day, you're assed out. Now granted at this age I don't need a fucking 'sensai' to teach me about "Disciprine!", but I would've thought the **** would be a little more comprehensive.

I mean seriously, when I first started, I wasn't even told grappling required a cup. Dude I haven't done anything athletic since gym class. And that was basketball. I don't know. You know how I found out about that ****? I happened to bump into Ming_Loyalist at a class where I got grazed in the nuts and he was like "Yeah, I don't even allow people to work in my class if they don't have a cup."

Or the idea that you can't just start attending class every day cause something will break, or that the same warm up that suffices for JJ may not work for MT. Or common conditions in the sport like turf toe or staph or any of that stuff. That's the worse part, maybe i've gotten my ass beat the most, but it seems like every other BJJ person I meet has turf toe.

Anyway, this is becoming a rant and I can't front like a good part of this isn't my fault slacking off on **** on my end or not having the discipline to take the necessary time off and pursue rehab. Also some part is just bad luck (after preparing for 2 months for NAGA I got a flu the day before haha).

I don't know what schedule you've been keeping but I think rather than viewing it as "quitting" you should view it as taking a few months to work on: Rehabbing everything, joint fitness, and flexibility. Start taking something like yoga for three months or so.

A few months? Damn... that even hurts to say.

[Robstafarian]

I think rather than viewing it as "quitting" you should view it as taking a few months to work on: Rehabbing everything, joint fitness, and flexibility. Start taking something like yoga for three months or so.

Quoted for truth.

I might be able to consult a little on the rehab, I've learned a lot through about a decade of physical therapy, though you should read this subforum's disclaimer twice after reading my suggestions.

As regards Yoga, my advice is to take it slow and easy. Some Yoga instructors teach their classes like it's a group activity, pushing the lowest achiever to emulate the rest of the group if (s)he can't perform the technique well. This mindset in and of itself isn't a bad thing, but it becomes downright dangerous when applied to some of the less...intuitive techniques that might be taught. Keep in mind the lessons learned from your (apparently) haphazard MMA instruction, listen to your body, and don't let yourself feel pressured to conform. "Position before submission" might seem really fucking funny after you've tied yourself into a pretzel, but don't laugh!

I may as well say at this point, since the question is bound to come, that I currently have no personal experience with Yoga; I am planning to start once my newest run of "holy ****! I'm out of shape!" gym work produces results. My comments on Yoga are my reinterpretation of what was told to me by a Yoga practitioner of many years when I told her of my plan.

[Goju - Joe]

Most of your injuries seem to be from Muay Thai, maybe you should concentrate on rehabing, core strengthening and then focus on BJJ for a bit

[Teh El Macho]

h_sh_m, when was the last time you checked yourself with a chiropractor AND a massage therapist, or at the very least, a massage therapist (someone that does that painful type of massage known as myofascial release/deep tissue)?

Several sessions of myofascial release will do wonders to anyone regardless of the injuries. Injuries just don't occur out of the blue (you know this already), and scar tissue accumulates over time causing a lot of problems (poor circulation, nerve impigment, muscle lenghtening/weakening causing its antagonist to shorten, etc.)

A chiro should also take a look at you. A herniated disk ends up flaring pain somewhere else, usually the extremities (aggravating ****.)

I'll echo JC's suggestion of doing Yoga for several months. Ashtanga, Iyengar or Bikram/Hot Yoga (Ashtanga being the hardest in terms of strenght training, Iyengar uses a lot of props to compensate for people's inflexibilities, and Bikram is done in a hot room to improve elasticity.)

Taking care of injuries, however long it takes, is not giving up, quitting or wasting time dude.

[A.D.D]

I say this everytime I post but you should take large doses of fish oil for your joints. It is also a mild anti-inflammatory so that should help with inflammation 24/7. Not to mention the myriad of other health benefits you experience.