Preventing injuries

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Training and Health
1

I know it is impossible for martial artists to prevent all injuries but what are some of the injuries you’ve received that could have been prevented? I want to dig into the collected wisdom of kfm ers here. At a local jiu jitsu club a guy broke his arm from being taken down. This influanced one of the places I train (Pitt grappling club) to make breakfalls to be a part of every warm up. The proper way to fall can benefit every martial artist.

     One reoccurring injury I have is with my neck, and it is most preventable.  Any time I lose my warmup (period of inactivity) and then go back to exercise I hurt my neck.  By staying warmed up and loose I can avoid this.  Staying in good shape in general prevents injuries.  


      Proper training equipment also helps.  Mouthpiece and groin protector are the essentials, but of course there is much more protective gear out there.

Our hobby/sport/interest is dangerous. What are some of the ways you make it more safe?

2

My injuries:
Sprained left ankle: During a take down attempt, I was caught flat footed. My opponent swept my leg but then fell on me.

How could this have been avoided? It was all my fault. My footwork was bad. Practice your foot work. Another argument for forms.

Tendonitis in left knee: This occured from over training and a lack of strength and flexibility. I was putting in some serious mileage running and attending my kung fu class at least 3 times a week. Several days I had double workouts. I ramped up in my intensity too quickly while my body wasn’t ready for the additional stress.

How could this have been avoided? Slowly increase your intensity. Weight train to promote strength and flexibility. For me, the compound lifts are best. Squats, Deadlifts, Squat Cleans. Clean and Press, Clean and Jerk.

Tendonitis in both shoulders: This sucked. I had it in my left shoulder first and struggled for a long time on how to fix it. Finally after about 18 months it went away. Turns out I was doing all the wrong stuff to get rid of it. I then got it in my right shoulder and because I had learned my lesson, I got rid of it in about 3 months.

How could this have been avoided? Again, SLOWLY INCREASE YOUR INTENSITY. Preventative strength exercises and slowly ramping up in bag work.

Sprained right ankle: Again, I was caught flat footed. This time while my instructor was demonstrating a technique. To be honest, I was scared. When this guy brings it, he brings it all 100%. I froze up and was taken down. All my fault again.

How could this have been avoided? I should have more confidence in my ability. Again my foot work is still too stiff. Proper break falling technique would have helped A LOT!

So here’s how you don’t get injured.

  1. Learn proper techniques and practice them. Practice footwork. Be light on your feet when you need to be. Be rooted when you need to be. Practice going from rooted to light and back. Learn how to fall.

  2. Strength train. I’m not a big fan of the body building workouts. I prefer the compound lifts. I believe they promote full body strength and train your muscles through a natural range of motion.

  3. Ramp up your intensity slowly. This goes for everything from cardio work to strength training to sparring. Take your time, learn proper form and technique and ramp up slowly.

That’s all I’ve got. Hopefully someone can learn from my mistakes and NOT get injured.

Just a comment on injuries and the responsibility of Sifu.

While I don’t blame my old sifu/instructors form my injuries, I do think that they were partially responsible. I accept the fact that I willingly put myself into these dangerous situations but I had to learn these lessons the hard way.

I think from day one at a school, the idea of safety and preventing injury should be at the forefront of every single lesson. My old school didn’t even have a first aide kit. I sparined my ankle. My sifu told me that he didn’t have any ice and shrugged his shoulders. Injury prevention techniques need to be a part of martial arts and in my opinion, teaching martial arts and not having an emphasis on safety is irresponsible.

Rant over.

3

RICE is not just a type of grain.:smiley:

I may suck to take the time off, but pulled muscles that don’t get healing time and good treatment will bug you forever.

This is one I still have troubles with…:o

I pulled my hamies, in both legs, the last time I rank tested. But I’d worked so hard to get ready for the test, I didn’t want to loose my conditioning. I ended up loosing almost a foot from my stradle splits and well mor than that on kicking hight. Now if I’d just let them rest for a few weeks afterward…:rolleyes:

4

check the ego at the door: if you’re hurt, be hurt - there’s no shame in it;

if you are prone to something specific, respect it, denial ain’t justa river in Egypt

don’t be amazed if you hae some new ache or pain that you never got before: my favorite line from patients is “It never happened before” in a sort of surprised voice; the body is like the stock market: past performance is no guarantee of future behavior

the injury prevention stuff that Chief Fox says above is basically right on the $, especially #3 (the part about ramping up SLOWLY) and it’s nicely organized, so go back and re-read it, yes that means YOU

now here’s the kicker:
BEFORE YOU GET HURT go and find a GOOD PT, LMT, OMD, DC, DO, ATC (whatever, it doesn’t matter too much if they are GOOD; if they s*ck, it doesn’t matter what their degree is) and then have them work on you a few times BEFIRE YOU GET HURT; the logic is that a) they might be able to work out some stuff sitting in the system that is presymptomatic but that may be predisposing you to something; b) if / when you DO get hurt, THEY ALREADY KNOW YOU - that way, they don’t have to fix someone they;ve never seen before, which is easier, and since they know what you were like pre-injury, they know where they want you to be and they already have a baseline against which to measure your progress

another good thing to do is get involved in some sort of body awareness practice: yoga, tai chi, qigong, Feldenkreis, Alexander, Contact Improv, whatever: this is for several resasons - it’s not goal / results oriented the same way other activities can be, so you do it for its own sake, and so you learn to take the time to listen to yourself; also, it’s a good balance for more aerobic / kinetic stuff; it’s something you can do even when injured so you don’t feel like a total schlub and because a lot of it is restorative it may even help you mend up faster; finally, eventually the level of awareness you have will improve to the point where even moving quickly you will be able to self correct and potentially avoid injury at that speed

that’a sll for now: if anyone has specific questions, i am happy to try to answer them, as always

5

Your body and health are your own responsibility and you will have to live with the results, be they positive or negative.

Many times you will incur some form of injury, especially in a combat oriented school. During sparring, high intensity drilling, or even just strenuous conditioning.
Does not help if your instructor is not well versed in any healing modality.

Many people that come into martial arts schools are middle aged, out of shape, with preexisting injuries/conditions that are only aggravated by rigorous training.

Common injuries occur in one’s joints -
knee problems (from stance training), elbows (hyperextending from sparring), wrists (hitting the bag/people incorrectly), lumbar region (twisting/torquing).

Know what areas of your body are imbalanced.
Address this with manual therapy, isolation strength exercises, and stretching.
Understand the basics of kinesiology in relation to your own body.

6

Current injuries

I have 2 current injuries that I cant seem to get rid of. If someone has any sage advice i would appreciate it…

  1. Both of my knees crack when i put pressure on them and bend them, ie going up/down stairs, squating, etc. My left knee is worse then the right and seems to be weak at a certain angle like 45 degrees or so and has recently started hurting more. Dont know what to do but to try and stretch it and take glucousamine and condroitent(sp?)
  2. My calf muscles tear when I run more than twice a week. If tried gradually building up my muscles, run/walking, walking. I dont know what to do. I try to strengthen them and they seem to “hurt” when I put too much pressure on the ie weight. So im kind of in a weird situation…

Has anyone experienced any of these injuries and know what to to that might help?

Thanks,

Rick

7

First off, go to the doctor. There is all kinds of bad, bad, bad issues with miss-diagnosing yourself.

The calf muscle injury, while horrible, will start to ease up on it’s own. It’s not so much that they tear every time you run. More like you re-tear the healing scar tissue. It definantly takes longer to heal if you don’t keep off it, but it will heal while you keep training on it if you don’t get stupid.

I have had some luck with accupunturist on elbow issues like what you are describing. I have never had knee injuries (knock on wood) but I have heard others who have, also found great results with accupuncture.

But go to a doctor you trust to see an injury first. You could very easily mess something up but treating it wrong.