If you train MMA, injuries are the norm, not the exception.
But even if you don’t train MMA but you go to the gym and push yourself to reach higher levels of fitness, sooner or later, something’s gonna happen.
That’s just the way it is.
Over the last few years, more and more little aches and pains and nagging things have been coming up.
Some attribute it to age (I’m 32)…
I don’t buy it. And neither should you.
Here’s why:
Yes, aging makes your tissues less injury-proof and makes recovery take longer.
But let me ask you a question…
Let’s say 2 guys workout 3-4 days per week, who would be more likely to experience an injury:
The 60 year old guy with perfect movement mechanics, a deep intuitive understanding of his body and top-notch nutrition, sleep and stress management…
… or the 30 year old guy who’s got terrible form in the gym, doesn’t listen to his body, eats like crap and has a high-stress job and 2 young kids?
Exactly.
Age isn’t the determining factor.
Plus, there’s nothing you can do about it, so fuggedaboutit!
Either way, one thing we can all agree on is that injuries are a pain in the ass and can be a real downer…
Nothing worse than making super gains in some area of fitness, then having to sit out for a few weeks and watch them wither away…
But as an S&C coach, I’ve shifted my perspective on injuries lately.
Whenever I’ve had an injury, I’ve learned so much about my body and how it functions. Injuries have a ton of teaching power.
I’ve gained a deeper understanding of what muscles work during what movements and how my body naturally compensates to avoid others.
This knowledge has definitely made me a better coach by improving the effectiveness of my cues.
And having different types of injuries over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are 3 basic types of injuries that we get.
Injury Type #1: Accidental and Incidental
These are the types of injuries that happen and when people see it happen they rush over to you and say, “Are you ok?”
“Ahhhhhhh shit, fuck, #@$#%!” is the typical reply of the person who got injured.
When I was 18, I got smashed into the boards from behind playing ice hockey and I suffered an SC joint sprain. This was an incidental injury.
Luckily it wasn’t too bad as I was out of commission for only a few weeks.
Another hockey flashback – when I was a kid I was playing street hockey with my brothers and as I was running, I tripped and smashed my mouth on the pavement.
Chipped a tooth, bloodied a lip, but not too bad. You may have noticed I have uneven front teeth – this is why.
And there was nothing I could’ve done about either injury so there’s not much more to say about accidental and incidental injuries other than they suck.
Parkour is also a good source for accidental and incidental injuries:
Injury Type #2: WTF?
These are injuries that happen and when they do, you’re like, “WTF?”
Recently, I was at the cottage and I was walking and all I did was turn my body a little bit and suddenly pain shot through my knee like a lightning bolt.
I hobbled on one leg over to the couch to assess the damage. I sat down and moved my knee around a bit, thinking the pain would just go away because nothing really happened.
But the pain didn’t go away. In fact, it lasted for over a week and I just got back to leg training 2 days ago.
I’ve racked my brain trying to think about what happened and how to prevent it, but I can’t come up with anything.
All I can do is hope it doesn’t happen again.
Just like with accidental and incidental injuries, not much you can do, so nothing to think about.
Injury Type #3: Arrogant and Ignorant
In this classification system, these are the only injuries you can actually do anything about.
When I was 14, I had fairly major back surgery that left me lying on back to recover for 2 full months.
Because a surgeon’s job is to do his thing then send you on your merry way, I didn’t know that I would have to deal with issues like muscular strength and length imbalances.
So once I got past the stage of working out where my main goal was to pump up my bicepz to impress the honeys and I started Squatting, shit got real.
Back pain and SI joint pain were common after heavy squat sessions.
Until I learned why they were happening to me and what to do about it in university under the tutelage of Dr. Stu McGill.
But before then, I was ignorant to where my problems were coming from and suffered Ignorant Injuries as a result.
Since I’ve dedicated the past 14 years of my life to studying how to turn the human body into a vicious fighting machine, the amount of potential ignorant injuries has gone down while the potential amount of arrogant injuries has gone up.
I say potential because the injuries don’t have to occur, if you take preventative action once you learn what you’re doing or not doing that might result in an injury.
Lately, my biggest issues have been with my knees…
For example, whenever I’ve gotten to around 250 lbs on the Back Squat, my knees started to feel it.
Thing is, I knew what was up.
But like the silly ostrich, I kept my head buried in the sand, hoping it would just go away.
Unfortunately, this strategy failed.
Miserably.
Which is why I’ve dedicated so much time and energy to fixing the problem – my tight ass hips.
In my next post I’m going to show you how tight hips can cause knee problems, but until then…
What injuries have you had and based on the 3 types here, how would you classify them?
Let me know in the Comments below.
