4 Common Injuries in Contact Sports and How to Avoid them

We all love our combat sports, whether your love is for MMA, wrestling, kickboxing or judo, what sucks is when the ugly injury monster rears its head and takes you out of training, sometimes for months. Hey, it happens to all of us; even the pros go through any injury layoff at some point in their careers, however, there are precautionary steps we can take in our training environment to minimize injury risk and prolong our combat sport careers. This article will take a look at what you can begin to do today to prevent unnecessary injury.


Footnote: Warm Up

The golden rule - warm up effectively. This is a sometimes overlooked part of training that is crucial to you staying fight fit. Taking the time to go through an advanced warm up routine is critical. your warm ups should include every major muscle group and should incorporate stretching and light bodyweight movements to get your cardio system going and your blood pumping. Start the routine beginning with your upper body and move down to your legs. By the end of your warm ups you should be feeling a light sweat and your body temperature should feel slightly elevated.

At the end of the day, think of it like owning a high performance car, you can't just take it to the track and rip it throttle wide open from the get go, you need to warm the engine block up and get the motor moving to get the best performance out of the machine, or else you’ll end up blowing the engine on lap 2. The same can be said for warming up before your training session, skip the warm ups and you're likely to blow out some muscle group early into your training session, or at least end up hindering your own performance. Check out this video from for an effective warm up routine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRscr8li4NA




Rotator Cuff Tear

Without a doubt, the injury that most commonly plagues pro fighters and combat sports practitioners across the globe is; the rotator cuff tear. This little beauty controls your shoulders movement and range of motion. A tear occurs when the muscle is overextended and forced into a position that pulls on the muscle creating stress that results in the tear. Most athletes say that this injury is very difficult to recover from and in most cases can be a career ender. Offfset this risk by doing mobility drills and deep stretching for the shoulders, neck and upper back before you even think about stepping on the mat. The miracle stretch for the rotator cuff is the old school ‘batting warm up’ that you see most major league ball players go through before they step up to the plate, check it out here in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GsyUvSydfs



Back Injuries

Whether this occurs in the lower back, or the upper, its practically incapacitating, with extreme injuries even somewhat crippling combat sports practitioners, either way you look at it; spending 6 months in traction or in a wheelchair will ruin years of training and fitness. Since the back is such a large muscle group and difficult to stretch out, the best way to prevent back injuries is to use a ‘foam roller’ This godsend piece of equipment may seem like it belongs in a yoga class, not a martial arts gym, but its incredibly powerful in its application. For a look at what you can do with the foam roller for your back, check this video out; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7sBMicSn14




Groin tear

Man, this has to be absolutely excruciating area to cop an injury, when it happens it can be blinding with pain and can leave you on crutches, or worse, in a wheelchair, for up to 3 months! To prevent this monster from eating you, strengthen the group of muscles know as adductors, this will firm up your hip powerbase and keep you from pulling anything. Check out this great article from Eric Cressy on T-Nation


Knee Injuries

This is my own personal nightmare and kept me out of training for over 6 months after a tear in my meniscus resulted in me having to undergo arthroscopic surgery to clean up the cartilage and repair the damage. This is horrendous when it happens and there's not much you can do to avoid it from happening, even with a good warm up. However, most knee injuries occur from the training environment, so making sure that your training area is sufficiently padded to absorb shock from a knee drop can really help. Check out McBryde Mats who offer the best Floor and Wall padding in the industry.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, while some injuries can be avoided, many others are just simply a lack of preparation on the athlete's side. Sure, warming up many not look like much, or be as much fun as just stepping on the mats and getting started, but in this case the old adage stands true; an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.

Stay safe out there.