long term effects of bjj injuries

FStep · 03-15-2006, 09:51 AM

offcourse most people that do bjj eat right, take vitamins, and exercise on a regular basis which in the long run will make you a healthier person and make up for many of the injuries you incur

now in my case for example i've been doing bjj for about a year at 4-5x/week and i love it, i've gotten my share of injuries as most people do (hyperextended elbow, couple pulled muscles, broken toe, dislocated shoulder, stiff neck, etc) which just makes me wonder if i got all this in 1 year how bad will it be in 10 and how much effect will these have on me when i'm 40 or 50 years old

so any input from people who know what they're talking about or have gone through this and are now in their 40s-50s (please no "if you wanna be good why do you care if you get injured bs")

CrazyCossack · 03-15-2006, 09:57 AM

Can't be all bad, Helio Gracie is still walking around at 93. How many 93 year old's have you seen walk unassisted lol.

Those injuries are gonna happen, but its part of life, youd get those injuries from any sport, like football for example. Are you never going to play sports again so you can live for 3 more years, or live with a little less shoulder pain.

As you get older your body is probably gonna give out on you no matter what, lift a couch wrong one day and your 50 and now you have back problems for the rest of your life. I wouldnt worry too much about it.

FStep · 03-15-2006, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrazyCossack

Can't be all bad, Helio Gracie is still walking around at 93. How many 93 year old's have you seen walk unassisted lol.

Those injuries are gonna happen, but its part of life, youd get those injuries from any sport, like football for example. Are you never going to play sports again so you can live for 3 more years, or live with a little less shoulder pain.

As you get older your body is probably gonna give out on you no matter what, lift a couch wrong one day and your 50 and now you have back problems for the rest of your life. I wouldnt worry too much about it.

i've played football before along with many other sports and i've never gotten this many injuries in such a short period of time as i did from bjj (i like bjj the most of the sports i've played which is why i'm sticking with it) but it does make me wonder how bad its gonna get and you really can't use helio as an example thats like comparing m. jordan to yourself in basketball

b0b · 03-15-2006, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FStep

i've played football before along with many other sports and i've never gotten this many injuries in such a short period of time as i did from bjj (i like bjj the most of the sports i've played which is why i'm sticking with it) but it does make me wonder how bad its gonna get and you really can't use helio as an example thats like comparing m. jordan to yourself in basketball

He is the oldest person who has done BJJ. There aren't many others that old. I don't think it would be any worse than Judo players. Gene Labell seems to be doing fine.

k. mifune · 03-15-2006, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FStep

i've played football before along with many other sports and i've never gotten this many injuries in such a short period of time as i did from bjj (i like bjj the most of the sports i've played which is why i'm sticking with it) but it does make me wonder how bad its gonna get and you really can't use helio as an example thats like comparing m. jordan to yourself in basketball

I can't imagine sustaining more injuries or suffering long-term effects than the ones that stem from American football. There's got to be a reason why almost every pro football player has to retire before the age of forty. If your're sustaining more injuries than an extremely high-impact sport like football, perhaps you should re-examine how you are training, or perhaps you were just an iron-man on the football field

Grandmaster Helio is a great example of the longevity of your ability to practice jiu-jitsu. He has probably never weighed more than 150-160 pounds in his entire life, and had more health problems when he was younger and not training jiu-jitsu. The only thing he claims to make a difference in his overall longevity is the Gracie diet, which he follows religiously. Other than that, he makes no claims as to being special or gifted in any way, he in fact states quite the opposite. I remember during the private lesson I took with him, he made a point of saying (post translation from Portuguese of course) after each thing he demostrated that if he could do it as a frail old man, just think how I would be able to perform as a young man.

Alzi_ · 03-15-2006, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrazyCossack

Can't be all bad, Helio Gracie is still walking around at 93. How many 93 year old's have you seen walk unassisted lol.

That's because Helio only has sex to procreate.

Seriously though, his diet has a lot to do with it. It is said when Carlos Gracie died all of his body organs were found to be in perfect shape except his heart and that was because of a heart disorder he was afflicted with since birth.

Resident A-hole · 03-15-2006, 02:35 PM

The human body was meant to be active, BJJ is much better for it than sitting on the couch, playing golf, or any other recreational activity. It's exercise. You won't see any longterm breakdown from it unless you overdo it. We just need to scale back the frequency and intensity of our training as we get into our late 30s & beyond.

The breakdown you see in NFL players for example is because they maintained massive bodies for so long to be able to play. Bulking your body up to 300+lbs when it wasn't meant to be that big will definitely deteriorate your joints. You really don't see that too much in oter sports, maybe just bad knees.

SwiftMcvay · 03-15-2006, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Resident A-hole

The human body was meant to be active, BJJ is much better for it than sitting on the couch, playing golf, or any other recreational activity. It's exercise. You won't see any longterm breakdown from it unless you overdo it. We just need to scale back the frequency and intensity of our training as we get into our late 30s & beyond.

The breakdown you see in NFL players for example is because they maintained massive bodies for so long to be able to play. Bulking your body up to 300+lbs when it wasn't meant to be that big will definitely deteriorate your joints. You really don't see that too much in oter sports, maybe just bad knees.

Being 300+ pounds isn't what causes players to be injured. Its having other 300 pound fuckers falling on your knees/ankles in the trenches and causing your limbs to twist in ways that were not meant to happen. Same thing goes for any position in football. Its a collision sport, and you have massive people running into each other full speed, and you can land in a lot of weird positions that your limbs aren't meant to be in.

As far as the original poster, you will be fine. Bumps and bruises are gonna happen. BJJ isn't that rough of a sport. You can definately be pretty sore from it the next day, but as long as you are careful and avoid big time injuries (dislocated limbs, muscle/tendon tears, compound fractures, etc.) you should be fine. Just make sure to tap out when you are put in a submission, and IMHO you should have zero problems from it down the road.

I just looked over your list of injuries again though, and it seems like you've just had a bad run of luck over the past year. keep with it and those things will probably stop happening, but either way, i really don't see it being a problem in the future. I'm only 20 though, so take my advice for what its worth.

chokingvictim · 03-15-2006, 02:53 PM

So far, I'm almost exactly 2 months into BJJ and my fingers are killing me. I think I'm getting tendonitis. I'm not sure what to do about it though. I know a doctor will tell me to take a break, but I would like to think that I'll get conditioned to things if I just keep going.

Other than that, the only risks you have to worry about would possibly be people yanking submissions too hard/quickly and breaking something.

**Zankou** · 03-15-2006, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chokingvictim

So far, I'm almost exactly 2 months into BJJ and my fingers are killing me. I think I'm getting tendonitis. I'm not sure what to do about it though. I know a doctor will tell me to take a break, but I would like to think that I'll get conditioned to things if I just keep going.

Other than that, the only risks you have to worry about would possibly be people yanking submissions too hard/quickly and breaking something.

Just stop gripping the gi man. JJ Machado did just fine without fingers on one hand. You can go a long way just by playing with hooks and body weight. You're probably holding on way too hard.