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Should Injured Martial Artists Still Work Out?

Good question.

It all depends on the injury and its severity.

Let me give you a very practical and current example:

It looks and feels like I irritated my right Achilles tendon on Tuesday. I will openly admit that there have been several short moments of frustration, but ‘Thank God’  these moments have been very few and very brief.

I am not alone with this type of nuissance, aka injury, which is helping me re-assess my warm-up, workout and nutrition routine.

Whenever there is an explosive movement involved your physical activity such lunging forward, sprinting etc. the risk of irritating your Achilles tendon can become an issue.

It does not apply to everyone the same way and to the same degree. It depends on age, overall physical fitness, how prone your tendons are to injury, how warmed up your body/tendons are, how well your body is supplied with the right nutrients, etc. etc.

Well, anyway, here I am talking about an issue that we tend not to give much attention to as long as we are injury-free, of course.

After immediately sustaining the injury I took 2 Ibuprofen to fight the inflammation and possible swelling and started elevated icing.

Of course, I have prescribed myself to rest and not putting any unnecessary weight or stress on the inflicted leg as well as applying Arnica-based creme.

“Rinse and repeat.” Meaning I will apply the same for at least 48 hours.

I am also taking natural supplements and enzymes to support to healing process.

After 36 hours I am already feeling both physically and mentally a lot better.

I have been through some injuries in the past that were much more painful and called for a longer recovery period than this one.

They were for example a dislocated right shoulder (my stronger arm) and 2 herniated cervical discs. OUCH!

Now finally back to my original question: “Should injured martial artists still work out?”.

In my own personal case, I have been working around the injury, such as working my back muscles while sitting and lying down and not putting any pressure on the injured leg.

I will still be working  my arms, abs and upper body before putting in a stretching session. 

While  being less mobile during this period, I will reduce my calorie intake and will probably come out of all this even more ripped than I consider myself right now. Ha ha.

My glass is half full, because I am not dealing with a cracked rib, torn stomach muscle or some other debillitating injury that would really suck. Or even worse, damage to the fourth sacral nerve that put Bruce Lee out of commission for numerous months back in 1970.

If you are dealing with any of your own injury experiences, I would love to hear from you.

Even if you’re not, I welcome your comments.

I’m preparing my personal comeback and that reminds me of somebody with a gargantuan comeback in his own right:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4eaDLqY8S0[/youtube]

Tags: Achilles tendon, Bruce Lee, injuries, Lance Armstrong, martial artists, stretching, workout

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