How to train around your injuries

How to train while injured

  If you train regularly, there is a pretty good chance you may come across an injury or two.  Regardless of what fitness system you practice or martial art you practice, injuries are a common occurrence.  There are disciplines where you will be more susceptible to injuries. For instance Mixed Martial Arts and Brazilian jiu jitsu are both combat arts.  When you practice fighting, bumps, bruises, strains etc… are going to happen sooner or later. I even know women who have twisted their ankles doing Zumba! So does this mean that you should not exercise when injured? Absolutely not! There are ways to train around your injuries.

A perfect example of this is yours truly. I was training for my 16th Bjj tournament as a brown belt recently.  Then I started to feel some discomfort in my shoulder.  Day by day the pain got worse to the point where any pushing or pulling exercises became very difficult to do.  This was extremely frustrating because I could not do any pressing or rowing movements without feeling pain. Same goes for my Jiu Jitsu training.  Bjj involves constant pushing and pulling.  One of my students a Kinesiology major and therapist diagnosed it as tendonitis. She said basically it has to heal itself and that I should limit movement with my left arm. She also worked on it regularly which helped tremendously.

I could not stop training. So little by little I figured out how to work around it.  Push ups hurt. But doing them slowly from my knees were doable.  I could also do stagger push ups and hindu push ups. Kettlebell presses hurt as well. So, instead of doing over head presses, I substituted them for jerks.  Rowing movements were painful as well. But I realized by changes my rows using a kettlebell with my palm facing inward worked.  As far as my Jiu Jitsu goes, I had to adapt my game a bit and use my right arm more than my left. By keeping my elbow tight to my body while training helped tremendously.  Another important aspect of injuries is how to take care of it after your training. Ice packs are a regular thing for me. Its always good to keep a few in the freezer at all time. Massages and stretching are great as well.

So those are a few ideas on how you can train around your injuries! Being injured does not mean you have to stop working out. Just be mindful of your injuries and learn to find the exercises that you can do.  It worked for me and I ended up winning the gold medal in the IBBJF Las Vegas Open! 10431469_10204386064921242_3909085898004984494_n