Injury's

[Gary Douglass]

Hi people,
I was wondering what's the worst injury any of you have suffered due to jiu jitsu? How long to heal, any repercussions and what was your mental state while away from the mats? The reason I ask is I'm almost 42 years old and suffering a neck injury at present a prolapsed disc at C7 pinching the nerve causing weakness to the left triceps, pectoral and some stabilizing muscles in the left shoulder. I've gone from almost 100 push ups, 20 pull ups and 50 body weight dips to not being able to lift my own body weight in any of the above exercise. I'm 8 month in to the injury and was of the mats for 3 full months, after going stir crazy I returned but the injury has affected my performance dramatically having no strength in the left arm!
Neurosurgeon said because I'm no longer in pain that there is nothing he can do and that I just have to live with it and that I MUST NOT DO MMA/JIU JITSU!!!
Well that's never going to happen! I just take it slow and do what I can.
Hope to hear some interesting or positive stories to help me deal with this.

[bobby rivers]

The worst injury i've had was also nerve damage. Tore my brachial node and couldn't use my arm left arm for 1 1/2 years. It was numb or in excruciating pain throughout that time. Ive had limbs pointing the wrong way and this was way worse. It eventually healed on its own. Thank goodness cause every doctor I went to treated me like a drug addict.

There are specialists out there so get a 2nd, 3rd, 4rth opinion. Google Nate Quarry and Tito Ortiz's operations. Sounds like your gonna have to get cut. Good luck.

[Aab]

The worst injury i've had was also nerve damage. Tore my brachial node and couldn't use my arm left arm for 1 1/2 years. It was numb or in excruciating pain throughout that time. Ive had limbs pointing the wrong way and this was way worse. It eventually healed on its own. Thank goodness cause every doctor I went to treated me like a drug addict.

There are specialists out there so get a 2nd, 3rd, 4rth opinion. Google Nate Quarry and Tito Ortiz's operations. Sounds like your gonna have to get cut. Good luck.

Damn Bobby. I broke my toe last night grappling on the mat. Its blue as hell. But other than that ive been lucky.

[James O'Brien II]

Dislocated shoulder/torn labrium in August of '08. Botched surgery in December '08, Botched surgery in November '09, switched doctors and am currently recovering from a June of 2010 surgery.

It started with a football injury..

[Enrique "Kiko"]

I don't know if this is normal for guys just starting, but since I was out of shape when I first started, my core muscles which help strengthen and support the rib cage, weren't developed. I was doing a light roll with my coach, and he put a knee on my sternum and BAM, I heard and audible crack. I had hard time getting out of bed, had pain laughing, and even um...*taking care of the wife.* It's about 8 weeks later and the pain is at 20% of what it used to be, but I still can't handle more than 135+ pounds on my chest without feeling like my ribs can't handle it yet. It sucks because there's sooooooooooooooooo much in fundamentals I want/need to work on.

[Jeff Doherty]

Fucked up knees between the summer/fall but I can do lotus again... most recent is my back. Just inflammation between 2 vertebrae but I get dirty back spasms if I'm not careful for a while.

[Art "ART OF WAR" Belarde]

Both ACLs gone and a bony bankart repair/slap tear 360 rotator cuff tear of left shoulder. The effect is loss of ROM left shoulder and instability of both knees. I just had to learn to roll diffrent.

[Gary Burton]

Dislocated shoulder from landing badly after being thrown, then like a trooper i didnt get it reset by a doctor i just had it popped back in and carried on. then i redislocated the same shoulder 3 more times, it popped out whenever i had a high impact hit on my shoulder when training. Because i didnt get it reset properly i had been carrying on training without my shoulder being properly nested in the socket which caused me to massivly damage my shoulder joint. i had to have surgery to repair a tear on the connective tissue on the front of the shoulder. its still torn at the back but the physio said i have enough muscle to stabalize the joint without further surgery. apparently the joint looks like that of an 80 yr old man.... feels ok to me though! The doctor said i would never be able to punch again.... so i went out and bought a punch bag on the same day :P
Its been a nearly year since my surgery now and i feel that i have 100% of my strength back in the shoulder, though it still clicks and aches sometimes

[Ari Bolden]

Gary

I had a prolapsed C4/5 that caused my arm and pinky to go number 8-12 times a day for nearly 4 months. Then the inflamation when down and I started to get normal feeling back. My doctor's suggestion: don't do jiu jitsu.

Out of the question of course. I should also point out that I got a second opion from a neurologist...that was my dad ;-) He said "stay off the jits".

What I did was stop rolling for nearly 4 months. I drilled. Told my partners "no stacking or neck stuff." I tapped SUPER early to all types of stuff so as not to further the injury.

I am almost back to 100% now.

As for my exploded L5/S1 a few years back...that put me out for a year. Did yoga, accupuncture, physio....its about 70% but I work around it.

We all work with injuries. If I couldn't do jiu jitsu...I'd off myself.

Its JOY Jitsu after all.