In this article I will talk about something very important: injuries. I’ve been practicing martial arts all my life.

From a very early age, I started with judo and sambo. Later, I trained in boxing, kickboxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA (mixed martial arts). These sports are amazing, and they can completely transform your life. They build your body and spirit, and give you the confidence you need to conquer the world. Nothing comes close to the pleasure that a person experiences while practicing and improving in sports like these. I can talk about the benefits of martial arts all day but this is not the main subject of this blog. I will talk about the dark side -injuries. Yes, being involved in fighting sports opens up huge possibilities for injuries. Everyone who’s serious about their training has been there. It’s hard. It’s depressing. Its sucks. But if you train smart you will decrease the chance of getting hurt.

Both my love for martial arts and my profession as a Personal Trainer gives me a deeper understanding of body mechanics, and the opportunity to help people who share my passions for combat sports.

Every sport has specific movement patterns that develop certain muscles. If you follow the rule that practice makes perfect, you may pick a couple of moves that you focus on until you master them. For example, boxers need to throw punches to develop specific endurance. Doing these exercises for years makes their pectoral and anterior shoulders muscles very tight. Their posterior chain muscles (rhomboids and lower trapezius) stay relatively weaker. Over time, this can lead to impingement issues. You need to have structural balance in order to stay healthy and injury free. You must have a good stretching program for the tight areas and a strengthening program for the weaker muscles. Some of the best assessments to find muscle imbalances are the Overhead Squats and the difference between push and pull strength. Find a specialist to assess your body and design the best program for you. This will ensure your best performance in the gym, and will keep you there

The wrist and the hands are the most commonly injured areas in fighters. Knowing this, every fighter should spend time focusing on strengthening their grip and forearms. The best way to do this is by using thick bars and dumbbells. The diameter of the men’s Olympic bar is 28 mm (1.1 inches). A thick bar is around 50-76 mm (2-3 inches).

A study published in the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics in 1992 looked at the training effects of three different bar diameters. To determine the neuromuscular effects of each grip, the researchers used electromyographic (EMG) testing. Using the larger diameter bar produced the greatest neuromuscular response. This is evidence that using thick-bar training can increase not only strength–especially in the more powerful fast-twitch muscle fibers–but also performance when the athlete goes back to a regular barbell, by as much as 10-12 percent. If your gym doesn’t have these types of bars you can use special handles that attach to a regular bar. These are called FAT GRIPZ, and you can buy them from Amazon. You can use them on bars, dumbbells, chin-up bars and many other places.

This type of training must be performed at the end of your routine as it’s very challenging and will affect your performance on the other exercises.

Neck training in fighting is life insurance. A strong neck is essential because it helps transfer the force received by the punch in the head to the torso. This will help avoid heavy concussions and brain injuries.

Due to the high risk of concussions in American football, coaches have been experimenting with specialized neck training programs to see if they can reduce the incidence of concussions. Coaches from the University of Memphis during the 2010 and 2011 seasons were able to reduce concussions by 50% after implementing a neck strength program.

When I say neck exercise I’m not talking about doing wresting bridges, as this puts too much stress on the ligaments. The best way to train the neck is seated on a machine. You need to perform 4 basic movements: flexion, extension, lateral flexion and rotation. You need to perform these movements very slowly and never go to failure, as those muscles are easy to strain

Shoulder injuries are the second most common after injuries to the hands and wrist. To minimize your risk, the best approach is to reduce the amount of stress your shoulders are exposed to during training, while also increasing their ability to tolerate stress.

• Use the right gloves. Don’t use MMA gloves on a heavy bag. Spend the most time on a double end speed bag. Your shoulders will thank you later.
• Avoid doing exercise that’s heavy on the shoulders. An example is hitting a tire with sledgehammer. It’s a great exercise for the oblique abdominal muscles but it’s very hard on your shoulders.
• Never use bands for shadow boxing. Only use them in the weight room attached to a barbell. This type of training should be done wisely because it’s stressful on the shoulders. However, in moderation, it can do wonders.

One of the biggest mistakes some athletes make is with stretching. They increase the possibility of injury without even knowing it. Doing the wrong stretch before a workout can affect strength as well. You need to know what type of stretching to perform before and after your training. You should do dynamic stretching before training and static and PNF at the end.

• A very popular method is Fascial Stretch Therapy created by Chris and Ann Frederick. With this method you can target the fascia, a type of connective tissue that runs throughout the body and provides stability to the limbs.
• Foam rollers are another famous item at the gym. Although they have value in postural correction by helping to open up the intervertebral spaces in the spine, research suggests they have little value in improving flexibility.

In an eight-week study published in 2006 involving 23 men and women, results suggested that 30 sec of foam rolling on each of the lower-limbs and back had no effect on performance and flexibility.

REFERENCES:

• Caine, Denis John; Caine, Caroline G; Linder, Koenraad J. Epidemiology of Sports
• Injuries. Human Kinetics, 1996
• Frederick, Chris; Frederick, Ann. Stretch to Win. Human Kinetics, 2006
• Grant K, Habes D, Steward. LL. An analysis of handle designs for reducing manual
• effort: the influence of grip diameter. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics.
• 1992;10(3):199-206
• Heads up. A CDC website to help you recognize, respond to, and minimize the risk of
• concussion or other serious brain injury. Center for Disease Control and Prevention
• http://www.cdc.gov/headsup/index.html
• Miller, Jacklyn K; Rockey, Ashley M. Foam rollers show no increase in the flexibility
• of the hamstring muscle group Journal of Undergraduate Research 2006.
• Viano, David C; Casson, Ira R;, Elliot J.
• Concussion in professional football: biomechanics of the struck player, 2007
• Klatten, Moritz. The Klatten Power Boxing System