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Preventing Injuries

Written by

Eric Wong

in

First off, being a loyal Canuck, I’d like to wish you all a Happy Canada Day!

Now with the patriotism out of the way, I had a funny experience playing SURGEON a couple days ago.

I was at a birthday party for  a buddy of mine (my BJJ cornerman Youssef turned 29) and my girlfriend was walking around in barefoot by the pool and this is what she got in her foot:

spear1

OK – in reality maybe it was only abot 3 mm in length, but it still hurt.

But she let it sit there for a day and because of this, we get an important lesson.

The lesson is to NOT leave little annoyances alone, hoping they’ll go away, if there is something you can do about it.

I’m currently working with a fighter right now (I can’t name him because I don’t want his upcoming opponent to know what’s up) who has a bad shoulder issue.

After talking with him, it’s clear to me that he could’ve prevented this problem, had he gotten a coach to teach him proper training technique and get put on a program that prevents injuries while improving strength and conditioning.

But, the little ache in the shoulder is now a real, constant pain, and prevents me from doing any overhead movements, barbell presses, and many medicine ball throws.

We’re working around it, but there are some elements that I like to have in an S&C program that we just can’t do.

Back to the sliver for a sec – the next day, the sliver got pushed in deeper and got all puffy and red. I had to play surgeon and dig a nice little hole in the bottom of my girlfriend’s foot to get it out, causing a lot more pain and annoyance than if she would’ve gotten it out when she first noticed it.

So what I’m wondering is if you’ve ever let something hang around that you paid for with more pain/lost training time that you can share with us so no one else has to go through it?

Please leave your thoughts/comments below:

 

 

Comments

5 responses to “Preventing Injuries”

  1. Kenny Avatar
    Kenny

    I had three instances where I let something go and paiid for it later.I’m actually still paying for one right now. The first happened to me in 2000 with my right shoulder. I started having a twinge here ant there, but ignored it and kept training anyway. I ended up tearing my labrium, and had to have three bolts in my shoulder to cure cronic instability. What cuased the problem initialy was an imbalance between my back and chest. My Chest was much stronger than all the little back muscles, which pulled my shoulders forward causing bad technique. I was told by my physical therapist to try to correct this, which I didn’t listen, and it caught up to me again in 2007 with my other shoulder. This time it was a infraspinaus strain, that took every day of a year and a half to heal. The third problem I have is I have a weak core. I injured my back in 2004 bad enough to be on bedrest for a week, and again, my physical therapist told me how to correct the problem and I didn’t listen. I have recently re-injured my back in late april, and while it’s tolerable pain, I can’t train the way I want, with the intensity I want until the pain goes away completely. My advice, LISTEN TO YOUR DOCTOR AND PHYSICAL THERAPIST!!!!! THEY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT!!! I’m 33 now and feel like I’m 53 due to these isuues, which could’ve been avoided if I hadn’t been so hard-headed.

    Reply
  2. hayden Avatar
    hayden

    i had a muscle imbalance in my leg. one day at training i used bad technique and my knee cap dislocated. i was on bed rest for a couple of weeks and by the end i had lost alot of muscle in that leg

    Reply
    1. Eric Avatar
      Eric

      What was the imbalance? Strength or flexibility?

      Reply
      1. hayden Avatar
        hayden

        my glutes were weak, the inside of my legs were weak and the outside were strong and tight. sorry i don’t know the proper names. Since then I have had to make sure my knees stay over my feet during squats so the strong parts don’t take over, also I use a foam roller down the side of my leg to loosen it

        Reply
        1. Eric Avatar
          Eric

          Common problem… weak glutes, vastus medialis – short and tight IT band…

          Reply

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