Originally Posted by
chronic_jiujitsu
Hey i was just wondering.. is 10th planet/rubber guard at all bad for your knees in the long run? I keep seeing people online talking about how all these people end up needing re-constructive surgery on their knees after doing 10th planet for awhile. And seeing as though i dont know squat about anatomy or how the body really works.. i figure someone could answer this for me. To me.. i dont see why stretching would be bad.. but i didnt know if it was just because our knees arent supposed to stretch that way or something.. i dont know. I was just curious if there was any truth in this. Or if it was just haters looking for a reason to say 10th planet is bad. and just to avoid people from responding with random guesses.. if you could explain the reasoning behind your answer i would appreciate it.
To my knowledge there hasn't been a study of it, but I really don’t think it’s bad for you, unless you fail to warm up or force the position, which would be bad anyway in any position. We can look at the anatomy of the knee a little if you like. The two main areas of the knee that rubber guard puts pressure on are the LCL (Lateral Cruciate Ligament) and the ITB (Iliac Tibia Band). The LCL doesn’t really stretch out much, as another poster stated it is designed to prevent a motion similar to that of the movement needed for rubber guard. That being said, it will stretch a little but must be warmed up, however it’s not really the LCL that needs stretching in order to properly perform the rubber guard, it’s the ITB.
Iliac Tibia Band syndrome is an over use injury commonly seen in military grunt units and Special Forces units, but also in athletes of all types who put in long hours. It is a tightening of the band on the outside (lateral) of your leg, that runs from your "knee" to your "hip". A simple test is to sit up straight in a chair and put one leg cross legged position (like rubber guard) on the other leg. Now relax, if your knee is not parallel to the floor your ITB is to tight and might expose or at least increase your risk of ITBS. Most people are at risk.
Guys who are very flexible or play a lot of rubber guard are parallel to the floor in the above mentioned position. So while there is risk of LCL damage, it is no greater, in my opinion, than the normal risk of LCL damage associated with grappling or any other combat sport, or even football or soccer, it’s just not bad for you. In fact the flexibility needed for 10th planet to be done correctly is preventive medicine against the more common over use injury of ITBS. ITBS is very painful, takes a while to heal, is a common i9njury, reduces trai9ning time and just sucks, and is very very often misdiagnosed. General practitioners will often diagnosis ITBS as an LCL strain or PFPS, usually one needs to see a sports medicine Doc or a physical therapist to get a correct diagnosis of ITBS.
Treatment of ITBS is ROM (range of motion) exercises, stretching, ice, Motrin, and perhaps some phono.
I was a U.S. Navy Corpsman for 12 years. I have seen many cases of ITBS. I am a plank owner of the original US Navy SMART (Sports Medicine and Reconditioning Therapy) center located at USMC base Camp Pendleton School of Infantry. I have also diagnosed and treated this injury at the US Navy SEAL School in Coronado California and the USMS basic recon school in Coronado. I have also seen it a lot in the USMC soccer team and to a lesser degree in boxers of the USMC boxing team
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