As a combat sports athlete we’ve all experienced injuries that have kept us off the mats; they never heal as quickly as we’d like, but eventually we’re able to return to full training. For some unlucky ones, no matter what they do can’t seem to kick their injuries. After what seems like a period of good rest and rehabilitation, they continue to have recurrent episodes after training.
If this is you, it’s obviously concerning and the looming question running through your mind is ‘will I ever get back to full training?’. In all honesty, there’s not much that would keep you away forever if managed correctly. However, if you have carried an injury for a long period, your first step should be to consult a GP that knows about what you do and get them to run some tests just to make sure nothing sinister is going on, i.e. fractures, ruptures or anything of that nature. Once these have been ruled out, the next step is to consult a therapist that knows your sport and knows rehabilitation.
This is something that I personally had to deal with several years ago. Following a particularly intense judo session I injured my shoulder. Initially I didn’t think much of it and continued to train for the remainder of the session. Over the next week or so things got worse and I tried to train around this injury with no success. I was in so much pain that I was waking throughout the night and was so weak that I couldn’t even grip fight against kids. It turns out that I had a severe tear of my rotator cuff where it attaches to the upper arm. Unfortunately, I did end up having to take time off the mats; however I spent my extra time in the gym, rehabbing my shoulder and working on other weak points. Two months later I was able to get back to drilling, another two months after this I was able to return to live rolling and sparring.
What I’m trying to say is that even though it feels like these injuries won’t get better, there is a light at the end of the tunnel; you might just need someone to steer you in the right direction and point it out for you. Given the nature of our sports, injuries are inevitable. However it is only rare circumstances that an injury will cut short your training career.
If you can relate to any of the above, I’d like to offer you a comprehensive injury assessment and movement screening so I can tailor an injury management and rehabilitation program to get you back to your sport. This is a 60 minute consult for the price of a 30minute appointment, giving us the opportunity to thoroughly get to the core issue and any other problems that might also be contributing.