Training injuries

[Spartacus Maximus]

Training injuries can happen to anyone regardless of experience and even with the best of precautions. What is the worst and/or most painful injury you have ever had during training?

Luckily the worst I ever had were a badly sprained thumb that took nearly three months to heal. The second one was a nasty black eye, which was as painful as embarrassing because everyone asked about it at work and at school. Fortunately, I never broke anything or had anything serious enough to requiring medical attention.

At this time I feel quite safe because my instructor is qualified to treat most injuries that are likely to happen, including broken bones. As a bonus there are at least 5 hospitals or clinics within 5km of the dojo.

[bushido_man96]

The longest lingering injury I had was a pulled hamstring muscle. Near as I could tell, it was pulled in the base leg from doing reverse/spin side kicks. It took what felt like a year to get better. But, I was able to train with it.

I had a shoulder impingement worked on a while back, and that took me out for several months. That really sucked. I still can't do bench presses because of it, and my shoulder acts more like a barometer now.

[sensei8]

I've had my share of a plethora of injuries over the past 52 years in the MA. I suppose my worse injury occurred in 1976 when I broke my left collar bone practicing something that I had no business doing on my own without any proper supervision. Took well over 6 months before I was cleared by my doctor to return full speed on the floor.

[hammer]

Pulled calf muscle a few times, broken toes twice.

Have had bruised sternum, slightly bruised ribs, and bruised thigh from competition kumite...all took just a few weeks to recover.

[mushybees]

Bone bruise to the sternum for me as well. Couldn't train for a month.

Also dislocated thumb, turf toe and a hyperextended elbow that still causes me bother 5 months on.

[tallgeese]

The worst acute was broken ribs The worst lingering was a fractured schaphoid bone in my wrist that still gives me problems (non-unioin fracture.)

It always seems like I'm dealing with tendentious somewhere plus an elbow that got hyperextended last year in an arm bar just won't go away.

Well, that's 44 and training for you.

[Alan Armstrong]

Sticking with just training sustained damage:

Broken finger; by using inappropriate block for a kick using JKD against TKD.

Twisted ankle; from sprinting, changing direction too quickly.

Busted nose twice; due to sparring with a Muay Thai Boxer from Thailand.

Eye damage, from accidental gauges in a JKD class.

Black eye, from an accidental elbow strike when sparring with girlfriend.

Sprained wrists, from very quick takedowns in Aikido.

Ligament damage to both knees knees, from practicing kicks on inappropriate kicking surface in a JKD class.

Fractured elbow; from hitting kiln dried posts too hard.

Fractured shin, from accidentally hitting the corner of a wall, while practicing a spinning kick in my bedroom.

Pulled hamstring, from ballistic stretching exercises.

Concussion due to being punched in the head, during a Judo class.

Damaged neck vertebrae, from a JKD hook kick.

Testicle bruises, from inappropriate low kicks while sparring in a Shotokan Dojo.

....................................................

Plenty of other sustained damages due to real fights and from tournaments.

As well as injuries from motorcycle accidents.

Not forgetting damage from neighborhood thug beatings.

Including work related injuries.

If I was a cat, my nine lives would surely be all used up by now.

[Nidan Melbourne]

I've only ever had 4 injuries from Training, and in hindsight they were my own fault.

- Dislocated Small Toe (I relocated it)

- Hyperextended Knee (Ouch!!!)

- Dislocated Right Shoulder (x2)

[Lupin1]

The worst injury I've seen at my dojo was a broken nose when I was very little (two teenage siblings going overboard with the rivalry). I got hurt a lot more in the eight months I did Judo than I ever have at karate (one of the reasons I stopped Judo).

I am suffering from a training-related injury right now, however. Around January I got hit in the chest too hard and it sparked a costochondritis flair up (inflammation in the cartilage of the ribs and sternum). It was really bad for a few weeks and I had to skip training. It got better, but then a few weeks ago I hurt my foot while running. The doctor said it was plantar faciitis, but the fact that my whole foot swelled tells me there was something else going on in addition to that. Anyway, I was on crutches for a week and it caused my costo to come back, so right now I'm nursing both that and ongoing soreness in my foot.

[sensei8]

Thus far, we've all had our fair share of training related injuries, from minor to major, all in all, I believe all of us wouldn't trade in those injuries for anything. The long and the short of it all is...

...that which injures us, strengthens us the ever more!! 7 times down...8 times up!!

PS: Outsiders of the MA might think of us as the most injury prone people on the planet; wondering why we do the MA at all. Because we love the MA!!